Amazing Kreiderman
Registered User
- Apr 11, 2011
- 45,001
- 40,704
Rico Gredig still with just 1 point in 15 NL games. I'd really like to watch him to see how he looks. The Swiss NLA, now just called the NL, has come a long way in the last 20 years. Outside of North America you obviously have the KHL and then the SHL. After that, it's probably Liiga in Finland, and then some combination of the NL, the Czech Extraliga, and the German DEL. I won't rank them but that's probably close to right.
Anyway, that's a good league he's playing in. Some of his teammates include Filip Zadina, Julius Honka, and Klas Dahlbeck. Plus other guys who have had standout European careers like Adam Tambellini, Simon Ryfors, Matej Stransky, and Andreas Ambuhl. Nico Gross is there.
It's good that he can hang in that league and on that team even if he's not producing. Still, would be nice to see him in action or hear from someone who watches him. I know as a sixth round pick, the odds are against him, but you never know.
On a side note I've been saying for a few years now I would prefer not to draft out of Liiga. Not "don't draft Finns" but don't draft out of Liiga. They are playing a different kind of game over there right now and to me, the quality seems to have dropped off a long relative to 10 or so years back when it seemed much closer to the SHL.
I would probably put NL ahead of Liiga at this point. Liiga has really dropped off in the last 5-10 years whereas NL has been on the rise. Quality players moving to Switzerland, due to the higher pay, has really resulted in a very competitive league.