The NHL refuses to entertain compensation offers from a newly formed Russian hockey league for the signing of forward Alex Radulov while the player was under contract with the Nashville Predators.

And until Radulov’s contract with the Predators is honored, the NHL won’t consider negotiating a player transfer agreement with the Continental Hockey League (KHL), NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an e-mail on Monday.

“The bottom line from our perspective is that the player has a contract which our rules obligate him to respect,” Daly said. “Our rules don’t recognize a player (or his new team) being able to ‘buy’ the way out of an existing contract. It’s not a scenario that our existing rules contemplate or allow.”

Radulov is at the center of a controversy between the NHL and the KHL after the player signed with KHL’s Ufa last month.