The Kontinental Hockey League kicked off it’s 2009-2010 season on Thursday with a rematch of last spring’s Gagarin Cup final between champions AK Bars Kazan and runners-up Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.  AK Bars reprised their Cup victory in dramatic fashion when Alexei Morozov scored his second of the game with just nine seconds remaining in overtime to give his team a 3-2 victory in the lone game on the KHL schedule.

Former Pittsburgh Penguin prospect Janne Pesonen scored the other goal for Kazan, while Gennady Churilov and former Carolina Hurricane and New York Islander Josef Vasicek provided the goals for Yarsoslavl.  Radek Bonk, most recently of the Nashville Predators, was in the penalty box for Morozov’s overtime game-winner.  Former Ranger prospect Jarkko Immonen made his KHL debut for the reigning champions, finishing scoreless and a  +1 in just under 15 minutes of playing time.

Eight more teams will get their seasons underway on Friday.  Of particular note to New York Rangers fans will be the season opener between Moscow rivals CSKA and Dynamo.  Rangers 2009 seventh round draft pick Mikhail Pashnin is expected to make his KHL debut for CSKA, while the status fellow defenseman Pavel Valentenko, acquired as part of the trade that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal this summer, remains uncertain following an injury suffered two weeks ago.  The game will be available live online starting at 11:30am EDT.

As I did last season with Avangard Omsk, I’ve set up pages containing the schedules for both CSKA and Dynamo and will update them with scores and links to online broadcasts and highlights (when available) for those who want to keep tabs on the Rangers’ two KHL-based prospects.  And for those who still wish to follow Jaromir Jagr and Avangard Omsk, I’ve once again posted the Avangard schedule and will update it with links and results throughout the season.  (All three schedules can also be found in the “Links” section to the left.)

Avangard’s season gets underway on Saturday when they face Barys Astana at 5:00am EDT.  That game is scheduled to be shown live on the new and much improved KHL web site, which was re-launched today to coincide with the start of the new season.  (Unfortunately, the — extremely limited — English-language content that existed previously appears to have been lost in the transition.)

Three New York Rangers prospects who are playing in Russia this season will take turns facing off against one another starting today as part of the 2009 Moscow Mayor’s Cup, a pre-season exhibition tournament that pits four classic Moscow teams (and bitter rivals) against one another.

Summer acquisition Pavel Valentenko (#3) and Dynamo Moscow kicked off the four day event at Moscow’s Megasport Arena earlier this morning with a 4-2 victory over Krylya Sovetov. The day’s second contest will pit 2009 draft pick Mikhail Pashnin (#3) and CSKA Moscow against former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman Ivan Baranka (#7) and Spartak Moscow, beginning at 11:00am (all times EDT). The current teams take Friday off in favor of a pair of legends games before regrouping for more games on Saturday and Sunday.  For Dynamo, Spartak and CSKA, the tournament serves as the final tune-up before the 2009-2010 KHL season gets underway on September 10th.

Those wanting to whet their appetite for the upcoming hockey season can watch all the games (except Friday’s legends matches) live online at Sportbox.ru using the links below. The feeds will also be archived at the same locations shortly after their conclusion for later viewing.

UPDATE 2:30pm: Scratch Valentenko off your scorecard.  Dynamo head coach Sergei Kotov reports the defenseman will not participate in the Mayor’s Cup games due to an unspecified injury.

In the second game of the day, CSKA topped Spartak 3-2 in a shootout.  Neither Pashnin or Baranka earned points, but the latter was in the penalty box when CSKA scored to make it 2-1.

As the European leagues begin to gear up for the 2009-2010 season, Dan David provides a comprehensive round up of the New York Rangers prospects who’ll be playing overseas this season on team’s official web site.  It’s a great overview of who remains in the Rangers system and where they’ll call home once the puck drops on the new season.

All told, the Rangers currently hold the rights to nine players who’ll spend the upcoming season outside North America, spread across the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Czech First Division, Czech Extraliga, and Slovak Extraliga:

* Currently unsigned

Not to dismiss the Czechs and Slovaks — the only one there who appears to have a significant chance of making the NHL is David Kveton, and he doesn’t seem particularly eager to take a shot anytime soon — Russian players and prospects playing in Russia are kind of the bread and butter around here, so let’s take a closer look at those who’ll call the KHL home this season.

OK, raise your hand if you knew the Rangers still held the rights to a 31-year old Russian defenseman who was drafted in 1995.  Good, it wasn’t just me.  Don’t get too excited, though.  Ilya Gorokhov’s a bottom-half defenseman in the KHL who’s firmly entrenched in playing in his homeland and will never factor in the Rangers plans.  Perhaps the only thing to note about him is that after playing the past five years with his hometown club Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, where he was a teammate of fellow Rangers draftee Artem Anisimov, Gorokhov opted to sign with Salavat Yulaev Ufa this summer.  In Ufa, Gorokhov will play with former Rangers Dmitry Kalinin and Maxim Kondratiev for Viatcheslav Bykov, a man who’s name will become more familiar during the Olympics next year when he’s standing behind the bench for the Russian national team.  A who’s who of Russian players have signed with Salavat this summer with the hopes of raising their visibility with the man picking the Olympic squad (Rangers restricted free agent Nikolai Zherdev has also been courted by the club), but don’t expect it to help Gorokhov, who unlike Kalinin and Kondratiev, is not in the running for an Olympic bid.

Former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman and 2003 Rangers draft pick Ivan Baranka is getting ready to kick off his second season for Spartak Moscow, where they’ve put together a nice collection of Slovakian imports, including Flyers prospect Stefan Ruzicka and former NHLer Branko Radivojevic.  Despite missing time with a couple of minor injuries last season (quelle surprise), the 24-year old former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman led the team in ice time at 21:33 per game, while tallying two goals and eight assists in 47 games.  He also achieved his dream of making the Slovakian national team and played in the World Championship, a goal he was unlikely to reach from the AHL.  As of last December, Baranka intended to fulfill his contract with Spartak, which runs through this season, before taking another crack at the NHL.  With the stable of defensive propsects the Rangers already have waiting in the wings, it would seem likely that his rights will need to be traded to another club if he’s going to get that opportunity.

CSKA Moscow kicked off training camp in Finland on Friday, but did so without Rangers 2009 seventh round draft pick Mikhail Pashnin, who still hasn’t been able to sign with the club that moved mountains (and multiple draft picks) in order to pick him first over all in the inaugural KHL draft in May.  The delay comes as a result of a conflict with his old club, Mechel Chelyabinsk, which is demanding more than the 1.5 million rouble transfer fee set forth in the KHL’s rules.  Earlier this week, KHL head scout Boris Emelyanov, told All Hockey that the transfer fee issue has been resolved.  “As far as I know,” Emelyanov reported, “the parties have already agreed about everything, and Mikhail will sign the contract with the army club [CSKA] shortly.”  But on Friday, CSKA head coach and former Ranger Sergei Nemchinov contradicted Emelyanov, and confirmed that no agreement has been reached.  “We understand that the prescribed amount in the KHL rules of one and a half million roubles compensation for him is not enough,” Nemchinov told Sovietsky Sport.  “So we hope in the coming days to agree on a price with his hometown club Mechel.”  Once signed, Pashnin’s contract will keep him in Moscow for at least two years.

Pavel Valentenko has been largely dismissed as a throwaway piece in the deal that rid the Rangers of Scott Gomez and his salary cap hit, but “Tank” could very well have the best chance of all the players listed above of ever playing on Broadway.  When he left the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs for family reasons last October and subsequently agreed to sign with Dynamo Moscow, he made it clear that he’d still like to play in the NHL –  potentially in as little as two seasons, when the escape clause on his three year deal with the Russian team kicks in.  Now, after a season in which he missed six weeks because of a back injury and was ultimately relegated to the press box for a large chunk of the remainder of the season once he returned, there are rumors swirling that his time with Dynamo, where his competition on defense includes Danil Markov, Alexei Zhitnik and former Ranger Karel Rachunek, may come to a premature end. More on that in the coming days…