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The World's talent level

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Vedder

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I guess I meant more if you were to drop let's say an average pro player into any of those countries' Elite leagues (and the AHL), where would he tend to have a better chance at being a league MVP or his team's MVP?
(Since I know you cant compare points or such since different leagues have higher/lower scoring)
 
kacz

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Don't forget about Belarus, Latvia and Ukraine.

...Zubrus, Zholtok, Fedotenko and many, many more were discovered in those countries
 
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Fan.At

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Austrian league would be behind Swiss and German league, but definitly ahead of the Italian....

Don't know how good it is compared to Belarus, Lativa and Ukraine.
 
Birko19

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rivercanyon said:
In that case.

1. NHL
2. RSL
3. SEL
4. AHL
5. The rest
Click to expand...

SEL at third? no chance in hell, maybe a couple years back they would be, today? hell no.

It's more like this:

1- NHL
2- RSL
3- AHL
4- Fin SM-Liiga
5- Czech Extraleague
6- SEL
7- Slovakian league
8- Swiss
9- DEL
10- The rest
 

An Ape called Yoko

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Finn said:
The hell are you smoking?
Click to expand...

I was talking about their quality. Not based on prospects.

I´d say that thats my top 4. im no more biased than you are.

I´m not too familiar with checz league however. Maybe its really good.

But having Finlands top league(SM-liiga) in front of Swedens league (SEL) is really wrong nowdays.

Forgive me for thinking that AHL is overrated, but it just is.
 

An Ape called Yoko

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Birko19 said:
SEL at third? no chance in hell, maybe a couple years back they would be, today? hell no.

It's more like this:

1- NHL
2- RSL
3- AHL
4- Fin SM-Liiga
5- Czech Extraleague
6- SEL
7- Slovakian league
8- Swiss
9- DEL
10- The rest
Click to expand...

The best finns plays in Sweden. Even the finnish players themselves admits SEL is better than SM-liiga. Brett Harkins dominated in SM-liiga this past season!!! He played for Skellefteå in SEL2(allsvenskan) and was nothing special. SEL is better.
If you honestly think SM-liiga is that good nowdays your really off. SM-liiga has too many weak teams. Top teams are good though.
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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rivercanyon said:
The best finns plays in Sweden. Even the finnish players themselves admits SEL is better than SM-liiga. Brett Harkins dominated in SM-liiga this past season!!! He played for Skellefteå in SEL2(allsvenskan) and was nothing special. SEL is better.
If you honestly think SM-liiga is that good nowdays your really off. SM-liiga has too many weak teams. Top teams are good though.
Click to expand...

Harkins didn't dominate. He was in a better team with a better coahc and with far better linemates. And his only job was to pass the puck to Pärssinen. His first 20 odd games prove this (At one point he had 1 goal and like 24 assists).
SM-Liiga is better at developing players to their potential Ã'd rather say than just compare Harkin's SEL2 vs SML stats.

Best finns in Sweden? Hmm
Norrena is in SEL, so is Kallio, but the rest of the "best" are somewhere like Switzerland playing for money (Peltonen, Hentunen) whilst SEL is full of your SM-Liiga average Joe's.. And them going, is no loss for SM-Liiga as it's allowed the Finnish teams to dump big contracts and play talented youth who have time and time again responded to the challenge.
Players however returning to SM-Liiga from the SEL have usually disappointed (Myllys etc).

and actually,most foreigners in SM-Liiga voted for it being the best league in Europe, closely followed by the RSL with the odd vote for the Czech League (mostly by Czech players) - Source Jääkiekkolehti, last season pre-season issue

Most Finns who go to Sweden, go there because they know the language, and want to earn a bit more than they can get from Finland in their last good days (no point paying Hentunen the money he earns in Switzerland when he wasn't really missed that much and/or could be replaced with a cheaper or younger alternative.)
 

An Ape called Yoko

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Kari Haakana, Mika Lehtinen, Tuuka Myntälä, Anti-Jussi Niemi, Tom Koivisto, Mika Strömberg, Hannes Hyvönen, Janne Grönvall, Jouni Loponen, Kimmo Peltonen, Kalle Sahlstedt, Jussi Tarvainen, Rihijärvi, Kimmo Kapanen. Are they all average Joe´s`???

There are more good finns as well.
 
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kacz

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BrooklynCanuck said:
The problem is that most of the players from those countries go to the RSL.
Click to expand...

But they start right in there backyard, Ruslan Fedotenko's first team was none other then Sokol Kiev. I'm doing some research about the others and trying to find where these players came from, especially Dainius Zubrus. The only thing I know about him so far is that he played Junior 'A' hockey in Canada in the MTJHL with Caledon. But there must of been an early start back in Europe.
 

Raimo Sillanpää

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rivercanyon said:
Kari Haakana, Mika Lehtinen, Tuuka Myntälä, Anti-Jussi Niemi, Tom Koivisto, Mika Strömberg, Hannes Hyvönen, Janne Grönvall, Jouni Loponen, Kimmo Peltonen, Kalle Sahlstedt, Jussi Tarvainen, Rihijärvi, Kimmo Kapanen. Are they all average Joe´s`???

There are more good finns as well.
Click to expand...

None of them are certainly missed..
Janne Grönvall was good in mm.. 2000/2001 but the season after that he wasn't that special

Sahlstedt, Hyvönen, Koivisto, Haakana, would be good core players for their SML team but not stars, and if missed then not majorly so

Kimmo Kapanen, hasn't played in Finland since like.. a decade ago.. it's been ages.. With the quality goaltending we have right now, we certainly do not miss him or any other goaltender.
Thanks to his ilk going to Sweden stellar youths got the chance, seized it and shone. Lassila, Karjalainen, Lehtonen,Toivonen etc..

They're good players who make a good team into a better one, or a bad team into a good team, but they're certainly not the cream of the crop, and the right kids, getting the right playing time replace them at an alarming rate (today's stars like Immonen, Viuhkola are younger faster and have more will to win in SM-Liiga. They're a better product)
 

An Ape called Yoko

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Brett Harkins btw played on arguably the best team in Allsvenskan(SEL2) and couldn´t rack up more points...He was fifht on the team in points.

So I guess players like Niemi and Myntälä, who played in world champs aren´t good at all.... duh.
 
Preds666

Preds666

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Finn said:
The hell are you smoking?
Click to expand...

Yes of course.


- How stupid of him to think that the SEL is more competitive than the Finnish SM-Liiga since Finnish teams nowadays sign quality players from the ECHL, NCAA, UHL.. such as for example Rod Sarich, Dylan Gyori, Dale Clarke, Pierre-Claude Drouin, David Schneider and Steve Shirreffs.

- Or that 50-60 average to really good Finnish players choose to play their hockey in Sweden instead of Finland, not to mention all the great finns that play in NLA instead of the SM-Liiga.

- Or the fact that the Finnish WC-squad consisted of 4 players from the SEL, 4 players from the NLA and only 5(!) players from the own top professional league - SM-Liiga.


Oh yes, rivercanyon had to be smoking something...

:shakehead
 
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