It was recently mentioned that Russian prospect Evgeni Dadonov of the Florida Panthers had signed a deal and would be a part of the Rochester Americans in the upcoming season, but Dadonovs coach thinks differently.

Earlier in the Spring of 2009 it was announced that Dadonov had signed a 2yr deal with Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL, so the idea of him suddenly signing a deal to comeover to North America to play seemed odd.

Nothing official announced by the Panthers, the only mention of Dadonov to North America seems to be from a conversation that occured between Jack Birch (Florida Panthers director of player personnel) and Kevin Oklobzija of the Democrat and Chronicle.

Kevin Oklobzija followed up with Jack Birch who said:

“We’ve heard no issue with it; his entry-level contract was accepted and approved by the league last week,” Birch said. “If there was a problem, they wouldn’t have approved the contract.”

The web site RussianProspects.com had posted the following:

As reported by North American sources, Evgeni Dadonov  (Florida Panthers) might have signed an entry-level contract with the Panthers. But the situation is tricky because not more than two months ago Dadonov signed a two-years deal with his KHL hometown club, Tratkor Chelyabinsk. Although in a first time it looked like it was a done deal, thanks to Nazarov (Dadonov’s coach in the KHL) words, now the situation embittered as Nazarov gave another interview in which he declared that he “is not going to release Dadonov in America. I wished him good luck as a player, but as a team’s leader I can’t release him. I await him in the team’s training camp, which starts on July 23. If he won’t we’ll have to consider sanctions or penalties. When Dadonov finally will decide to leave to North America, we, all together, will solve this problem in accordance with the KHL rules. For now the question remains open.” Nazarov also pointed out that the Panthers never announced Dadonov’s sign officially. The situation is going to be cleared up probably this week.

This all started a few days after I wrote an article stating “Dadonov Not Quite Ready,” so I think someone was just trying to prove me wrong.  He would be a welcome addition to the Rochester Americans lineup no matter what I may personally think.

It appears there may be a minor showdown between Nazarov and the NHL/Panthers to see where Dadonov will end up playing.