CHL bans Russian and Belarusian players from '22 Import Draft

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

In a low key announcement Wednesday, the Canadian Hockey League confirmed what had been speculated several weeks ago: Russian and Belarusian players will not be eligible to be selected in this year's CHL Import Draft.

The league issued a brief statement.

A statement from the Canadian Hockey League / Une déclaration de la Ligue canadienne de hockey pic.twitter.com/Fo1E8IkTpr

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) April 27, 2022

Several media outlets reported this move previously but the CHL had not confirmed the decision.

The move comes as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine and countries around the globe continue to put sanctions on the Russian government and officials. Even if Russians/Belarusians were eligible for this year's Import Draft, the logistics of getting those players to Canada in the fall would likely be more challenging than ever.

This will have a significant impact on the CHL Import Draft as plenty of Russian and Belarusian players are selected each year. The Saint John Sea Dogs selected both a Russian (Yan Kuznetsov) and a Belarusian (Evgeny Sapelnikov) just last year.

The CHL previously announced that next season's Canada-Russia Series games, which haven't been played since 2019 due to COVID, have been cancelled.

One other noteworthy notey note from the CHL's statement Wednesday: the date of the Import Draft. It's shaping up to be a busy summer.

June 20-29: 2022 Memorial Cup (Saint John)

July 1: CHL Import Draft (virtual)

July 4-5: QMJHL Entry Draft (sadly virtual)

July 7-8: NHL Draft (Montreal)