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WC: 2023 IIHF World Championship Division II

PanniniClaus said:
I will be sure to not make any positive comments about any team that is not fully homegrown..
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Not really sure what are you so upset about. You like it, good for you. Many people don't as evident by the plethora of nations not employing this strategy. One side has one opinion, and the other has a different one, nothing much to it.
 
does the IIHF limit of minimum 1,5 years playing in a country apply only to the team the player is registered to, not the actual residence?
So nothing is preventing a player to, let's say, live in one country, drive to 12 season games in neighbouring country and become a NT player?
 
ozo said:
Can't wait for the inevitable emergence of Uzbekistan national team :sarcasm:
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They have a national team, and played their first games this year actually (not in the World Championships, but that'll come soon).

Much like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan though, I'm sure the 2% of ethnic Russians in Uzbekistan will be over-represented on the team.
 
HungryFrank said:
So nothing is preventing a player to, let's say, live in one country, drive to 12 season games in neighbouring country and become a NT player?
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Yes, Kasparaitis did this to be able to play for Lithuania again. He lived in Miami but would play a single game per season in the Lithuanian championship. He needed to do that for 4 seasons in a row to become eligible so he played grand total of 7 games over that span. And then one in 2018 just for fun.

www.eliteprospects.com

Darius Kasparaitis - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Darius Kasparaitis, 1972-10-16 Elektrenai, LTU Lithuania. Most recently in the Lithuania with Energija Elektrenai. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com
 
The main thing is that you're in principle not allowed to play anywhere else during that time, so it's something that only retired players can fully utilize.
 
Albatros said:
The main thing is that you're in principle not allowed to play anywhere else during that time, so it's something that only retired players can fully utilize.
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Or players that aren't professional anyway which is the case with most of the guys in divisions 2-3. For example Alexei Yotov, who is still the leading scorer for Bulgaria at the age of 44, played his last club season for Titan Klin in the 3rd tier of Russian hockey in 2006.

Sure at the level where players become at least mostly professional, it becomes very unpractical.
 
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I'm not sure that Yotov could get to represent Bulgaria as easily today as he did back in the day, he got Bulgarian citizenship in 1998 and first played for Bulgaria in 2001 but didn't really get involved in hockey there before 2014 and even then just at the Continental Cup where they would bring in some imports every year. Nowadays you're at least supposed to play hockey exclusively in the country you wish to represent for two years in case you're a dual citizen.
 
SoundAndFury said:
Yes, Kasparaitis did this to be able to play for Lithuania again. He lived in Miami but would play a single game per season in the Lithuanian championship. He needed to do that for 4 seasons in a row to become eligible so he played grand total of 7 games over that span. And then one in 2018 just for fun.

www.eliteprospects.com

Darius Kasparaitis - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Darius Kasparaitis, 1972-10-16 Elektrenai, LTU Lithuania. Most recently in the Lithuania with Energija Elektrenai. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com
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That rule has been changed since as it is now stipulated a player must also reside in the country he wishes to represent.

Bylaw 4, page 36
 
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Albatros said:
I'm not sure that Yotov could get to represent Bulgaria as easily today as he did back in the day, he got Bulgarian citizenship in 1998 and first played for Bulgaria in 2001 but didn't really get involved in hockey there before 2014 and even then just at the Continental Cup where they would bring in some imports every year. Nowadays you're at least supposed to play hockey exclusively in the country you wish to represent for two years in case you're a dual citizen.
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Definitely! If I remember well, Ireland had to stop bringing in new Northern Irish players into its teams in the last few years they played WCs. Some thought an exemption should have been given based on the Good Friday Agreements. But not having a rink had at that point already sorted out the NT's future.
 
Albatros said:
As we know all the Kunlun players commute to work from Beijing.
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Well 3 millions a pop is the price they are paying to host the next three women's Division IA tournaments. So i guess one has to be accommodating in some ways.

SoundAndFury said:
Do you maybe know what prompted this change? Since it's so recent.
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No idea. I always assumed a player had to live in the country. But I guess I was wrong

Edit: found the previous statutes and bylaws and the residence requirement is there. (Page 34)


Edit... again: And down the rabbit hole, I went. The 2014-2018 IIHF statutes and bylaws do not mention the residence requirement for the 4 years rule. So Kasparaitis when respecting the rules when commuting from Miami to Vilnius.
 

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Albatros said:
As we know all the Kunlun players commute to work from Beijing.
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Okay all jokes aside. Please accept my apologies.

I thought it was a couple of players. Not 10, including 2 that should have been doing 4 years. I guess the IIHF is conveniently looking the other way due to the pandemic and the players have chinese home addresses. These are the only cases I know of in 15 years of following international hockey on and off that the IIHF isn't enforcing its eligibility rules.
 
Croatia - Georgia today is somewhat interesting. Even if Croatia is pretty much guaranteed to win, that's still one opponent Spain did not completely blow out and we are gonna see how do the Croats stack up.
 
Finally got a chance to follow a game live and goodness me I have never seen Croatia's seniors play such rubbish. I thought their defeat to Serbia a few years ago would be as far as they could fall but they properly look like team without a plan here. About a minute of 5-on-3 that was spent doing not much more that scuffing slapshots just in front Georgia's blue-line.

Credit to Georgia, they actually look well coached,not sure if they have better technical players than Croatia but their movement off the puck and structure means they're getting a lot more out of their talents than their opponents.
 
I think overconfidence factors into this. Croatia has a relatively inexperienced roster which, in light of their recent victories, probably just expected to mail it in against Georgia. I mean, it is Georgia, nobody in hockey takes them seriously, especially facing the first time.
 
I mean, I think it could be forgiven for underestimating them before the beginning of the tournament, they did only scrape promotion beneath Iceland by virtue of the divisions resetting to 6 teams after all.

But after seeing them in Madrid for three games, and having struggled a little bit to put away Australia themselves, you'd think Croatia would have more sense than to not take Georgia seriously.

4-0 hahahaha
 
Yeah, just mental collapse, nothing else to say. So Spain needs a point tomorrow. Otherwise, it's Georgia that's getting promoted.

And this is why someone like Vito Idzan will have a hard time to even turn pro. Playing against kids isn't the same as playing against grown men. Which really puts all the progress Croatia is making into perspective.
 
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This is especially terrible considering Croatia could still get promoted even if they lose today as the tie-breaker would be goal differential in games between 3 teams tied on 9 points (Georgia, Spain, and Croatia). But this disastrous collapse means they now have to beat Spain by 8 goals tomorrow (if this game ends 5-0) as opposed to winning by 2 goals if they lost a one-goal game today.

Make it 6-0...
 
Croatian post-game tradition is to go in a circle and high-five each other? :laugh: Sure looks pretty weird after 6-0 loss.

But yeah, in the aftermath, Spain needs a point rather than a win tomorrow which makes their task slightly easier but doesn't really change much, they will need to bring their A-game anyway.
 
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Here I was, not even knowing the UAE had a hockey team, and immediately thought "pfft, guaranteed UAE just bought a bunch of Russian players to play for them."

*checks names on roster*...yup, that's exactly what happened lol.
 
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