NHL Teams Plan Four-Game Tours of Soviet Union

Two NHL teams will play four exhibition games each in the Soviet Union next year, Alan Eagleson, executive director of the NHL Players Assn., said.

Eagleson told the Toronto Star arrangements for the tours--the first by NHL clubs to an Eastern bloc country--were worked out during his recent visit to Moscow with NHL president John Ziegler.

The two teams have not been named. The Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks have expressed interest in such a tour, the Star says.

“We came away with a signed document, so it’s a go,” said Eagleson. “The teams that will make the trip will be selected by the NHL but they won’t be dogs. We’ve promised the Russians that much.”

One team will go first to Stockholm for two games in five days against the Swedish nationals, then play two matches in Leningrad and two in Moscow against as yet undetermined Soviet teams.

The second NHL team will play two games in Finland before making the trip to the Soviet Union, playing twice in Moscow and then twice in Leningrad.

“The whole thing will last two weeks,” said Eagleson. “And to make it more marketable, as far as the players are concerned, we’ll let the wives come along.”

Eagleson also said it was only a “remote possibility” that star Soviet defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov would play for the New Jersey Devils this season.