Turncoats in International Hockey

Eagle Eye Cherry

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Feb 19, 2006
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With the World Hockey Championship going on, how many examples can you think of where players played for another nation other than their own? For whatever reason?

And on this topic, since Canada constantly produces thousands of hockey players on either a pro/semi-pro level and only a lucky few get to actually play for Team Canada, how about some of them play for my nation, Switzerland? :D

Right now, If they can stay here long enough and marry a Swiss, they can play for our team (see Paul DiPietro). Let's see, there are several canadians playing over here right now and some of them include, Alexandre Daigle, he could play for us.
 

TruthDeliveryVehicle*

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With the World Hockey Championship going on, how many examples can you think of where players played for another nation other than their own? For whatever reason?

And on this topic, since Canada constantly produces thousands of hockey players on either a pro/semi-pro level and only a lucky few get to actually play for Team Canada, how about some of them play for my nation, Switzerland? :D

Right now, If they can stay here long enough and marry a Swiss, they can play for our team (see Paul DiPietro). Let's see, there are several canadians playing over here right now and some of them include, Alexandre Daigle, he could play for us.

Corey Hirsch was Canada's goaltender in the 1994 Olympics, and is playing for Denmark in this tournament. I don't hold it against him though.

When the German team was not as established, a few Canadians who played in Germany for years were included on the roster.

Italy is made up of many Canadians at the Olympics, Jason Muzzati, Carter Trevisani, Adrian Signoretti come to mind.
 

TruthDeliveryVehicle*

Guest
Huh?

No, different Hirsch. Denmark has Peter Hirsch.

oh really, I thought someone said it was Corey Hirsch. Wouldn't have surprised me since he plays in Malmo Sweden I think so he could easily live in Copenhagen. My bad.
 

cagney

cdojdmccjajgejncjaba
Jun 17, 2002
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Tyler Arnason was born in the US but spent most of his life in Canada. He hadn't represented either nation in the past as far as I know but he finally decided to play for the US this year.

I suspect there are some Slovaks that would call Paul Stastny a "turncoat" though his ties to the US are certainly stronger.

I noticed John Tripp was playing for Germany this year. He's originally from Canada.
 

VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
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Nabokov played for Russia even though it's not his country. Khazakstan is trying to sustain its own hockey team internationally and Nabbie sure didn't help things.

Petr Nedved played for Canada and actually was quite effective.
 

GKJ

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Feb 27, 2002
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Dainius Zubrus played for Russia in the World Cup, but he is from Lithuania.
 

saskganesh

Registered User
Jun 19, 2006
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lith reminds me of the oakland seals.:D

"turncoats" seems a bit strong. in this bold era of global free trade, we should celebrate global movement of people too. so I suggest calling them either "citizenship-challenged" or maybe "neopatriots"
 

Tricolore#20

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Jul 24, 2003
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Dainius Zubrus played for Russia in the World Cup, but he is from Lithuania.

Probably needs to be said though that the World Cup didn't follow IIHF eligibility rules. You could technically play for any country in that tournament, if you have some loose affiliation.

I think Petr Nedved played for the Czechs at the 1996 World Cup, even though he played at the 1994 Olympics. Technically, he is ineligible to play for any country in IIHF competition other than Canada.
 

Jazz

Registered User
Probably needs to be said though that the World Cup didn't follow IIHF eligibility rules. You could technically play for any country in that tournament, if you have some loose affiliation.

I think Petr Nedved played for the Czechs at the 1996 World Cup, even though he played at the 1994 Olympics. Technically, he is ineligible to play for any country in IIHF competition other than Canada.
And Peter Statsny played for Canada in the 1984 Canada Cup.
 

CapsChemist

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Mar 26, 2006
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Nabokov played for Russia even though it's not his country. Khazakstan is trying to sustain its own hockey team internationally and Nabbie sure didn't help things.

Thats different because Nabakov is Russian not Kazak. His family just happened to be living their during the Soviet Union and when the USSR split he was one of many Russians left in Kazakstan.
 

Vladiator

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Jan 2, 2005
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Thats different because Nabakov is Russian not Kazak. His family just happened to be living their during the Soviet Union and when the USSR split he was one of many Russians left in Kazakstan.

Correct.

As for Zubrus, he only played for Russia in the World Cup, which is run by NHL and not IIHF.
 

I Ron Butterfly

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Thats different because Nabakov is Russian not Kazak. His family just happened to be living their during the Soviet Union and when the USSR split he was one of many Russians left in Kazakstan.

I'm definitely no expert when it comes to Eastern European geography, but Kamenogorski, Kazachstan sounds like it's in Kazakhstan and not Russia. His family may be Russian, but that would make him a Kazakh, no? Canadians ought to hope that's how it works or Chris Simon may become the new poster boy for Canadian hockey.
 

emb24*

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the swiss can have daigle!
all kidding aside, corey hirsch is the roving amateur goaltending coach for hockey canada i think - so he's not playing for denmark although he did get a medal as part of the U20 staff
:)
 

Den

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I'm definitely no expert when it comes to Eastern European geography, but Kamenogorski, Kazachstan sounds like it's in Kazakhstan and not Russia. His family may be Russian, but that would make him a Kazakh, no? Canadians ought to hope that's how it works or Chris Simon may become the new poster boy for Canadian hockey.

Well, not really. There is a number of factors, like most Russians living in the ex-republic feeling they belong to Russia and not the culture of the local ethnos, Northen Kazakhstan being considered an extension of Russia proper for centuries and thus culturally identical to Russia. And of course, Nabby has had the Russian citizenship for ages.
 

I Ron Butterfly

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Well, usually being born in a country equates to being from that country, no? I was born in Canada, but my heritage is Ukrainian, but I consider myself more of a Canadian than a Ukrainian since I was born in Canada. It was posted that Nabokov is actually Russian, and since he was born in Kazakhstan I would assume he was Kazakh. I mean Joe Sakic's parents are from the former Republic of Yugoslavia, his parents just happened to be in Canada at the time. I don't expect to see him heading over to Belgrade for training camp anytime soon.
 

Den

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Well, usually being born in a country equates to being from that country, no? I was born in Canada, but my heritage is Ukrainian, but I consider myself more of a Canadian than a Ukrainian since I was born in Canada. It was posted that Nabokov is actually Russian, and since he was born in Kazakhstan I would assume he was Kazakh. I mean Joe Sakic's parents are from the former Republic of Yugoslavia, his parents just happened to be in Canada at the time. I don't expect to see him heading over to Belgrade for training camp anytime soon.

:shakehead What language do you speak? What language Nabby speaks? Did you see many Ukrainian movies, read many Ukrainian books as a kid? Did Nabby see many Kazakh movies, read Kazakh books? Who was your childhood sports idol? A Canadian hockey player or Oleg Blokhin? Who was the probable Nabby's hero? Tretyak, or Bekzat Sattarkhanov?

Under the USSR Russians outnumbered Kazakhs in Kazakhstan.
 

Chimaera

same ol' Caps
Feb 4, 2004
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hey... no need jump at the guy.

He has a logical point from a Western perspective. While culturally someone who migrates to the US or Canada might maintain ties, the integration of all of the cultures and past backgrounds have converged to instill some type of loyalty to the central ideal. Simply, here, when you move to a country, most people who are born here and educated here eventually see themselves as at least partially "American" or "Canadian", whether or not they might be from Belize or Beijing before, or a generation before.


However, it is different for people in countries that change borders. Nabakov is probably Ethnically Russian and happened to be living in Kazakstan, not Ethnically Kazak, which would explain where his loyalties lie. For example, my relatives in Germany used to live in the former Yugoslavia back in the 1930s. They might have lived there, but they were ethnically German. So, they saw themselves as German, not Yugoslavian. A lot of it is merely perspective.
 

Den

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hey... no need jump at the guy.

He has a logical point from a Western perspective. While culturally someone who migrates to the US or Canada might maintain ties, the integration of all of the cultures and past backgrounds have converged to instill some type of loyalty to the central ideal.

It's all clear of course. The case of Kazakhstan goes much beyond the scenario of one ethnos on the terretory of another. Russians actually ounumbered Kazakhs there, and in the North Kazakhstan outnumbered them significantly. Russian is one of the two official languages there. There was no need to make any effort to "preserve" the culture as it was the dominant culture around. It's like if now all of Texas and Arizona became Mexico out of a sudden...
 

Kaizer

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Apr 26, 2003
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Well, usually being born in a country equates to being from that country, no? I was born in Canada, but my heritage is Ukrainian, but I consider myself more of a Canadian than a Ukrainian since I was born in Canada. It was posted that Nabokov is actually Russian, and since he was born in Kazakhstan I would assume he was Kazakh.
You are a bit misunderstand here, in my opinion . Kazakhs are etnic group. It doesn't equal to citizen of Kazakhstan. He could be citizen of Kazakhstan (If he decided to be earlier in his life, but I'm not sure) but he is etnic russian.

FYI, there are about 70% of russians and only 30% of kazakhs in this area (Ust'-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk) but they all are citizens of Kazakshtan ...but russians could have russian citizenship too, IIRC ... and there is very interesting history of this area from XVIII century till our days..
 
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