Frans Nielsen signs with Isles--likely to be NHL's first Dane

KH1

Registered User
http://www.newyorkislanders.com/pressbox/archive.asp?id=892

Frans Nielsen agreed to a contract with the Isles, making him likely to be the first ever Danish player in the NHL sometime over the next 2 seasons. He's a supposedly a pretty slick 2 way center with excellent playmaking abilities and should be a major player in Bridgeport next season. Given the Isles lack of center depth I wouldn't be surprised to see him be one of the first injury callups.

Pretty cool. It's surprising that no Dane has ever played in the NHL before considering how many Swedes and Finns there are. It's always confused me how Norway and Denmark don't churn out NHLers like the other Scandanavian countries do.
 

Hockey-Freak

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Apr 18, 2005
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King Henry I said:
http://www.newyorkislanders.com/pressbox/archive.asp?id=892

Frans Nielsen agreed to a contract with the Isles, making him likely to be the first ever Danish player in the NHL sometime over the next 2 seasons. He's a supposedly a pretty slick 2 way center with excellent playmaking abilities and should be a major player in Bridgeport next season. Given the Isles lack of center depth I wouldn't be surprised to see him be one of the first injury callups.

Pretty cool. It's surprising that no Dane has ever played in the NHL before considering how many Swedes and Finns there are. It's always confused me how Norway and Denmark don't churn out NHLers like the other Scandanavian countries do.


It´s a question of mentality. Denmark is geographically and mentally closer to germany/france (=soccer) and it´s also VERY small! I don´t know it exactly but it´s about the size of one of the new england states. Europe is dominated by soccer and even in a big country like Germany it´s hard for icehockey to get some attention. The only europe countries where hockey plays a larger role than soccer is in the Chech Republic, Sweden, Finnland and maybe Slovakia (and some of the old russian states like Latvia).
Norway is a ski-country. They are great in everything you can do on skis and sometimes they have a pretty good soccer national team but it´s no icehockey nation. It´s also pretty hard to build a good hockey league in a country with almost the size of Texas, but a population of just 4-5 Million people and half of them are to old and the other half is on skis all the winter.

And it´s a question of infra stucture. For soccer, you need green gras and two goals, for icehockey you need a whole arena...
 

GKJ

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Feb 27, 2002
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Denmark, aside from soccer hasn't produced much of anything in sports. NFL kicker Morten Andersen is from Denmark but lives in the USA, and maybe a few boxers, most recently Thomas Damgaard, who I think was a world champion but lost to Arturo Gatti
 

yarre

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Oct 13, 2005
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Hockey-Freak said:
The only europe countries where hockey plays a larger role than soccer is in the Chech Republic, Sweden, Finnland and maybe Slovakia (and some of the old russian states like Latvia).

I don't know what you mean by larger role, but if you meant as the more popular sport, than you are atleast wrong about Sweden, soccer is more popular here. I don't know how it is in the Czech Republic but with the team they have I wouldn't be surprised if soccer isn't very popular there too.
 

El_Loco_Avs

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Jul 6, 2003
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The Netherlands
yarre said:
I don't know what you mean by larger role, but if you meant as the more popular sport, than you are atleast wrong about Sweden, soccer is more popular here. I don't know how it is in the Czech Republic but with the team they have I wouldn't be surprised if soccer isn't very popular there too.


Soccer is number one by far in every single european country. The big euro hockey nations usually have hockey as #2. I think it's only close in Finland... iirc.
 

RorschachWJK

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Dec 28, 2004
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go kim johnsson 514 said:
Denmark, aside from soccer hasn't produced much of anything in sports. NFL kicker Morten Andersen is from Denmark but lives in the USA, and maybe a few boxers, most recently Thomas Damgaard, who I think was a world champion but lost to Arturo Gatti

They have produced several very good Badminton players.
 

Wisent

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Nov 15, 2003
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Mannheim
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Hockey-Freak said:
It´s a question of mentality. Denmark is geographically and mentally closer to germany/france (=soccer) and it´s also VERY small! I don´t know it exactly but it´s about the size of one of the new england states. Europe is dominated by soccer and even in a big country like Germany it´s hard for icehockey to get some attention. The only europe countries where hockey plays a larger role than soccer is in the Chech Republic, Sweden, Finnland and maybe Slovakia (and some of the old russian states like Latvia).
Norway is a ski-country. They are great in everything you can do on skis and sometimes they have a pretty good soccer national team but it´s no icehockey nation. It´s also pretty hard to build a good hockey league in a country with almost the size of Texas, but a population of just 4-5 Million people and half of them are to old and the other half is on skis all the winter.

And it´s a question of infra stucture. For soccer, you need green gras and two goals, for icehockey you need a whole arena...
Sweden is Soccer as well. At least in the southern parts and they are the most populated.
 

BritSabre

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Feb 10, 2006
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El_Loco_Avs said:
Soccer is number one by far in every single european country. The big euro hockey nations usually have hockey as #2. I think it's only close in Finland... iirc.

I think Hockey is bigger in Latvia than any other sport, but that's the only one. I know it's considered the "national sport" there and the only other place in the world with that tag is Canada
 

Hockey-Freak

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Apr 18, 2005
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yarre said:
I don't know what you mean by larger role, but if you meant as the more popular sport, than you are atleast wrong about Sweden, soccer is more popular here. I don't know how it is in the Czech Republic but with the team they have I wouldn't be surprised if soccer isn't very popular there too.

yeah, I ment more popular...
Soccer is more popular in Sweden than hockey??? wow, that´s really a surprise for me!

In Germany it´s not even close, especially this year :handclap:

I think in Chech soccer has catched up alot since 1996 but hockey is still the favorite
 

The Imp

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Jul 8, 2003
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go kim johnsson 514 said:
Denmark, aside from soccer hasn't produced much of anything in sports. NFL kicker Morten Andersen is from Denmark but lives in the USA, and maybe a few boxers, most recently Thomas Damgaard, who I think was a world champion but lost to Arturo Gatti

Lots and lots of athletes in the "lesser" sports.

Handball
Badminton
Sailing
Racing (Tom Kristensen, most ever wins at Le Mans)
Cycling

There is just not tradition in Denmark for the sports that garner US attention. Not even tennis or golf, on a serious level, anyways.

Speaking of hockey, whoever said "infrastructure" has it bang on.
 

turnbuckle*

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johnny_rudeboy said:
Staal brothers? :dunno:


;)

They learned everything they know from cousin Kim, drafted by the Habs last millennium, and last time I checked amongst the tourney's scoring leaders with 5 goals.
 

kenito

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May 5, 2006
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Aalborg
Great signing he'll do very well imo. The next dane in the NHL is going to be Jannik Hansen. But there are a couple of other danish players: Peter Regin, Morten Madsen and lets not forget Kiril Starkov he'll be able to play for Denmark Next year. they are all a couple of years away from the NHL but its looking good for these guys. :clap:
 

bpoulsen

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Apr 20, 2006
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Glostrup
Well I think the deal about danish hockey has a lot to do with the amount of media coverage it gets, or should I say lack of coverage.

This year I think they showed like 12 games during the regular season and one of the games every playoff day. The championships series was covered every game though.

Without media coverage no sponsors..

Plus we really need new ice rinks around the country. There's a total of 15 teams in Denmark if I'm not mistaken, and our elite league is made out of 9-10 teams. Should be 10 teams but there's only 9 at the moment due to finance. The smaller teams can't afford to play in the elite league unfortunately..

However, ever since Denmark made it to the A-Pool it has become more popular among boys and de do have a fair amount of talent..

Frans Nielsen - who signed with NYI (which this thread is about)
Jannik Hansen - Will probably sign a pro contract with Vancouver during the summer
Peter Regin - Drafted by Ottawa Senators (currently in Timraa IK in the SEL)
Morten Madsen - Drafted by Minnesota Wild (wants to play in one of the Canadian junior leagues next year)
Kirill Starkov - Drafted by Columbus Bluejackets (Currently in Frolunda in the SEL) Has a Russian father but has lived his entire life in Denmark and is on the verge of becoming a danish citizen.
Patarick Galbraith - undrafted but will be playing for St. Cloud State University in Minnesota next year. Los Angeles Kings showed interest in him during the WC and came to one of the team practices to see him play.
Mads Boedker - undrafted - Will be playing for Rögle in the AllSvenskan (next best league in Sweden) next year and made his WC debut this year. Had a goal in 4 games and is only 18.

Plus we have a ton of younger players doing great in the Swedish junior league.


Last but not least, Denmark has like 4000 registered players in total. This is from kids age 6 all the way to old boys hockey.
 

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