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Post by sammy on Feb 10, 2004 0:25:19 GMT -5
We all know that approximately 25 per cent of the players in the NHL are European born. What is the percentage of Canadians playing hockey on the European teams. Anybody know?
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Post by Wide Asleep on Feb 10, 2004 14:15:56 GMT -5
Well, I can tell you how many there are in the Czech league: NONE! Not that there haven't been, in fact one Canadian coached the national team after WWII and got into trouble for playing on the team. He also played in the league. Now there are a few Russians, lots of Slovaks and even one Belorussian, the goalie from the infamous Olympic game with Sweden, and after seeing both this guy (Mezin) and Salo in Edmonton, I have gotta say that the best goalie won! The only Canadian I recall in the last few years that I have been following Czech hockey was a guy named Johnathan Aitkin who played for part of one season for Sparta in 2000-2001. He was the worst hockey player I have ever seen in proffessional sports, even though he was drafted 8th overall by Boston in the 1996 draft. Now he plays for Chicago. He was so intent on making a hit , that guys with pucks would whiz right by him and score. It was embarassing.
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Post by DanCan on Feb 10, 2004 15:02:13 GMT -5
Interesting post, Wide Asleep I don't have a general number, but a safe guess would be less than 5 per cent for the Western European countries playing in the World Championships (pool A). If you include the Slavic countries (Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Latvia and Ukraine) the overall fraction will be closer to 0% than to 5% (though about 10 Canadian players play in the relatively high paying Russian Super League) Switzerland arguably has the league with most Canadian players - followed by Germany and probably Sweden. In the Swiss A league, there are around 30 Canadian players, accounting for slightly less than 10 per cent of the total number of players. A significant number of these players (around 20 per cent) are of Swiss-Canadian descent. One important factor explaining the high number of Canadian players in the Swiss league is LANGUAGE. French is an official language - alongside German and Italian, so its not surprising to see that a very high number of the Canadian players orginating from Quebec. Still, there are far more Canadian players in the Swiss league than in the French. This should neither come as a surprise since there is far more money in the Swiss league. Moreover, the skills level is higher in Switzerland, and lets not forget that Hockey Rules in that country. With the exception of EHC Kloten and HC Geneve-Servette, all teams in Liga A have Canadian players in their rosters. HC Ambri-Piotta tops the list with 5 players, including two of the top players in the league, Jean-Guy Trudel and Hnat Dominichelli. The scoring list in the Swiss league is dominated by foreign players. Currently, Mike Maneluk from HC Lugano (#1 in the league), actually one of the very few Canadians who never made it into the NHL, leads the league with 59 points (27-32) in 41 games. In the top 10 list, there are two other Canadians, namely the two aforementioned Trudel and Dominichelli. On the scoring list, there are also a number of other well-known former NHL players such as Ville Peltonen, Jukka Hetunen, Petteri Nummelin and Oleg Petrov. Among other wellknown Canadian players in the Swiss league, one could mention Todd Elik, Sylvian Lefebvre, Jeff Shantz, Stacy Roest and Dixon Ward.
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Post by DanCan on Feb 10, 2004 16:17:34 GMT -5
As for my own country, Denmark, there are 50 foreign players in the Danish elite league, accounting for about 20 per cent of the total players. Not surprisingly, Sweden tops the list with 11 players. More surprising, Sweden is closely followed by players from the Czech Republic. Most of the Czech players have played in the Extra League, for instance Martin Rousek, Leos Pipa, Thomas Kupka, Karel Smid, Martin Taborsky and Richard Adam.
Canada is represented by 9 players - accounting for 4 per cent of the players in the Danish league. None of them, but Andre Faust (10 games for Philadelphia in 1992-93) have played in the NHL. Almost all of them have played in the AHL.
Some of the most significant foreign players in the Danish league are Latvian: Sergei Cubars, Alexander Macijevskis and Janis Sprukts all play for Latvian national team.
I would also like to mention Alexander Yakushin from Ukraine for the reason that Denise might know him. He played for St. John's Maple Leafs last season.
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Post by RayCanuck on Feb 10, 2004 17:46:17 GMT -5
Isn't there a restriction on how many foreign players are allowed on a team in most Euro Leagues? Also wouldn't there be about as much money to be earned in NA Minor Leagues on average?
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Post by Wide Asleep on Feb 10, 2004 19:00:50 GMT -5
Ray,
In the Czech league you can have up to three foreigners on your team. In Russia you can have as many foreigners as you want, but only three can play in any one game. Last year one team had three Czech forwards and then they hired Jiri Slegr, now kicking butt in Boston, so one of the forwards sat out most of the matches.
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Post by MarmotMike on Feb 10, 2004 21:29:42 GMT -5
If there's a labour dispute in the NHL next season I wonder how the foreign players cap/limit will affect things. I heard some NHL players expressed a wish to play in Europe during a NHL lockout/strike. A number of NHL players did play in Europe during the last labour dispute in 1994.
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Post by sammy on Feb 10, 2004 23:03:26 GMT -5
I read an article a while back that hockey is becoming popular in Ireland. I can't really see Ireland becoming a powerhouse in the next few years. Most players there are apparently Canadian. I was talking with a friend of mine who is one of the goaltenders with University of Alberta Golden Bears hockey team and he is planning to play in Germany after he graduates from college. He has been asked to try out for the LA Kings farm team, but seems to be more interested in Europe.
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Post by Wide Asleep on Feb 11, 2004 4:08:52 GMT -5
If there is a lockout, a lot of Czech plazers have stated they would play in the Extraliga. I doubt too many other foreign playerswill come, though I am sure that some Czechs will appear in other leagues. There is already talks of Jagr going to Russia.
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Post by DanCan on Feb 11, 2004 5:59:49 GMT -5
Isn't there a restriction on how many foreign players are allowed on a team in most Euro Leagues? Also wouldn't there be about as much money to be earned in NA Minor Leagues on average? Tough questions Question 1: Isn't there a restriction on how many foreign players allowed on a team in most Euro leagues? First, we need to clarify who are foreigners. After the implementation of the internal market we have, in principle, free movement of labor in the EU. That this also holds true for sportsmen was made clear by the European Court of Justice in the socalled 'Bosman case'. So hockey players from one EU country (or EEA country --only Norway is relevant here) are not considered foreigners in another EU country. When the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary... enter the EU in a few months, hockey players from these countries will not be bound by any nationality rules in other EU countries. In all practicality, nationality rules in most Western and Central European countries (with the notable exception of Switzerland) are only meaningful to players from Canada, United States, Russia (and Ukraine if you like) -- -- there is very little import from other countries. Secondly, the nationality rules differ from country to country. In Finland and Sweden, teams can dress up to 5 foreigners, if I remember correctly. In Germany, the DEL used to have no restrictions. In order to give young German players more IT, this has recently been changed so there is a cap of 12 foreigners on the roster which is still a huge number. In Switzerland, the nationality rule is "maximum 3 foreign players on ice in the elite league (National Liga A)" (it's 2 in National Liga B. Since Switzerland is not a member of the EU (or EEA), foreign players are in all event a much more scarce commodity, implying that the best foreign players earn much more than they do in most other European leagues. Question 2 is even harder to answer. The salary structure in European leagues are messy to say the least. In general, the level of salaries goes something like this: 1. Russian Superleague 2. Swiss National Liga A 3. German Elite League 4. AHL 5. Swedish Elite Series 6. Finnish Elite League 7. ECHL 8. Czech Extra League 9. Italian League 10. British Superleague The best salaries in the Russian Superleague are around €1 mio (euro if your computer can't read the sign); in Switzerland, the top salaries are around €500K per year, and in Finland and Sweden around €250K per year. The top salaries in Germany are in the range €250K to €500. In the Czech Extra League, the best salaries are about €150K per year. The average salaries in every league are of course much lower. For instance, according to a survey last year, the average salaries for Finnish players in the Finnish SM League are €50K. It is however, important to note, than foreign players, in general, earn much more. Moreover, they pay less taxes. In Finland, for instance, they are not taxed at all. In many leagues, free goods such as free housing and a free car should also be included when you calculate the salaries. To make things a bit more messy for you North Americans, foreigners are two different things when we speak about free movement of labour and of taxes: For instance, a Swedish player, playing in e.g. the Danish league is not a foreigner labour wise, but he is a foreigner tax wise.
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Post by pihinalle on Feb 11, 2004 10:55:11 GMT -5
In SM-liiga teams can own as many foreigners as they want but they can dress only five per game. I guess it's the same in Swedish Elitserien.
In Elitserien Finnish players are not considered foreigners = teams can dress as many Finns as they want.
In Finland Swedish players are foreigners.
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Post by Balder on Feb 11, 2004 11:33:19 GMT -5
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Post by DanCan on Feb 11, 2004 13:22:55 GMT -5
After what I wrote in my last post, I became more uncertain about the number of Canadian players in the top European leagues. I only had the number of Canadian players in the Swiss league -- the rest was pure guessing.
I have now made a count. It's a rough count based on roster archives on Eurohockey.net:
After what I wrote in my last post, it should come as no surprise that you'll find most Canadians in the German EL. There are no less than about 90 Canadians (about 10 of them of Canadian-German descent), accouting for more than 25 per cent of the players in the German EL! The German Elite League also attract many Americans. There are about 20-25 depending on how you count them (some of them are of British-American or Irish-American descent and so on). in general, the German league is most diverse in terms of ethicity. Foreigners account for almost 50 percent of the players! Hence, the recent cap on the number of foreigners on German teams.
Switzerland comes in as #2. There are about 30 Canadian players, accounting for about 10 percent of the players (see above post)
Finland is #3. There are about 20 Canadian players in the Finnish Elite League, a fraction of about 5 percent of the players. The Finnish League also attract many Czech players, but not as many as Canadians. There are only few Swedish players in the Finnish league. The number of foreign players in the Finnish league is about 12.5 percent.
Russia comes in as #4. There are about 10 Canadian players in the Russian superleague, or about 2.5 percent of the total number of players. The Russian league mainly attract Czech and Slovakian players. The number of foreign players in the Russian league, not counting players from former Soviet Union republics, is on level with that in Finland, that is about 12.5 percent.
Sweden is only number 5. There are very few Canadian players in the Swedish elite league -- about 5, or less than 1.5 per cent. The Swedish league mainly attracts Finns. There are around 40 finns, a fraction of about 12 percent of the players. Denmark is actually no. 2 with 6 players. The fraction of foreign players in the Swedish league is about 20 percent. (the same as in Denmark)
I haven't counted the the Czech Extraleague, but according to Wide Asleep the number of Canadians is zero.
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Post by mlaa on Feb 14, 2004 3:20:53 GMT -5
In SM-liiga will next season restrict foreign players to 4/team. This season there have been 57 foreign players in SM-liiga. 45 of them are still playin here. One Finnish hockeymagazine "Jääkiekkolehti" ranked them with stars. Best fivestars got players:
Brett Harkins, HIFK Cory Murphy, Ilves Glenn Metropolit, Jokerit Jiri Vykoukal, TPS
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Post by stjohnsleafsfan on Feb 19, 2004 21:46:46 GMT -5
I would also like to mention Alexander Yakushin from Ukraine for the reason that Denise might know him. He played for St. John's Maple Leafs last season. Yes DanCan he played here, but his name is Dmitri not Alexander. What about Luca Cereda? How is he doing since he left St. John's in January?
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