Nikita Filatov Columbus Bound Today?

Nikita Filatov has a new blog entry up. Unfortunately my Russian translation skills aren't quite up to par, but a poster over on HF used Babblefish to get a rough translation and it appears that he will arrive in Toronto, change planes, and then arrive in Columbus later today.

Another poster on HF mentioned that he spoke with Tyler Wright at one of the Chillers and he said that he will be picking up Filatov from the airport.

All I know is that we can all breathe a little easier once this kid touches down in Port Columbus.

I know we all think of him as a young potential superstar who should be excited to get here and start his pro career. However, we need to remind ourselves that he's only 18 and is leaving the familiar surroundings and faces of his native country for the unfamiliar US and Columbus, Ohio. It's certainly not an easy thing to do.

Still, I'll be pumped to get him here, and I can't wait to see him in action. A big question I think everyone has is just how good is this kid and where does he play this coming season?

Looks like we'll find out soon!

As a reader pointed out, Puck-rakers has just posted the following regarding Filatov's travel plans. He's expected to arrive in Toronto tonight between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm. After a night in TO, he'll fly to Columbus tomorrow afternoon, arriving around 3:30 pm.

Apparently he is flying solo and his mom will meet him in Columbus in a month's time.

Welcome to Columbus, Nikita! Hope you didn't forget your skates!

A reader also pointed out this article from Terry Frei over on ESPN regarding NHL ticket prices and how they are quickly spinning out of control.

As an individual, you're a bad hockey fan if you now can't justify paying $7,000 for two decent season tickets? As a company, you're miserly if you cut back from eight tickets to two? No. You're prioritizing.

The stunning thing about all this is not that there are many empty seats at NHL games, but that there aren't more. Fans maintain interest, but instead watch more games in front of the big-screen sets.

Winning still creates demand, but the price of tickets lessens the margin for error. Exoduses have a way of gaining momentum. The fewer season-ticket holders, the less incentive there is to buy season tickets, even for decent teams. And the slide is difficult to stop.

Ticket prices keep going up, in part to keep up with the payroll demands created by the rising cap, which includes a floor and also pressures to at least get in a "competitive" payroll realm. And the cap goes up in part due to the additional revenue generated by the increased ticket prices. And...

Or is it the other way around?

The following is a grab bag of apples (dollar figures) and oranges (percentages), but it gives you an idea. The Los Angeles Kings raised prices roughly five to 16 percent. Colorado's prices went up roughly $3 per ticket. For example, a corner loge seat went from $91 to $94.

A similar seat costs about 15 percent less at Columbus, but Blue Jackets fans are up in arms over an increase.

Unless the NHL becomes a very TV friendly sport in the US and attracts those hefty network dollars, the NHL is and will always be a gate driven league.

Frei makes some good points though, asking when enough is enough. At what point are you pricing your heart-and-soul fans out of seeing your product live—which most people will tell you is the real beauty and hook of this game.

I'm not sure how they can do it, but the league must somehow find a way to cap ticket prices and start focusing on new revenue streams. Games have to be affordable in this league—no ifs ands or butts—it's a must.

For me, what will be really interesting is to see what happens to the cap and ticket prices once the Canadian dollar starts to level off or even declines in value.

I think, like many others out there, that this is a huge reason why the league has seen the bottom line growth that it has. And this, I think, has somewhat camouflaged these big jumps in the upper cap limits these past few seasons.

-LTL