The Belarusian U18 team will join the MHL.
http://hockey.by/news/news-federation/6227.html
The Belarusian U18 team will join the MHL.
http://hockey.by/news/news-federation/6227.html
i don't care abot belarussian team, but russian one is gonna be intriguing. rubtsov, popugaev (small one), yakovenko, sergachev... that's a nice core to build a team around.
Zhukevno, Abramov, Sokolov gone to NA already, plenty names you have brought up will be there as well. I hope this team doesn't end up being run by agents and kick-back, but something is telling me it will...
lol, crazy talk!
How do the club teams feel about losing their top U18 players to this national team?
Still think it's dumb idea.
it really is and I hope it will last one year only
There are at least 2 potential positives about an U18 team in the MHL: (1) Russia winning the World U18 tournament for a change, and (2) building a potential framework for the U20 tournament involving guys who have played together under the same system. How do the negatives outweigh the positives?
neither one is really a positive:
the team of U18 players who will be playing in the MHL will NOT win jack and the fact, that they don't take players from NA is the major reason, but even then....
Same thing - best U20 will be playing in the CHL, so this MHL team will not be building much of anything.
Since it seems as though the intent is to exclude guys who go to the CHL from both U18 and U20 national teams, you may be right that they won't win initially. But over time, I think the strategy will be effective.
Since it seems as though the intent is to exclude guys who go to the CHL from both U18 and U20 national teams, you may be right that they won't win initially. But over time, I think the strategy will be effective.
ouch, to forcefully make everybody play with blatnoi is a privilege of questionable valuelet's agree to disagree here:
This team will be another way for federation to garner kick-backs from agents and parents. Ivanyuzhenkov's of the world will most def be there. Let's see, once the roster is out.
Not if once Drafted & kidnapped to God knows where in North America. How does that help the growth of hockey in Russia?
Since there is no local or regional government financial support for the MHL, there will be no more youth hockey league, and the KHL will be forced to shrink back to RSL levels of expenditure. At the international level, it will mean that Russia will have to learn to accept finishing no higher than 6th in the Olympics and similar tournaments, as it has every year since 2002, when the last of the Soviet-era players represented Russia in the Olympics.
If RSL level leagues are so bad then how, for example, Sweden manages to be so competitive, when we know that the poorest KHL team would be the among, if not the richest team in SHL. Sweden not only have insane amount of players in NHL, they even manage to have hordes in KHL as well, and still have a highly respected local league. Money helps hockey, nobody is denying that, but Russia currently is trying to "build a house starting with the roof".
Aim should be to breed so many excellent players that NHL can't even take all of them.
You totally missed the point of my post. You took one word and just ran in a completely different direction.They don't have to try to take all of them, the players come to them, and that's something that will never change. As an athlete you want to compete with the best, not second fiddle. How can you reach your potential without playing in the NHL if your an elite Hockey player in this day in age.
And it doesn't help their cause World Juniors is always in Canada and players see the passion for Hockey is uncomparable to what's in Russia. They see their opponents and the skill and artistry and want to play with and against them as well, and guess where everyone goes?
If RSL level leagues are so bad then how, for example, Sweden manages to be so competitive, when we know that the poorest KHL team would be the among, if not the richest team in SHL. Sweden not only have insane amount of players in NHL, they even manage to have hordes in KHL as well, and still have a highly respected local league. Money helps hockey, nobody is denying that, but Russia currently is trying to "build a house starting with the roof".
Aim should be to breed so many excellent players that NHL can't even take all of them.
Sweden is competitive for 2nd or 3rd place because they have an extremely well-funded, and, as best I can find out, literally a neighborhood-level infrastructure that supports hockey far better than Russia. To catch up on that level, Russia would have to, at the very least, quadruple the annual per capita earnings of the average citizen. That might take some time! Also, the goal of Swedish hockey is to send its products to the NHL. They have no ambitions to build a competitive domestic league, although, as you say, not everyone can end up in the NHL, and so they end up with some pretty good players at home.
you could throw finns in there too, but it's not about ambitions. they are just too small to compete with the nhl. there's no self-delusion there, and that's good. i can't say the same for russia. while restrictions here are of different kind, the khl won't be competitive for a very long time. well, in one thing we are competitive for sure, that's throwing amoral money (gained by pumping natural resources abroad) at spotrsmen. but that's the foundation made from sand, it won't get us farSweden is competitive for 2nd or 3rd place because they have an extremely well-funded, and, as best I can find out, literally a neighborhood-level infrastructure that supports hockey far better than Russia. To catch up on that level, Russia would have to, at the very least, quadruple the annual per capita earnings of the average citizen. That might take some time! Also, the goal of Swedish hockey is to send its products to the NHL. They have no ambitions to build a competitive domestic league, although, as you say, not everyone can end up in the NHL, and so they end up with some pretty good players at home.