CWHL Expanding to China
- Thread starter uncleben
- Start date
Gigantor The Goalie
Speak for the Goalies
KRS will do two weeks in North America for their road trips, most likely playing four games per trip.
The other CWHL teams will do a week in China playing three games for their road trip. KRS will be helping subsidize the travel costs.
It seems like Kelli Stack and Noora Räty will join the team. Huge additions for them.
Absolutely. The women's team qualified for the 1998, 2002 and 2010 Olympics, too.
Absolutely. The women's team qualified for the 1998, 2002 and 2010 Olympics, too.
Gigantor The Goalie
Speak for the Goalies
It'll be important for them to add some more stars but you really can't go wrong with Kelli Stack and the 2nd best goalie in women's hockey. It'll at least keep them from being the worst team in the CWHL. Raty and Stack will literally win games single handily especially with a lot of Canadian stars being busy with centralization right now.
RowdyFan42
Registered User
It's only a 30-game season, though. Each of the six teams will play each other six times; the North American teams will each go to China once to play all three of their road games, so for them the travel won't be too terrible. The Chinese team will have a bear of a schedule no matter how you slice it, even with the same all-three-games-at-once format.
Sports Enthusiast
Not Here To Be Liked
Nonsense. The Chinese team will play in the league until 2022 at minimum, that is for certain. What happens after the Olympics will be seen.
Gigantor The Goalie
Speak for the Goalies
But no further information because of...well who knows why but it's interesting nonetheless how this will work out schedule wise and what the plan is for the 2nd team.
RossiyaSport
Registered User
My late two cents. This seems to all be the brainchild of this Canadian Digit lady but I don't think its that great of a decision.
China should have put a team in the Russian womens league. Its much closer for one thing. Also because theres no real age limit theres a bunch of younger girls in the Russian league and two of the teams are mainly development teams with younger girls. This would provide much more realistic competition for the Chinese girls and could have an all China team without a bunch of ringers.
In the CWHL its mostly girls who are 22+ who have played college. How many Chinese ladies could legitimately earn a roster spot in this league, probably only a few. So what do they do, bring in various ringers that they are paying a wad of cash to as "ambassadors" of the game. And now theres two Chinese teams?
Even here in the West womens hockey isn't commercially viable. Why would Chinese care about some Western female hockey players that even people here really don't care about. Another problem is resentment by players who aren't earning a salary meanwhile these ringers are getting paid good money by China.
I'm glad the Russian girls turned this down. The only one who took a deal is Mariya Sorokina who I find to be overrated. I actually like Merkusheva who was signed to replace her much better.
China should have put a team in the Russian womens league. Its much closer for one thing. Also because theres no real age limit theres a bunch of younger girls in the Russian league and two of the teams are mainly development teams with younger girls. This would provide much more realistic competition for the Chinese girls and could have an all China team without a bunch of ringers.
In the CWHL its mostly girls who are 22+ who have played college. How many Chinese ladies could legitimately earn a roster spot in this league, probably only a few. So what do they do, bring in various ringers that they are paying a wad of cash to as "ambassadors" of the game. And now theres two Chinese teams?
Even here in the West womens hockey isn't commercially viable. Why would Chinese care about some Western female hockey players that even people here really don't care about. Another problem is resentment by players who aren't earning a salary meanwhile these ringers are getting paid good money by China.
I'm glad the Russian girls turned this down. The only one who took a deal is Mariya Sorokina who I find to be overrated. I actually like Merkusheva who was signed to replace her much better.
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
1. Digit Murphy is an American.
2. This was part of the plan all along with the owners of Kunlun and the CIHA. Murphy is just the coach overseeing it all.
3. It's not "much closer." The closest team in the Russian league would be a 12.5-hour flight. Then 13 and 13.5 but the other either require a longer flight or a longer flight and a long drive. For comparison's sake, Calgary is about 15 hours and Toronto is a little over 15. when you factor in those other teams that are super far north in Russia, the distance argument doesn't hold up.
4. Chinese women's hockey, while not as good as it used to be or as good as the Canada/Russia, is not absolutely terrible. You're underestimating a program that's played in the Olympics in the last decade.
2. This was part of the plan all along with the owners of Kunlun and the CIHA. Murphy is just the coach overseeing it all.
3. It's not "much closer." The closest team in the Russian league would be a 12.5-hour flight. Then 13 and 13.5 but the other either require a longer flight or a longer flight and a long drive. For comparison's sake, Calgary is about 15 hours and Toronto is a little over 15. when you factor in those other teams that are super far north in Russia, the distance argument doesn't hold up.
4. Chinese women's hockey, while not as good as it used to be or as good as the Canada/Russia, is not absolutely terrible. You're underestimating a program that's played in the Olympics in the last decade.
RossiyaSport
Registered User
1. Ok, but shes been involved in the CWHL and has loyalties there.
2. In my opinion Murphy is the driving force behind this and without her China would be fine with putting a team in the Russian womens league just as they have with MHL and VHL.
3. From a search I did Beijing to Moscow is 7 hours and 43 minutes.
4. Though not terrible I don't think theres much of any Chinese women who would be able to legitimately earn a roster spot in the CWHL. If there was they wouldn't need to sign several ringers. I guess we will see when play starts but I think most will be pretty overmatched.
2. In my opinion Murphy is the driving force behind this and without her China would be fine with putting a team in the Russian womens league just as they have with MHL and VHL.
3. From a search I did Beijing to Moscow is 7 hours and 43 minutes.
4. Though not terrible I don't think theres much of any Chinese women who would be able to legitimately earn a roster spot in the CWHL. If there was they wouldn't need to sign several ringers. I guess we will see when play starts but I think most will be pretty overmatched.
Gigantor The Goalie
Speak for the Goalies
Everyone knows the Chinese players on their own will be completely over matched every game without the import players this coming season. An important factor though to consider is that Kunlun/Vanke only get 6 imports each. This means somewhere in the line-up the Chinese National Team players will get their opportunities unless the head coach insists the imports play 50 minutes a game. I don't see that happening especially since they'll be playing three games in a row. Another factor is they are bringing in Canadian-Chinese players I assume to naturalize for 2020.
What China really needs though is another Hong Guo, their stalwart goalie from the beginning of modern women's hockey. This is where bringing in Noora Raty becomes important. She's one of the best goalies of all-time in women's hockey and is a goalie coach to boot. Get her to work with the goalies and they'll see important improvements in net.
What China really needs though is another Hong Guo, their stalwart goalie from the beginning of modern women's hockey. This is where bringing in Noora Raty becomes important. She's one of the best goalies of all-time in women's hockey and is a goalie coach to boot. Get her to work with the goalies and they'll see important improvements in net.
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
RossiyaSport
Registered User
Some of the Russian womens league cities from Shenzhen are 7 hours or under. To all the CWHL cities its 15+ hours.
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
I'm just going off of what Google says but the closest it is showing me is 12 hours and that's Shenzhen to Krasnoyarsk. And it's showing 11:30 right now flying out of Hong Kong International with a layover in Moscow. These women's teams aren't chartering flights so commercial flights with layovers are a reality that must b accounted for.
So Kunlun has now started their season with two games against Markham. They lost their debut 1-2 and they recorded a loss today as well, this time 0-3. No statistics about shots for the first game but they actually outshot their opponents 45-38 today.
The Vanke Rays will not enter their first game until next weekend.
The Vanke Rays will not enter their first game until next weekend.
Gigantor The Goalie
Speak for the Goalies
Kunlun's imports are going to run the league if they stop running into goalies who are standing on top of their heads. Watched the Kunlun/Markham game last night and Kunlun owned that game. It's obvious there's a talent difference as Kunlun grabbed some players that could be in the Olympics but aren't and Markham pretty much only has two players who could make the Olympics in Rattray/Howe. Vanke is full of young players so I don't expect them to be on the same level as Kunlun.
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