Question about past olympics

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RW8

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Feb 10, 2004
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Years ago before NHLers were allowed to play in the olympics all of the teams were made up of amateurs, correct? Would a good olympics for a certain player ever raise his stock enough to get a shot at the NHL? and would prospects who are good enough be allowed to go?
 

GKJ

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Basically, if you weren't in the NHL, you could go to the Olympics.
 

Tricolore#20

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RW8 said:
Years ago before NHLers were allowed to play in the olympics all of the teams were made up of amateurs, correct?

It is an issue over semantics. For instance, Soviet players were mostly professional (played for teams like Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo, etc). I think for the most part, most European teams had their best players (although somebody who knows for sure can correct me, since I wasn't really around back in the day). For the North American teams, it was all amateurs before 1998. However, there were cases where professional players played due to contract issues which prevented them for playing in the NHL. Andy Moog (1988) and Petr Nedved (1994) are the first to come to mind.

RW8 said:
Would a good olympics for a certain player ever raise his stock enough to get a shot at the NHL?

Yes, I think this was also generally true. After the 1980 Olympics for instance, USA had nine or ten players who went on to play in the NHL. While some of them were good players (like Neal Broten), some probably got the shot because of their performance at Lake Placid. I wasn't around back then, so I'm not sure how players like Jim Craig and Ken Morrow were perceived before the games, but they were signed to NHL deals almost after the Olympics.

In Canada, I think that was also true. In 1994, players like Brian Savage and Corey Hirsch had their stock shoot up after the Lillehammer games. While they were drafted before those games, perhaps the games gave them some spotlight and made them more prominent in the minds of their managers.

RW8 said:
would prospects who are good enough be allowed to go?

This too is also true, for the most part. Eric Lindros, who was drafted in 1991 but didn't play in the NHL until the 92-93 season spent the 1991-92 season with the Canadian Olympic team and played for Canada at the Olympics. Paul Kariya was another one who decided to play for Canada at the Olympics, before playing in the NHL. Glenn Anderson played on the 1980 Canadian Olympic Team prior to playing in the NHL. Again, these are just players off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are others.
 

GKJ

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Tricolore#20 said:
This too is also true, for the most part. Eric Lindros, who was drafted in 1991 but didn't play in the NHL until the 92-93 season spent the 1991-92 season with the Canadian Olympic team and played for Canada at the Olympics. Paul Kariya was another one who decided to play for Canada at the Olympics, before playing in the NHL. Glenn Anderson played on the 1980 Canadian Olympic Team prior to playing in the NHL. Again, these are just players off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are others.


Pelle Lindbergh was also in those Olympics (1980)
 
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