Talk about headlines that we would prefer not to use. As Russian dictator Vladimir Putin flagrantly invaded Ukraine in 2022 under the flimsiest of pretenses and despite the Western world’s objections, a new report by the Wall Street Journal indicates the Biden administration considered booting top Russian hockey players, including Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, last year to put pressure on Putin to facilitate a prisoner release amidst the backdrop of the war.

Here is the full report released Thursday by the WSJ, which detailed the complicated Russian politics, Putin’s imprisonment of political opponent Alexei Navalny, and the United States’ considered solutions to pressure Putin into releasing several dubiously held prisoners, including Paul Whelan and WNBA player Brittney Griner.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan considered using the hockey stars as leverage before ultimately reaching a controversial deal with Russia in late July 2024 that included both sides releasing a combined 24 prisoners, including a Russian assassin held in Germany.

Malkin and Ovechkin nearly became unwitting pawns in the game revolving around prisoner swaps, secret notes of negotiation passed by a Russian billionaire to Putin, and heightened tensions surrounding the Ukrainian invasion. Before we can get to the near-expulsion of the players, which would have derailed Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal record, we’ll try to simplify the complex, if not convoluted, situation.

During President Trump’s first term in 2019, Russia arrested Whelan, a former Marine turned head of global security for BorgWarner, an international autoparts manufacturer based in Michigan.

Russia rejected an initial swap of Whelan for Maria Butina, whom American authorities had recently arrested as an unregistered Russian agent pushing a pro-Putin agenda within political groups.

Eventually, Griner also became part of this story after Russian authorities arrested her on Feb. 17, 2022, at a Russian airport for possessing a vape cartridge with hash oil. She received an abnormally harsh nine-year sentence.

The shocking news followed the international outrage which occurred a week earlier, on Feb. 8, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, quickly incurring sanctions and condemnation from most of the Western world. Griner’s arrest added more human chess pieces to the already complicated board.

After much negotiation for Whelan, as well as intense publicity over Griner’s detention, in December of 2022, the Biden administration agreed to swap Griner for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer with the nickname “The Merchant of Death,” while Whelan remained imprisoned.

As part of the negotiations seeking Griner’s release, Russia sought the release of a Russian hitman imprisoned in Germany after carrying out an assassination in Berlin. However, Russia pressed for a two-for-one swap with Bout and the killer for Griner. After those talks only yielded Bout for Griner, the Putin regime struck again a few months later. This time, they arrested American journalist Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

American and German officials participated in the uneasy negotiations with each other and Russia, while Whelan languished in a notoriously brutal penal colony in central Russia, and international tensions escalated over the brutality of the war in Ukraine.

In mid-2024, following more than a year of secret negotiations, Sullivan began to consider unique solutions to pressure Putin into releasing the American prisoners, but also to quell the sharp criticism that had continued following the swap of the “Merchant of Death” for an athlete. Given Putin’s public love of hockey, including playing in All-Star Games in which he is wisely uncontested, the Biden administration official weighed the dramatic step of expelling top Russian hockey players, including Ovechkin and Malkin, rather than releasing the German assassin.

The move would have preceded the 2024-25 NHL season and undoubtedly gained much attention, but Sullivan decided against it.

In late July, Sullivan and the Biden administration agreed to the massive 24-person exchange, including the Russian assassin, Whelan, and Gershkovich. However, Putin’s political opponent, Navalny, had died in February in a Russian prison at the age of 47.

The 39-year-old Ovechkin scored his 894th career goal on April 6, breaking the NHL’s all-time goals scored record. Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins star, turned 39 on July 31. He is entering the final year of his contract and possibly retirement, though nothing has been decided by either the Penguins or the player.

And the Ukrainian war continues. Trump and Putin will meet on Friday in Alaska in an attempt to broker peace.

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