Which European league is the best?

[pckstpr31]

With recent news of Auston Matthews potentially playing in Switzerland, and a growing interest in European sporting culture, I've been looking into European hockey leagues. I know hardly anything about them, and I would like to learn a little more, as it seems to be some decent hockey, and it's interesting to look at as a stepping stone to the NHL. I'm trying to gauge what league is the best, as far as competition and player quality goes. I feel as though it is unquestionably the KHL, but again I don't know too much and could be quite wrong. For those of you that follow European hockey, how would you rank the following:

SHL
Liiga
NLA
DEL
KHL
Czech Extraliga

And then beyond that, what is the quality of play like in leagues like the Metal Ligaen, Get Ligaen, Slovak Extraliga, Latvian league, etc. ? Obviously these countries aren't quite as far in their development, but I'm wondering if there is still quality hockey going on.

Thanks to anybody who weighs in!

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[Urbanskog]

KHL

SHL
Liiga
NLA

DEL
Czech Extraliga

EBEL
Slovak Extraliga

That's how I'd see it.

 

[Fragmuffin]

KHL

SHL
Liiga
NLA

DEL
Czech Extraliga

EBEL
Slovak Extraliga

That's how I'd see it.

That is correct.

 

[moropanov]

SHL is best then KHL then liiga/NLA

 

[Sipak4]

1) KHL
2) SHL
3) Liiga
4-5) Czech extraliga and NLA
6) DEL
7) EBEL

 

[Helistin]

KHL

SHL
Liiga
NLA

DEL
Czech Extraliga

EBEL
Slovak Extraliga

That's how I'd see it.

Seems about right.

 

[meangene]

In terms of overall talent/best place for a prospect to develop? Definitely the KHL or SHL. But if we're talking about pure entertainment value of the sport, I always thought the Czech Extraliga was incredibly under-rated. Lots of speed and it seems like every Czech player has great hands/puck skills.

 

[Lataba76]

1. KHL
2. SHL
3. LIIGA
4. NLA
5. Extraleague(CZE)
6. DEL
7. EBEL
8. Extraleague(SVK)
9. Get Ligaen???
10.Denmark???

I have regard only first leagues/tier!

 

[tobu]

1. KHL
2. SHL
3. LIIGA
4. NLA
5. Extraleague(CZE)
6. DEL
7. EBEL
8. Extraleague(SVK)
9. Get Ligaen???
10.Denmark???

I have regard only first leagues/tier!

Pretty much this, thought 7. and 8. could be interchangeable. Last season when it seemed Slovan would not make the budget for KHL, an analysis was made whether Slovan would joing EBEL or the Slovak league. Number of interviews were made with various hockey experts and the sum of it all that I took from it was that EBEL was stronger economically, but the level of hockey was either on par with Slovak league or slightly worse.

 

[Vandalay Industries]

In my mind you need a lot more nuance in this debate.

In my mind you have the best 5-10 players in Russia, but The SHL is much better at the bottom of it's level.

The reason for this is the many teams in KHL. There are not enough money to fill out so many teams with strong players.

The best way to visualize this is to list the nationalities in KHL.

There are for instance 34 Kazakh players listed in KHL for this season. My best guess is that no more than a couple of these would stand a chance of getting a contract in the SHL.

Belarus has 33 players and Latvia 30 players in KHL. Perhaps 5-8 of these could get a contract in the SHL. Hell, a bunch of them wouldn't even get a contract in Allsvenskan, which I believe is a better league than EBEL and certainly Denmark and Norway. Perhaps even better than the Slovakian top league. Remember all the best Slovakian players are in KHL and the Czech League.

So, my take is that Russia has the best top players, but for its league level in it's entity, I actually think SHL is better and tougher to enter as a foreign player. Of course it's probably easier for Swedish juniors to get a chance in this league than if they went to the russian junior league (especially since the KHL clubs has so many players on contract.)

 

[Rigafan]

With recent news of Auston Matthews potentially playing in Switzerland, and a growing interest in European sporting culture, I've been looking into European hockey leagues. I know hardly anything about them, and I would like to learn a little more, as it seems to be some decent hockey, and it's interesting to look at as a stepping stone to the NHL. I'm trying to gauge what league is the best, as far as competition and player quality goes. I feel as though it is unquestionably the KHL, but again I don't know too much and could be quite wrong. For those of you that follow European hockey, how would you rank the following:

SHL
Liiga
NLA
DEL
KHL
Czech Extraliga

And then beyond that, what is the quality of play like in leagues like the Metal Ligaen, Get Ligaen, Slovak Extraliga, Latvian league, etc. ? Obviously these countries aren't quite as far in their development, but I'm wondering if there is still quality hockey going on.

Thanks to anybody who weighs in!

If ignoring the top leagues like the ones you have listed, then you get down to the Metal Ligaen, Latvian, Get Ligaen, UK Eilte League ect.

Difficult to rank but the Latvian league for example is still a good league, Latvia being in the top 10 work ranking with only 1 true professional team shows they are decent at developing players.

Denmark is also working miracles with such a low quality league compared to the big hockey countries.

The UK has the Elite league. Basically its a wanna be North American minor league. Full of ECHL/AHL players and even the odd ex NHL player ends up here also. UK suck badly at developing players so the teams operate with 15 imports which are usually Canadian or US players.

France is similar to the UK league in standards but French players seem to be much better developed - as you see some in the KHL/NHL/other euro leagues these days.

They you get to the interesting stuff like the Hungarian Erste League, Polish Elite League, Belarus League ect. Everywhere has a league and they are all usually full of Canadians!

 

[amoboko]

It depends which teams you like to follow. I follow Jokerit in the KHL. Kladno ( Czech second division) and altho they offer good and great games it's a lots of fun watching these teams play.

 

[Albatros]

Top ten would look something like:

1. Russia (KHL)
2. Sweden (SHL)
3. Finland (Liiga)
4. Switzerland (NLA)
5. Czechia (Extraliga)
6. Germany (DEL)
7. Austria (EBEL)
8. Slovakia (Extraliga)
9. Norway (GET-ligaen)
10. Belarus (Extraliga)

If second leagues are to be included, then VHL and Allsvenskan would make the list too.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Top ten would look something like:

1. Russia (KHL)
2. Sweden (SHL)
3. Finland (Liiga)
4. Switzerland (NLA)
5. Czechia (Extraliga)
6. Germany (DEL)
7. Austria (EBEL)
8. Slovakia (Extraliga)
9. Norway (GET-ligaen)
10. Belarus (Extraliga)

This is probably pretty close to the truth as of right now. Would sneak in the danish league over the belarussian one. Allsvenskan would be pretty even with EBEL. Also, I've been a big supporter for Liiga over NLA, but recent results in the CHL have made me think that these two are actually pretty equal.

The CHL is ofcourse the best way to evaluate the different leagues and compare them to each other. Another way for me to sort the leagues in order is basically the finnsih Liiga teams have acquired players from all of these other leagues in the past, and there is plenty enough of data for how these players have done in Finland to make assumptions on how the other leagues compare to each other (ofcourse there are other factors, like culture and the style of play. Swedes always adjust well etc.)

Most of these are no brainers, KHL is number one, SHL has made it clear in the CHL that they are number 2. Then there is the Liiga-NLA "rivalry", which has evened out. Very close CHL games, and a 40-point Liiga-player is usually 40 NLA-player, with some exceptions for either way. Czech Extraliga and DEL are somewhat close, but the Extraliga teams have faired better in the CHL and I'd take a good Extraliga playerover a DEL-player pretty easily. Slovakia has sunk pretty low in my mind, way worse than EBEL or Allsvenskan. Some less than average players have done great in Slovakia. Interesting to see how Mathew Maione will do in Liiga, he completely destroyed the slovakian Extraliga (PPG for over 60 games as a D-man), some that have seen him in pre-season action, predict that he might not be even able to keep up with the Liiga pace of play.