2024 IIHF Development Cup - 21st-27th April 2024

[FrHockeyFan]

Less than two months to go before the 5th Development Cup gets underway. Here are a couple of news about it so far.

Back in November, it was announced on social media the tournament would take place in Trofa, near Porto, Portugal. But it looks like the tournament has been moved as Eishockey Liechtenstein is announcing the event is back at Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia. The dates are 21st-27th April.

Hockey Worldwide - Instagram

Eishockey Liechtenstein - Facebook

A record seven teams will compete. Reigning champion Liechtenstein will defend its title. Argentina, Colombia, Ireland and Portugal are also back. 11 years after their last WC participation, Greece is back playing an IIHF event. Meanwhile, Brazil will adventure for the first time outside the Americas, having competed so far only at the PanAm tournament in Mexico and the Latam Cup in the US.

On their social media, Greek Ice Hockey tells us what are the current eligibility rules for the tourney (translation by GoogleTranslate):

But which athletes can participate?

Based on IIHF regulations, the teams consist of 20 players / 2 goalkeepers separated:

1) 70% of athletes (or 15 athletes) must be:
-You are athletes who have competed in the National team before.
-Athletes born in Greece who have learned ice hockey in Greece

2) 30% of athletes (or 7 athletes) are:
-Foreign athletes who live permanently in Greece and play hockey only in Greece
-Greeks with 2 citizenship living permanently in Greece and playing hockey only in Greece

30% of athletes must prove that they are strongly engaged in the development of ice hockey in Greece.

Greek Ice Hockey - Instagram

So, if understood it well, almost all of last summer's Latam Cup roster is ineligible to represent Greece at the moment, with Thessaloniki-born Mavridis being the only one called for the 1st tryout last weekend. Some of the 2013 roster were also there such as Ploutsis, G. Kalyvas, Valsamas-Rallis or Pachos to name a few. Also from WCs days, Ioannis (John) Koufis is the team's GM.

EOXA - Facebook

Koufis GM announcement on EOXA website

A bit surprised the Irish haven't made any announcement yet as they usually are among the first ones to do so.

As usual, looking forward to this tourney!

Click to read more...

 

[alko]

But it looks like the tournament has been moved as Eishockey Liechtenstein is announcing the event is back at Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia

Wtf?!? Really?

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Greece released their roster with 7 returnees from the WC days. They also confirmed the tournament is indeed in Bratislava.

Ελληνική Ομοσπονδία Xειμερινών Αθλημάτων | ΕΟΧΑ – Ελληνική Ομοσπονδία Xειμερινών Αθλημάτων | ΕΟΧΑ – Η επίσημη ιστοσελίδα της Ελληνικής Ομοσπονδίας Xειμερινών Αθλημάτων | EOXA | Hellenic Ski Federation

wintersports.gr

Greece - Roster, News, Stats & more

Greece - International - hockey team page with roster, stats, transactions at eliteprospects.com

www.eliteprospects.com

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Liechtenstein has decided not to take part in the event. They cite financial reasons caused by the tournament being moved as well as the strict regulations imposed by the IIHF.

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[jonas2244]

Main reason seem to be that due to stricter eglibility-rules they could only bring 15 players to Slovakia which is not enough for 5 games in such a small time.

Christian Walch, who played U20-WC in the early 90-ies would have to play two years in a (non-existing) domestic league to be able to play further for the team.
As most of the players seem to be dual nationality (either Switzerland/Liechtenstein or Austria/Liechtenstein) there are probably more similar cases out of last times roster.

 

[Albatros]

Should be a temporary setback if they get the arena ready in a couple of years. Meanwhile representing a (the) domestic team in Austrian leagues could be enough for player eligibility.

 

[jonas2244]

Doesn't look like that an arena is a couple of years away, at least from the stuff from I read.
Which is a pity, Liechtenstein is a rich country and it should be possible to finance an indoor-icerink somehow.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Argentina released their roster last week.



As well as their calendar.


They also mention in an another post games will be again streamed on the IIHF YouTube channel.

 

[Albatros]

Doesn't look like that an arena is a couple of years away, at least from the stuff from I read.
Which is a pity, Liechtenstein is a rich country and it should be possible to finance an indoor-icerink somehow.

There's an ongoing project (Eishalle FL 2025) involving various relevant federations, but so far insufficient private financing given that the government has near-zero interest in providing facilities. The last I heard of it I got the impression that they want to build something and scale it according to the resources they have available.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

The IIHA posted for the first time about the upcoming event. And they mention some questionable roster submissions among the interesting events surrounding it.

IIHA - Facebook

 

[FrHockeyFan]

The IIHF has published the links for the live streams.



Colombia's roster

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Irish roster


Brazil's

 

[Albatros]

Apparently the Irish referred to themselves when they mentioned questionable roster submissions.

 

[GreekFan]

The Greek squad

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Long week at work so I've seen none of it.











So no surprise, with that roster, Ireland went 5-0 and will play Portugal, also an interesting roster, in the final.

Colombia will face for Argentina for bronze.

And Greece will be looking for a second win against Brazil.

I'll try to catch some of the action tomorrow.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Doesn't look like that an arena is a couple of years away, at least from the stuff from I read.
Which is a pity, Liechtenstein is a rich country and it should be possible to finance an indoor-icerink somehow.

Rich yes, but very small. 62 square miles and about 40,000 people. Someone has to be willing to invest the resources and undertake the effort.

 

[JimXVX]

According to Eliteprospects, no fewer than a dozen of the Ireland team were born overseas. Seems a bit desperate to roll out so many dual nationals (and even that's a stretch) to win a glorified beer league tourney. Not really in the spirit of developing the game in the countries involved. Meh.