According to this article on Russian Hockey Digest, there are some legal barriers standing between Taratukhin and donning the Flame's colors any time soon:
Yuri Lukin, General Manager of Yaroslavl Lokomotiv spoke about two players who Loko has under contract:I haven't heard any news that the Flames have indeed signed a contract with Taratukhin, so Im a little puzzled by Lukin's claim that it's already a done deal. Course, whether it's true or not is secondary to the fact that the Russians are dead-set on pursuing legal action against any NHL club who tries to pry their russian prospects out the super league (prior to a transfer agreement being inked).
'We already told "see you" to Taratukhin. He came to see the team, shook everyone's hands. It is all great, of course. But from our side we told him see we will see him back in Yaroslavl. We are planning to sue Calgary Flames who signed a contract with our player'.
Therefore, I wouldn't count on Andrei making it to training camp. In fact, the chances of him playing anywhere outside of Mother Russia this year are starting to fade more and more each day...
Monday, August 28th EDIT - A Taratukhin interview. Seems like he's going to come to Calgary whether there's a tranfer agreement or not. Good news.
