Transfer talks - Satan stays at Slovan

Miroslav Satan, one of the legends of Slovak hockey, has confirmed that he will stay in his homeland to help Slovan Bratislava in its first season in the KHL.

The 37-year-old right winger, who captained his nation to World Championship glory in 2002 and won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2009, turned down offers to return to the NHL in favor of a tilt at KHL success with the Slovak side.

It’s not his first stint in this competition: he signed for Dynamo Moscow in January 2011, but his contract was not renewed by the Russian club following a disappointing first-round play-off exit at the hands of Dinamo Riga.

Satan remains a key member of the Slovak national team, helping it to a silver medal in this year’s World Championship, and is one of fewer than 300 players to rack up more than 1,000 NHL appearances.

Czech forward Kamil Kreps is also on his way to Slovan on a one-year contract. The 27-year-old spent last season with Barys Astana, scoring 33 points in 59 league and play-off appearances for the Kazakh side.

Elsewhere in the league, Metallurg Magnitogorsk’s “missing” foreigner is attracting attention. The Ural club has four of its five permitted import slots filled, but the final piece of head coach Paul Maurice’s international jigsaw is yet to be confirmed. The coach told Sovietsky Sport that this was a question for the club’s directors, rather than for him personally.

But Maurice also took time to introduce some of his new Trans-Atlantic acquisitions. Of Cal O’Reilly, he said: “He’s a great forward, someone I knew personally [before I came here]. He’s not afraid to work hard in defense as well.” Norwegian forward Mats Zuccarello Aasen, who worked with Maurice at the Rangers, was singled out for his “quick hands”.

In other transfers, Atlant has signed former Dynamo Moscow forward Artyom Chernov.