Superteam in Finland ?

[icing101]

Sovetsky Sport published an article where it claims that according to their insider source in Finland, one of the unnamed Finnish elite clubs has obtained preliminary agreement from NHL players like Sean Burke, Mikka Kiprusoff, Joni Pitkanen, Ben Clymer, Bret Hedican, Mark Parrish, Marco Sturm and Chris Simon that they will sign with this SM-Liiga club if there is a lockout in the NHL.

Also, this same unnamed club is targeting to sign Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.

This information could be considered as a start of the NHL players association campaign in order to get some leverage in talks with the league's owners.

It is also unknown yet if Finnish clubs have serious budgets to offer decent salaries to NHL stars.

[Tigger]

This is really interesting piece of news. There is only one SM-Liiga team that I could think of, and that´s Jokerit. But the players mentioned above (except the finns) should make some salary-cuts compared to the salaries in NHL. As I remember from the previous lockout there were players willing to do that and came over here to play. I heard they had said that money wasn´t that important, but to be able to play some serious hockey

[pyr]

Tigger said:

This is really interesting piece of news. There is only one SM-Liiga team that I could think of, and that´s Jokerit.

Similar news came to slovak newspaper some weeks ago (we just know everything as first - haven ´t I somwhere here mentioned a conspiracy detector in our blood? ). But as I know they wouldn´t play in some existing finnish club, but a new one founded only for this year by the Agent agency which represents those players in contratc-negotiations.

[Tigger]

pyr said:

they wouldn´t play in some existing finnish club, but a new one founded only for this year by the Agent agency which represents those players in contratc-negotiations.

Ok, that makes much more sense, cos I don´t think that even Jokerit could actually afford that many NHL´ers, especially when Jokerit most likely have made contracts with quite a few players already. But I don´t think it would be possible to bring a new club in SM-Liiga, cos it´s been "closed" many years.

[pyr]

Tigger said:

But I don´t think it would be possible to bring a new club in SM-Liiga, cos it´s been "closed" many years.

That´s the best reason that it is closed - noone can be disappointed the new team is there instead of them. It´s like NHL more new and new clubs

[icing101]

I am curious about this concept. If such a team, composed of only NHLers represented by their agents,
and accepted by the SM-Liiga, were to actually happen,
I wonder where this team would play as a home base in Finland? Helsinki? Turku? Tampere? And would this radical idea be accepted and supported by the Finnish hockey fans?

[Laho]

This idea - rumor, whatever - is impossible. There is a limitation to the amount of foreign players the Finnish league teams can have in their rosters. Can't recall the exact number now (a quick dig-up came out empty), but it is not that much. Especially since the teams are having some foreigners already.

No banana. Big faux rumor. (Though only team who could possibly do this is Jokerit...)

[pyr]

@ icing101 and Laho

Don´t forget the money make the rules. And it would be a big bussiness for every club in Finland. At least they would have one more game sold out...

[Skratch]

Could be possible only in Russia. Not in Finland. Two or three, ok - I could believe. But not such a bunch...

[Laho]

pyr said:

Don´t forget the money make the rules. And it would be a big bussiness for every club in Finland. At least they would have one more game sold out...

According to the international surveys... this country is the least corrupt one in the world. And besides, the counter argument is that more teams there are in the league that can have the chance to compete, the better. Veikkaus Oy (the Finnish state monopoly betting firm) for example would hate such a team, since the superiority would certainly drag down the gamblers' enthusiasm. And that house happens to be one of the biggest sponsors to our league too.

And the other teams would surely have their (obviously negative) say about it too if some gang would try to pass the settings with the power of money...

So nope, not such a team to be seen in here.

[pihinalle]

I think this rumour sounds redicilious. There's no club that could afford those players unless they accept an enormous salary cut.

Maybe Jokerit have made proposals for these players and want to see what kind of answers they get. Their last season wasn't too good. On the other hand it sounds weird that Kiprusoff would go to Jokerit and not TPS. And there's no point in getting Kiprusoff AND Burke.

Limitation of foreign players will be four per team.

[pyr]

Laho said:

And besides, the counter argument is that more teams there are in the league that can have the chance to compete, the better. Veikkaus Oy (the Finnish state monopoly betting firm) for example would hate such a team, since the superiority would certainly drag down the gamblers' enthusiasm. And that house happens to be one of the biggest sponsors to our league too.

And the other teams would surely have their (obviously negative) say about it too if some gang would try to pass the settings with the power of money...

So nope, not such a team to be seen in here.

I didn´t mean corruption. I just think if the Starry team don´t play in SM-Liiga it won´t be because of some priciples but because they wouldn´t be able to earn more money with it in league than without it. And don´t forget such club can bring more attention to whole league, that means more money foe everyone.

[Laho]

Yeah, but then there's also the honor code. Finns are actually pretty careful about not to ruin their reputation... and one of those things is to stick with the rules that were agreed upon. This might actually be a blowback to the reputation of the Finnish league - you know, the fans would start dissing the deal if the primary thing there was to bend to rules is money.