Steve Moses isn't giving up on the promised land that is the National Hockey League.
Signed to a one-year, $1-million contract by the Nashville Predators last summer after setting the KHL's single-season goals record (35) in 2014-15, Moses was assigned to the team's AHL affiliate and soon returned to Russia after being released from his deal with zero minutes played in the NHL.
Moses is currently playing for SKA St. Petersburg on a contract more lucrative than the one given to him by the Predators, and while he'd like to have another crack at the NHL, he's content earning rubles for the time being.
"I’d like to give the NHL another shot," Moses told Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe. "But on the flip side of things, I am 27 now, and I want to be able to make as much money playing this game as I can. As you get older, that becomes more and more a driving force than the dream of playing in the NHL. So as long as they are going to pay me what they’re paying, I don’t think I’ll leave.
"But that being said, obviously I would still love to prove to myself and others that I can play in the NHL."
What might sting a bit is the fact Artemi Panarin also signed an NHL deal last summer after finishing with 10 fewer goals and just five more points than Moses in 2014-15. He was given a big chance to prove himself with the Chicago Blackhawks, and ended up winning the Calder Trophy.
That's just the way it goes sometimes, Moses says.
"In sports, timing can kind of be everything," he said. "Artemi and I were the two top scorers in the KHL that year. He ended up being Rookie of the Year (in the NHL). I didn’t play a single game. So, like I say, timing can be everything - it didn’t work out.
"When it doesn’t work out, you can be left banging your head against the wall, thinking, 'What if I’d done something different?' But I’ve come to the point where I realize in sports you never know what’s going to happen and you deal with it."
Moses began the new KHL season playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk, which is not only a decent consolation prize compared to a job in the NHL, but also a plum assignment when it comes to potentially putting up big numbers and catching the eye of general managers back in North America.
