League rankings right now

[Hanji]

Like it or not, China and the United States are equal members of the IIHF. Of course in the future it could occur that for example China is excluded for similar reasons as Russia is now, but we're not there yet. I do agree that Russia probably got favorable treatment for too long before any meaningful action was taken. But now they are not a part of international hockey anymore and neither are players that play in their competitions.

Russia/Belarus IIHF suspension is immaterial. Several nations do not ban KHLers from the national team. We are one of them.

Then again, we are not ethical hypocrites like the Federations now banning their players.
We tend to leave global politics out of hockey and give players the right to make a living unmolested and without external influence.

 

[kutka]

I am wondering how good is latvian league? and what league is it comperable to?

 

[Czechboy]

Exactly.

And the embassies of European countries are calling out the players and their agents, i.e. threatening them directly. And of course journalists and prominent hockey officials (Szemberg) promoting their selfish interests.

Odd question vorky... Are you a fan of Russian hockey or Slovak hockey? I assumed Russia because of your posts and twitter.

 

[vorky]

Odd question vorky... Are you a fan of Russian hockey or Slovak hockey? I assumed Russia because of your posts and twitter.

I am a fan of a strong & independent European hockey

 

[Garl]

I am a fan of a strong & independent European hockey

Independent from whom?

 

[WarriorofTime]

I am wondering how good is latvian league? and what league is it comperable to?

Very low level and beneath a number of 2nd divisions. For reference, zero players on the Latvian team that won Bronze at the IIHF World Championships played in the Latvian League last season.

 

[Albatros]

Russia/Belarus IIHF suspension is immaterial. Several nations do not ban KHLers from the national team. We are one of them.

Then again, we are not ethical hypocrites like the Federations now banning their players.
We tend to leave global politics out of hockey and give players the right to make a living unmolested and without external influence.

That's within their autonomy to decide, mainly it concerns Kazakhstan who have their own complications with the situation. Other than that only Slovenia had one KHL player at the top level World Championships this year. It's not great to see, but it's somewhat understandable that a country with 197 male players does not have a deep pool to choose from. As for the Americans, I'm not aware of any KHL player that would have played for Team USA. You may view this as "global politics", but that's certainly not the perception in Europe.

 

[Albatros]

I am wondering how good is latvian league? and what league is it comperable to?

Zemgale won the Latvian championship fairly easily with a roster that also finished 12th out of 14 teams in the Finnish second-tier Mestis. So the very best Latvian teams can keep up with the very worst second-tier teams in top countries, but nothing more than that. It's not pro hockey.

 

[vorky]

People here are talking about moral compass. Fine, it is right. But what if there is something else behind the decisions, statements and acts of various guys & institutions?

If speaking about coercion I will remind you a story of the Crowns. It was a club from Sweden wanting to join the KHL. What happened? Everything was agreed, even Swedish hockey association (SIHA) gave a green light. You know, the KHL explicitly wanted that approval by natonal federation. At the end of a day, when SIHA realised what is going to happen, they – Swedish hockey association threatened the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) that if the Crowns join the KHL then Swedish NTs stop playing against Russia on international stage. Moral compass by Swedes? Or something else? Why should we believe to these Swedes and others about their moral compass now if they behaved like that in the past?

 

[WaW]

Alot of insecurities in this thread, which is understandable because people want to prop up their domestic league. I've had a family friend who is a pro scout recently tell me that a good AHL team would be very competitive in the KHL, but I don't watch KHL, haven't watched an AHL game in years, and the only SHL I've watched even remotely recently was a few games when Seider was at Rogle. I highly doubt anyone who feels passionately about ranking their home Euro league above the AHL actually watches the AHL either. I'm in no way an expert but I'll take the word of the expert who I respect very much and who has given me his opinion...I have a sneaky suspicion that the AHL is extremely close if not level to the KHL.

 

[Albatros]

People here are talking about moral compass. Fine, it is right. But what if there is something else behind the decisions, statements and acts of various guys & institutions?

If speaking about coercion I will remind you a story of the Crowns. It was a club from Sweden wanting to join the KHL. What happened? Everything was agreed, even Swedish hockey association (SIHA) gave a green light. You know, the KHL explicitly wanted that approval by natonal federation. At the end of a day, when SIHA realised what is going to happen, they – Swedish hockey association threatened the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) that if the Crowns join the KHL then Swedish NTs stop playing against Russia on international stage. Moral compass by Swedes? Or something else? Why should we believe to these Swedes and others about their moral compass now if they behaved like that in the past?

The IIHF statutes clearly dictate that one singular national association is to be responsible for all competitive hockey in a sovereign state and has the responsibility to make "best effort" to ensure that its clubs and players do not participate in games that are not under the authority of a particular national association. Obviously the KHL expanded to several European countries a decade ago without much resistance, but if we look at the statutes as they're written then the stance taken by the SIF was closest to how international hockey is supposed to function in a rules-based order.

 

[Albatros]

Alot of insecurities in this thread, which is understandable because people want to prop up their domestic league. I've had a family friend who is a pro scout recently tell me that a good AHL team would be very competitive in the KHL, but I don't watch KHL, haven't watched an AHL game in years, and the only SHL I've watched even remotely recently was a few games when Seider was at Rogle. I highly doubt anyone who feels passionately about ranking their home Euro league above the AHL actually watches the AHL either. I'm in no way an expert but I'll take the word of the expert who I respect very much and who has given me his opinion...I have a sneaky suspicion that the AHL is extremely close if not level to the KHL.

The KHL is not what it used to be, but at the time back then they did play several games against NHL teams and they were all very close affairs. Also Swiss teams have multiple times beaten NHL ones even more recently. Obviously these were little more than exhibition games but either way the difference in quality was not enough to dictate the score. I don't see much merit in the claim that the same teams would be lesser to AHL opposition.

 

[Albatros]

The federations are not actively involved in politics and have no particular political stances. That does not exclude having values, however.

 

[Albatros]

Even up until 2022 there were more than a dozen, but most were then released although that was never explicit league policy.

 

[Albatros]

Don't conform to a country's current political stance? No national team for you!!

Aapeli Räsänen is probably the most outspoken of them all and he very much hasn't been excluded for it.