Alexeev wants to play in the NHL, but may opt for Russia

Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe reports that unrestricted free agent forward Nikita Alexeev is still very much interested in signing with an NHL team.

However, the Russian-born player is having a tough time catching on with a team right now.

“Teams are sitting and waiting to see their own guys in their own systems earn jobs,” said Kent Hughes, Alexeev’s agent. “Everybody loves their team going into training camp.”

Still, Hughes admits that the 25-year-old is willing to wait it out until a deal pops up, but not necessarily with an NHL team.

“I’m confident that if he’s willing to be patient, something will be there. Now, I can’t tell if that will be October, November, or whenever. The problem is that you can make a lot of money in Russia.”

With Russian teams paying their players “decent” wages, many players have a “safeguard” and are “holding out for a bigger American payoff.” That includes Alexeev.

“They can certainly go back there and make very good money,” said [Boston Bruins GM Peter] Chiarelli. “We experienced that first-hand with [Sergei] Zinovjev. I’m sure it will continue until the money dries up, but I don’t see the money drying up in the near future.”