The sports world is full of stories about players who almost got traded, but you don’t hear many like the one ex-NHLer Viktor Stalberg experienced during a stint in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, which also involved a legendary tough coach.
Wait … a strange story from the KHL? What?!
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Stalberg spent eight seasons in the NHL and won a Stanley Cup with the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks, and while his last games in the league were with Ottawa in the 2016-17 season, he continued to be a high-level player in European leagues.
Viktor Stalberg (left), Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marcus Kruger, and Johnny Oduya pose with the Stanley Cup in 2013. ((Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images))
Eventually, he signed with KHL club Avangard Omsk, which, at the time, was coached by Bob Hartley, best known for winning a Stanley Cup with the 2000-01 Colorado Avalanche on top of being a very tough coach.
“I had a lot of interesting experiences,” Stalberg said of his time in the KHL during a video interview to promote sportsbook Ozoon. “I also had Bob Hartley as a coach there, which I’m sure you’ve heard stories about. He’s a brilliant hockey mind, but he might not be the easiest to handle. When I was there, we did not maybe click at first.”
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He said that it became clear that he was not one of Hartley’s favorite players on the team, and he was told by his agent that he was going to get waived by the team.
But it didn’t happen, and he was told his status with the team was safe.
Bob Hartley is a legendary hockey coach whose record speaks for itself, but he also has a reputation for being a tough coach to play for. (Photo by Roman Koksarov/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“My agent calls me again,” Stalberg recalled. “‘Hey, Bob really hates you. He does not want to play you or anything else this year.’ That this is the deal. Like, ‘He’s gonna just bag-skate you for the rest of the year, right?'”
So, Stalberg asked for a trade, despite having a no-trade clause, and the team cut a deal with the then-Shanghai-based club Kunlun Red Star.
“I call the GM [in Shanghai]. I talk to the coach; I’m discussing where I’m playing on the power play next game.”
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However, after packing his bags and going to the rink, no one at Omsk said anything to him about this trade.
“So I’m like, what is going on here? Like I’m traded, right? Like nobody says anything.
“I go home, nobody calls,” Stalberg said. “I’m like, ‘Where’s my flight, what is going on?’ So then my agent again calls me back like a few hours later. He’s like, ‘Yeah, the owner told Bob to f— off; you’re staying.”
Viktor Stalberg’s post-NHL career included some very successful seasons playing for teams like the KHL’s Avangard Omsk and Switzerland’s HC Fribourg-Gotteron (pictured). (Photo by RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images))
Well, so much for that trade.
“So pretty much within, you know, in a week’s time, my wife thought I was crazy,” he laughed. “You know, like, ‘I’m getting fired tomorrow. No, no, I’m staying. I’m getting traded to China tomorrow. No, no, I’m staying.’ So it was a crazy few weeks there, but it ended up great.”
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Stalberg ultimately won Hartley, and he even wanted him to stick around the following season, but he wound up signing to play for Switzerland’s Fribourg-Gotteron HC.