KHL Season 2018/2019

[Atas2000]

How about both?

People who post will forget Dronov. They shouldn't.

 

[Atas2000]

Focusing on the lesser known guys - Do you guys expect zub, demidov, morozov, or lyamkin to try to come to the NHL eventually? And which would you expect to be the most succesful?

Thank you, BTW. I appreciate the lists.

Defencemen are the less probable to succeed. The biggest gap between the NHL and KHL is reserved for D. Very few will make it. From the guys you named probably not one.

 

[vorky]

 

[Go Donbass]

After the opening day thumping of Ak Bars, suddenly SKA look very mortal. They lost again tonight, this time on home ice to Salavat, 4-1. I'm sure they will rattle off a 15 game winning streak soon enough, but Ima gonna enjoy this little losing skid until then

 

[cska78]

After the opening day thumping of Ak Bars, suddenly SKA look very mortal. They lost again tonight, this time on home ice to Salavat, 4-1. I'm sure they will rattle off a 15 game winning streak soon enough, but Ima gonna enjoy this little losing skid until then

how can one not love it

 

[hansomreiste]

I hope that officials will draw conclusions from this start of the season and soon realize how awesome KHL would be consistently if it had a proper salary cap in place. There are so many awesome teams this season and it feels like a real joy to watch basically any game.

AFAIK the process of implementing salary cap has already started and it will become a hard salary cap with 2020-21 season but with bonuses being excluded and such, I'm not sure how effective that actually would be. No envelopes, no backdoors. With a real salary cap, this league can produce five to six contenders each year. In this case, nobody would complain with SKA or Ak Bars winning three consecutive titles - because they'd know it is not because some farcical stuff but indeed they were just too good at playing hockey.

I have no idea what the future holds for KHL but at this very moment I'm enjoying this beautiful table. Sochi and Riga are in top 8 in their conference. Avtomobilist leads the East while Avangard and Torpedo have yet to lose a game. The only thing I don't like so far is Amur and Sibir but I can live with that.

 

[Go Donbass]

Barys marketing campaign slogan for 2018/19 should be "Come for the incredible offence, stay for the heartbreaking defeats". They had 3-0, 4-2, and 5-3 leads in their game against Torpedo, and lost in OT, 6-5.

Props to Torpedo though, they look like they have a real decent team this year, although clearly defense and goaltending are early season issues.

 

[Exarz]

I hope that officials will draw conclusions from this start of the season and soon realize how awesome KHL would be consistently if it had a proper salary cap in place. There are so many awesome teams this season and it feels like a real joy to watch basically any game.

This is already planned. I think the hard salary cap will be in place starting next season.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I think a lot of people will be disappointed with how the salary cap will actually not work in the sense that there will be multiple ways to work around it. 2-way contracts we start to see now is probably one of the ways. At least for me it's the case of "I will believe it when I see it".

The gap between ceiling and floor is going to be huge anyway and teams will be able to keep their depth by sending players back and forth between the KHL and the VHL. Maybe some players won't want to go through it but it's the minority.

 

[vorky]

If anybody wants to read, the salary cap rules are here (article 50, 51 etc).

They need to add a salary floor as well.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Considering this is a league which changes point scoring system with 1 day left to the season I wouldn't bother reading those at this point.

 

[aonb]

is yakupov injured or scratched for umm.. anybody?

 

[SoundAndFury]

He is injured, no known return date as far as I know. Probably not a very serious issue though.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Considering this is a league which changes point scoring system with 1 day left to the season I wouldn't bother reading those at this point.

Bingo. Any whim that arises can change the “plan”.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I wrote before the season that relying on Liiga imports to score is a big gamble and so far it's going terribly. Teams which went that route, Sibir and Neftekhimik, have 11 goals in 9 games combined.

Regarding today's game, Alikin is the worst non-3rd-string goalie I have seen playing in the KHL in the loong time. Surely Admiral is the right team to start him against but for Amur's sake Kašik has to pick up his game to make Alikin's starts as rare as possible. I honestly think he is somebody's nephew or something (Amur has their fair share of players with ties in the business but lack of on-ice success).

Edit: after googling it appears there is a certain Olympic gold medal winner Vladimir Alikin in Perm which happens to be the same town Amur's goalie with the same surname is from. Color me surprised.

Thinking about all that, doesn't KHL still have the rule that import goalie can only start a certain amount of games?

 

[hansomreiste]

If I'd known we would play like this, I would have personally cracked Arena Omsk some years ago. I still have a hard time believing that we are playing fantastic hockey, yet to drop a single point. Had to ask my brother to check the table. He sees the same thing so I guess it is safe to say that I haven't lost my mind and Avangard are actually looking like a title contender at this point.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Pavel Alikin of FC Ufa is also from Perm. Maybe they’re all related.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Of course it’s early, but Dynamo Moscow’s revamp hasn’t equaled results.

CSKA and SKA both struggling as well.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Yeah Dynamo is obviously struggling immensely to the point where you probably have to do something about it. But at the same time, a lot of teams are not doing great. CSKA and Ak Bars are at 0.5, SKA is barely one point above it.

 

[Ciccarelli]

I wrote before the season that relying on Liiga imports to score is a big gamble and so far it's going terribly. Teams which went that route, Sibir and Neftekhimik, have 11 goals in 9 games combined.

It's not a good idea to rely on imports that come from a different league and more importantly different culture, there are so many things to consider, even outside hockey. I wouldn't be comfortable if Ässät signed three good russians from the KHL (not going to happen, just a scenario) to completely rely the scoring on, so many things could go wrong even if the skill level would definately be there. I think this is the case with Julius Junttila, all the tools are definately there hockey wise to succeed in any league not named the NHL. There's just something about this guy that reeks of an Oulu home boy, he failed miserably even in the SHL, while players that are undoubtedly way worse players than him succeed in the SHL and KHL (early start but Puustinen and Ruohomaa for instance).

All in all, I don't think the Liiga imports have done that bad. Eventhough it's really too early to draw alot of conclusions, let's see after 15-20 games at least.

Juuso Puustinen: 6 games 5 goals 2 assists
Mikael Ruohomaa: 6, 1+5
Matthew Maione: 5, 1+3
Juuso Nättinen: 6, 2+0
Patrik Virta: 5, 1+1
Maksim Matushkin: 6, 0+2
Jukka Peltola: 6, 1+0
Miika Koivisto: 6, 0+1
Julius Junttila: 5, 0+0 (got the boot already)
Charles Bertrand: 6, 0+0

 

[SoundAndFury]

All in all, I don't think the Liiga imports have done that bad.

Well some of them had, some of them hadn't. That's the problem with those. Someone like Donskoi didn't miss a step when moving from Liiga to NHL, guys like Haataja come to the KHL and don't seem to be able to play at all. Aaltonen came to Vityaz and was dominant, betting on Makanen - Rissanen duo dragged them down a year later.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Well some of them had, some of them hadn't. That's the problem with those. Someone like Donskoi didn't miss a step when moving from Liiga to NHL, guys like Haataja come to the KHL and don't seem to be able to play at all. Aaltonen came to Vityaz and was dominant, betting on Makanen - Rissanen duo dragged them down a year later.

Well that's how it has alway been. As I said I agree that you shouldn't completely rely on players that have never played in your country. Maybe have one or two of them and your still good if they flop. Move ten 40 point russian KHL'ers to the finnish league and some of them will flop. It's always a bit of a gamble when you sign a new guy from another league and country. But scouting is the main thing. Do Russian teams even have scouts out before they decide to sign guys? If they would've just asked me or pretty much anyone else who follows hockey in Finland; do not sign Junttila, he only does well in Oulu.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Move ten 40 point russian KHL'ers to the finnish league and some of them will flop. It's always a bit of a gamble when you sign a new guy from another league and country.

Well this is the part where we disagree. SHL signings pretty much never fail at the KHL and vice versa - KHL players never fail after moving to SHL/NLA. I have a hard time believing they would fail in Liiga which is, lets face it, a good step below those.

There were so many people doubting Manninen for example, because he was never considered all that good in Finland before leaving to the SHL and yet he is at PPG so far.

Guys from those leagues come with guarantees about them because you know what you are getting, their competition was similar so their performance will be similar. There is no surprise about Junttila seeing how he failed at Lulea as well. Being capable to score or point totals in the Liiga don't mean anything.

Like you said though, proper scouting is the only way to go regarding Liiga. Maione, for example, was an amazing signing.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Well this is the part where we disagree. SHL signings pretty much never fail at the KHL and vice versa - KHL players never fail after moving to SHL/NLA. I have a hard time believing they would fail in Liiga which is, lets face it, a good step below those.

There were so many people doubting Manninen for example, because he was never considered all that good in Finland before leaving to the SHL and yet he is at PPG so far.

Guys from those leagues come with guarantees about them because you know what you are getting, their competition was similar so their performance will be similar. There is no surprise about Junttila seeing how he failed at Lulea as well. Being capable to score or point totals in the Liiga don't mean anything.

Like you said though, proper scouting is the only way to go regarding Liiga. Maione, for example, was an amazing signing.

I talked about the hypothetical scenario of russians coming to Finland. NA players have ofcourse lived their lives in similar circumstances. And I didn't say they wouldn't be good enough to succeed just that the culture and anything not hockey related is so different. Some of the things finnish players have said about living and playing in some of these russian cities are just...wow, I won't lie to you, as someone comfortably and safely living in Finland I don't think I'd survive a year in some of the Russian cities. Then again, some finns have hyped their KHL teams and how they are handled there, so it's city related and mainly about how an individual copes with change.

BTW, there was a chart somewhere of different league and how players perform PPG moving to the NHL, but I can't find it. There was a difference in the favor of the SHL but it wasn't super major. Anywho, if I was the GM of any team in any top league I wouldn't sign more than two players that haven't even played in the country to key roles. For KHL teams; just sign players that have succeeded in the KHL plus one or two guys abroad (maybe the odd NHLer that your able to lure in and some cze, swe,fin good EHT-guy).

 

[hansomreiste]

Some of the things finnish players have said about living and playing in some of these russian cities are just...wow, I won't lie to you, as someone comfortably and safely living in Finland I don't think I'd survive a year in some of the Russian cities. Then again, some finns have hyped their KHL teams and how they are handled there, so it's city related and mainly about how an individual copes with change.

I believe this plays a tremendous role, especially if you're a professional sportsman who has pretty much no chance at all to take it easy for a while. I mean, if you move to Russia from Finland as an accountant, you wouldn't have many problems about the job even if you personally found it very difficult to adapt to the life in Russia. However, as a hockey player, you're always supposed to perform at the highest level possible and it is quite visible when you fail to do so.

Mental aspect plays a very important role in success. Most of the time we tend to forget how difficult it is to adapt to a new culture as an adult and just act like hockey players are robots who can just go on ice and score every day without problems. Some are mentally weak and you actually don't even have to be "weak" to experience big problems in another country and culture.

KHL is a tad better than SM Liiga so I'd say imports from KHL are a little bit more likely to succeed in SM Liiga for this reason but other than that it is pretty much a big gamble. Moving a guy who has lived in Oulu for 25 years to Vladivostok suddenly could seriously affect him. At this point the scouting must be done for his characteristics more than his hockey skills, which must have been already known at this stage. The main question is how flexible he is and how he can find ways to adapt to the culture and life around him. It can destroy some people while some others would feel much more comfortable in a "strange" environment and thus flourish or at least keep his level. Hockey skills are absolutely important but once you have a guy who doesn't even want to wake up in Russia, there is no way of getting him to play good hockey regardless of the tactics.