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Russia’s KHL clubs still ready for matches with opponents from NHL, says official

The KHL Board of Directors gathered for a meeting in the Russian capital of Moscow earlier in the day, discussing a possibility of organizing matches between KHL and NHL clubs among other issues as well

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) views an option of holding matches against clubs from the US-based National Hockey League (NHL), Igor Yesmantovich, the president of KHL club CSKA, said on Wednesday.

The KHL Board of Directors gathered for a meeting in the Russian capital of Moscow earlier in the day, discussing a possibility of organizing matches between KHL and NHL clubs among other issues as well.

"The meeting was very constructive and we have discussed numerous interesting issues, which the Board of Directors may be approving soon," Yesmantovich told journalists after the meeting.

"We spoke a lot about the league’s development," he continued. "We also discussed many things about the development of [ice-hockey] playing fields as well as the popularization of the game of ice hockey within the frames of possible matches between KHL and NHL clubs…"

The Kontinental Hockey League was founded in Russia in 2008 and currently lists 23 professional ice hockey clubs, namely from Russia, Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan and Latvia.

International experts deem the KHL as the premier ice hockey league in Europe and Asia ranking it as the world’s second most important right on the heels of the US-based NHL (National Hockey League).

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