Up-and-coming prospects from non-traditional hockey countries

[NJ Fan 12]

Possibly not much to see here since he is now 21-years-old but curious about well-traveled Robert Arrack from Estonia. Played junior hockey in the USHL and Finland and also played for Estonia's men's team during the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Robert Arrak at eliteprospects.com

 

[Number 57]

Watching this Austria-Swiss game on TSN I can tell after just one period Mathias Bohm is a pretty good prospect. Looked him up he's 2021 eligible forward with great size from Austria.

 

[Siamese Dream]

16 year old British defenceman Liam Steele has committed to Cornell University

Liam Steele at eliteprospects.com

 

[MrGuyPerson]

Global Development: Prospect To Watch Tai Ushio

I saw he was already mentioned on here, but Taisetsu Ushio had 12 points in 7 games played in the CSSHL U18 league. December 2005 born and their last game played was in November so every point he scored was scored as 14 year old

 

[whynot4949]

I recently discovered another Italian boy, Tommaso De Luca at eliteprospects.com He will turn 16 years old at December, 29 and he plays with the U20 of Ambri Piotta in Switzerland (has 6 goals and 1 assist in 14 games as a rookie). Does anyone know something interesting about him?

was born in Italy 29.12.2004 but since he's U13 he plays in Switzerland, first in Red Ice Martigny and now in Ambri Piotta, quick and technical player, with excellent game vision.
I leave you a link with a video of the season.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

04 born RHD Liam Steele (Stanstead College) from Great Britain is committed to Cornell (As noted in here earlier)

There are video clips available here:
Liam Steele's Men's Ice Hockey Recruiting Profile

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Maxim Burkov from Estonia is a name to keep an eye on in the future.

Definitely one of the best players to ever come from Estonia.

 

[ozo]

Maxim Burkov from Estonia is a name to keep an eye on in the future.

Definitely one of the best players to ever come from Estonia.

Exciting until one discovers he has spent all his hockey career in Russia. If he is truly good, he will never play for Estonia national team.

 

[Killerjas]

Ivan Bjorkly Nordstrom (half Scottish)
Ivan Björkly Nordström at eliteprospects.com

 

[kaiser matias]

A Ukrainian, Artur Cholach, was selected 190th in the 2021 draft by the Vegas Golden Knights.

And Emil Martinsen Lilleberg, from Norway, went 107th to the Arizona Coyotes.

Last, I'll mention Andrei Buyalski from Kazakhstan, 92nd overall to the Colorado Avalanche, only because he is the first Kazakhstani selected in a draft since 2004, when both Viktor Alexandrov (83rd) Maxim Semenov (220th overall) were drafted.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

Just saw a Jack Hopkins ('04) video of him lighting up a lower level in England

He's an underdeveloped goal scoring winger that would be a good project for an EIHL team to take on if they cared about developing players. I don't see that happening so I doubt he'll be on the NHL radar this year but who knows

 

[filip85]

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/610663/vito-idzan, Vito Idzan (Croatia) - Mountfield U20 for 21/22. I saw him only limited, but from what I have seen he is strong skater for his size, whit solid release. In seven pre-season games he is 3+2. He is no Rendulić, but if everything goes right for him I can see him being a pro.

 

[wetcoast]

16 year old British defenceman Liam Steele has committed to Cornell University

Liam Steele at eliteprospects.com

Does anyone have a scouting report on him?

 

[ChaiTiefling]

Jack Hopkins (May '04) just signed his first men's hockey contract with Telford in the NIHL, and will also be training with Elite League Nottingham. Most exciting forward prospect since Kirk and following a very similar path. Caveat here is that Nottingham's quality of player is well behind Sheffield's at the same ages.

FULL COMPARISON

 

[Siamese Dream]

Jack Hopkins (May '04) just signed his first men's hockey contract with Telford in the NIHL, and will also be training with Elite League Nottingham. Most exciting forward prospect since Kirk and following a very similar path. Caveat here is that Nottingham's quality of player is well behind Sheffield's at the same ages.

FULL COMPARISON

View attachment 461724

Something worth noting is that before the 2016/17 season the junior leagues in England were split into 2 divisions per region. From 2016/17 onwards they have been split into 3 so you typically only get 6 teams in the best division with the worse teams pushed into Division 2. In the old days when it was around 10 teams in the best division the games between the top and bottom were often very uncompetitive. So in Kirk's day it would've been a lot easier to put up big points.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

Does anyone have a scouting report on him?

It's really tough because there wasn't a real season but he looks like a big mobile puck mover who really likes to jump into the rush. There are some clips here:
Liam Steele's Men's Ice Hockey Recruiting Profile

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Jack Hopkins (May '04) just signed his first men's hockey contract with Telford in the NIHL, and will also be training with Elite League Nottingham. Most exciting forward prospect since Kirk and following a very similar path. Caveat here is that Nottingham's quality of player is well behind Sheffield's at the same ages.

FULL COMPARISON

View attachment 461724

I’ll post some context to the stats in the German u-17 league.
Nils Herzog who produced 11 points in 8 games being a younger player for the same team isn’t realistically on the radar of being drafted at the moment.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

I’ll post some context to the stats in the German u-17 league.
Nils Herzog who produced 11 points in 8 games being a younger player for the same team isn’t realistically on the radar of being drafted at the moment.

They're both 04s and combined for 11 of the 15 goals their team scored because it was the 2nd worst team in the league. It's tough to really pull context when players are in such a bad position.

Edit: Should mention, I don't think he gets drafted. I think he would need to be a regular in the EIHL and contributing positively in a regular role and I doubt Nottingham will provide that. Even if he was an exactly replica of Liam Kirk at the same age, I don't think Nottingham will do it. But I would love to be wrong.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

They're both 04s and combined for 11 of the 15 goals their team scored because it was the 2nd worst team in the league. It's tough to really pull context when players are in such a bad position.

Edit: Should mention, I don't think he gets drafted. I think he would need to be a regular in the EIHL and contributing positively in a regular role and I doubt Nottingham will provide that. Even if he was an exactly replica of Liam Kirk at the same age, I don't think Nottingham will do it. But I would love to be wrong.

For more context, the highest scoring player in that league this season (Lasse Bach) is another player who will go undrafted. He had 22 points in 6gp and is younger.
Nothing against the guy man, just providing context into this situation as someone who knows German hockey.

The best German 16y/o players aren’t playing in the u-17 league, they’re playing in the DEL, DEL2, Red Bull Academy, or the DNL u-20 league. The u-17 league is more for the best 15 year olds in Germany.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

For more context, the highest scoring player in that league this season (Lasse Bach) is another player who will go undrafted. He had 22 points in 6gp and is younger.
Nothing against the guy man, just providing context into this situation as someone who knows German hockey.

The best German 16y/o players aren’t playing in the u-17 league, they’re playing in the DEL, DEL2, Red Bull Academy, or the DNL u-20 league. The u-17 league is more for the best 15 year olds in Germany.

Just to add even more context into this situation, Jack Hopkins didn't plan on going to Germany last season. Plans would have been required for RB Academy or DNL U20. Hockey was shut down in England and he happened to have a connection in Weißwasser that was able to get him some ice time. He played junior hockey with Corey Neilsons son in Nottingham who happened to be a DEL2 coach in Weißwasser at the time.

The best German 16 y/o players don't count as imports in DEL or DEL2 so I guess that means nothing to Jack Hopkins? Weißwasser didn't have a DNL U20 team. He made the best of a tough situation during a pandemic, you're starting to get weird about this.

Should I compare these stats and say Hopkins = Lukas Reichel when it comes to goal scoring based on these Germany U17 stats, 1st round pick 2022 ezpz?

In the context of GB and up-and-coming prospects from non-traditional hockey countries, Jack Hopkins is a promising forward.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

May as well throw out the name Konrad Lörincz then since he scored at a PPG pace in the German u-17 league, he’s a year younger than that Hopkins guy too who put up similar numbers in the same league so he must be an NHL prospect.
It says he’s from Hungaria/Romanina.

Konrad Lörincz at eliteprospects.com

 

[3 Minute Minor]

May as well throw out the name Konrad Lörincz then since he scored at a PPG pace in the German u-17 league, he’s a year younger than that Hopkins guy too who put up similar numbers in the same league so he must be an NHL prospect.
It says he’s from Hungaria/Romanina.

Konrad Lörincz at eliteprospects.com

You could. It would be weird though. You have so little information on the player that your entire take is based on stat watching in a 5 game sample. And you're only bringing him up because people didn't dismiss Jack Hopkins based on your stat watching take when Hopkins has an entire body of work in his own country + full games on YouTube for people to watch + a highlight video if you're too lazy to watch the games. You made it weird in here.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Exciting until one discovers he has spent all his hockey career in Russia. If he is truly good, he will never play for Estonia national team.

Ha, he needs to come to Latvia.

 

[kaiser matias]

Nino Tomov is Bulgarian and playing in the Czech U20 league this year. Also has played 3 games for Sparta Praha in the Czech league.

 

[czech]

Efe Han Öztorun ...maybe ...in future ...first Turkish nhl player - Technika Brno-08's team leader.