The sad state of european hockey

[cheerupmurray]

Hmm... I think theres some great european prospects at this point, but a prospect is a prospect and a proven player is a proven player. Maybe a comparison between Europe and NA will look more even in a few years (or even after next year) but at this point USA and Canada just looks so much better than Europe both topend wise and depth wise it ain't even funny.

I chosed the u-24 bracket since I am lazy and Elite Prospect got a function where you can see the scoring race for U-24 players.

 

[Ivo]

Why would "capitalism" lead countries towards soccer?

It sounds strange, but there is some sense to that. Soccer is much cheaper sport to play than hockey. During the communist times, hockey programs were quite supported by the state, not so much in capitalism. Hockey somehow became a sport for the rich kids and the poorer (but often more talented) rather play soccer, which is more affordable to them.

 

[Atas2000]

I can't help thinking that european talent development is in a pretty bad shape overall right now, while at the same time Canada and USA is in great shape. If things continues I guess we will see a league with a fewer and fewer players from Europe.

Inspired by the "world vs NA" thread I tried to put together a u-24 team for NA and one for Europe to compare how strong they would be. It really became obvious then that it is a serious drought right now with talent from Europe. There where a huge amount of excellent forwards and great d-man to choose from NA, and hardly any at all from Europe

So this is the teams (players born 1987 and younger) feel free to make better ones. Theres probably plenty of better options.

NA u-24

Price
Reimer

Ryan-Crosby-Giroux
Tavares-Stamkos-Kane
Lucic-Toews-Stewart
Skinner-Duchene-Kessel

J.Johnsson-Doughty
E.Johnsson-Letang
Staal-Pietrangelo

Europe u-24

Rask
Pavelec

S.Kostitsyn-Kopitar-Grabner
Frolik-Bäckström-Hörnqvist
Pääjärvi-Berglund-Voracek
Hanzal-Anismov-M.Johansson

Hedman-E.Karlsson
Kulikov- N.Hjalmarsson
Sbisa- Ekman-Larsson


When it come to d-men it's just scary, theres simply very few options among the europeans born 1987 and younger playing in NHL. The only category where europeans actually had a decent group was the goalie potition.

A bunch of names which definitely do not belong there. And then there are plenty of under 24 Europeans who'd deserve to be on that list.

 

[Atas2000]

I don't agree with the overall attitude. NHL is still the best league. But for how long? The declining numbers of Europeans are also due to the development of the home leagues. You seem to see the only possibility in the NHL. That is actually bad for Europe. It's preferrable to have strong european leagues with prospects developing at home.

 

[bassassin]

Disagree completely.

I mean for one Swedens dmen never mind the rest of Europe:

Karlsson-Hedman
Larsson-OEL
Hjmarlsson-Rundblad
Gunnarsson

Sure some are only prospects, but come on Karlsson and Hedman are already top 2 dmen, Hjmarlsson and Gunnarsson are both top 4 dmen, OEL, Larsson and Rundblad have so much potential.

Sure none of them are Lidstrom, but how much more can you expect really?

 

[cheerupmurray]

The declining numbers of Europeans are also due to the development of the home leagues.

Is it really? If that's the case everythings fine then. With the rise of KHL I would guess that all the other major european hockey leagues actually are getting weaker.

 

[cheerupmurray]

A bunch of names which definitely do not belong there. And then there are plenty of under 24 Europeans who'd deserve to be on that list.

Who do you suggest then for thee bottom pairings of the u-24 european team?
Yannick Weber?, Jonas Holös?, Jakub Kindl?

I ignore d-men in AHL and d-men from european leagues, since they are hard to compare. So Voinov is great in AHL, Chudinov scores a lot of points in KHL and Rundblad looks excellent in SEL, but how will they look when playing against the best players in the world?

I don't think all is doom and gloom with european talent development, but I do however think it was a long time ago that both the depth and topend of european youngsters compared so unfavorable to Northamerican youngsters.

 

[DuckshaveaRPG]

kinda funny considering Sweden had 6 guys go in the first round this draft tying the record

 

[JAS 39 Gripen]

7 is the record, set in 2009

 

[DuckshaveaRPG]

my bad still only one away

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Finances play suchhhhh a big role.

If you saw what a country like Slovakia can allocate to its hockey program... just pennies in comparison to even Sweden and Finland, despite the general popularity of the sport.

Thus, the scene is even sadder in Latvia, Belarus and the Ukraine.

Sweden remains a top developer at the moment, at least in the breadth of their talent.