 While the WHA opened the door , and players slowly joined the NHL , those behind the Iron Curtain were restricted from following suit . In 1980 , Peter Stastny , his wife , and his brother Anton secretly fled Czechoslovakia with the aid of Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut . The Stastnys ' defection made international headlines , and contributed to the first wave of Eastern Europeans ' entrance into the NHL . Hoping that they would one day be permitted to play in the NHL , teams drafted Soviet players in the 1980s , 27 in all by the 1988 draft . However , defection was the only way such players could join the teams that drafted them . Michal Pivonka defected from Czechoslovakia in 1986 , while Russian Alexander Mogilny defected following the 1989 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Anchorage , Alaska . Czech teenager Petr Nedved walked into a Calgary police station in January 1989 after playing in the Mac 's AAA midget hockey tournament . 
