Tverdovsky’s Troubles Were Mystery to Ducks

Oleg Tverdovsky’s Russian friends heard rumors weeks ago, but their culture has taught them not to inquire. So when Tverdovsky said nothing, they dismissed the rumors as false.

“If he doesn’t start to talk, I don’t ask,” Mighty Duck forward Valeri Karpov said.

“I thought maybe it was a bad joke,” goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov said. “It really happened. I’m not surprised.”

Alexandra Tverdovsky, the mother of the former Duck defenseman, has returned safely to Anaheim after an 11-day ordeal in her native Ukraine, where police say she was abducted Jan. 30 and held for $200,000 ransom in an unsuccessful extortion attempt allegedly directed by one of Tverdovsky’s former coaches.

Though police identified the coach only as “Nikolai V.,” Karpov and others said they believe he is the same coach who visited Tverdovsky in Anaheim. Tverdovsky was traded to Winnipeg on Feb. 7, four days before his mother was rescued.

“It’s Oleg’s first coach,” Karpov said. “He’s been here a couple of times, the last time in the summer. He saw how Oleg was living in this country. After that, I think he was upset. It’s a hard situation in Ukraine, the hardest in Russia. He just wants money, not exactly from Oleg, but from somebody.”

Several NHL players from the former Soviet Union have become the target of extortion attempts by strangers because of their newfound wealth. But insiders say it isn’t uncommon for coaches in Russia to seek a cut of the player’s first contract or ask for “finder’s fees” after steering players to certain agents.

David McNab, who is Anaheim’s assistant general manager and scouted Tverdovsky in Russia, said Tverdovsky had been pressured by a coach to sign with a certain agent, though he believes it was by a coach other than the one named by police.

“When I met Oleg the first time, he told me about it, that his coach was extremely upset that he had picked [Toronto-based agent] Donny Meehan,” McNab said.

“I think they sometimes prey on that, hoping a kid is untrusting of North American agents and will wrap their arms around someone they trust back home. Certain agents will give a coach, say, 2% of the player’s salary or signing bonus.”

Tverdovsky said in a telephone interview Saturday he was unsure of exactly who was involved in his mother’s abduction.

“This is the trouble with the system right now in Russia, the Soviet Union, whatever,” he said. “Players get out and sign contracts, but everybody who was a coach where the player was wants something. There needs to be a system.”

Shtalenkov admitted the news of the kidnapping gave him pause, but said he will still return to Moscow this summer to train with the Russian team for the upcoming World Cup tournament.

“I think it’s the first time a situation like this has happened with parents. Maybe it’s time for every Russian player to worry about parents,” Shtalenkov said. “I hope it’s not going to happen with my family.”

Serg Levin, a Los-Angeles based agent who represents 17 NHL players, most of them Russian, said has has been interviewed by the FBI about extortion attempts. He considers it dangerous for Russian NHL players to return home.

“I suggest, ‘Don’t go,’ ” he said. “This is a very typical situation in the former Soviet Union right now. There are a lot of these kinds of cases. This was strictly amateur. That’s lucky. If they were professionals, it might have been tragic.”