USNDTP should be separated from USHL proper.
51 USHL Players Selected in 2023 NHL Draft
The United States Hockey League (USHL) completed the 2023 NHL Draft with 51 players selected over the course of seven rounds the past two days.ushl.com
WHL was 33.
FTR.. I'm not arguing one over the other. BUT, there is a definitely an argument. More guys drafted, more guys in NHL.
NCAA Conferences are more similar to divisions, all teams play a lot of out of conference games. OHL/QMJHL/WHL are three genuinely separate leagues under the same umbrella organization, they only play competitive games against each other in the Memorial Cup, which itself is an add-on to 3 League Championships.
Based on...?
Why would they be lumped together for NHLe or whatever that is? Doesn't make a lick of sense when there isn't crossover between the 3 separate leagues.
There are four NHL-drafted Belarusians in the KHL, highest pick was in the 3rd round. The level of play in the KHL has collapsed no matter how you look at it. Even Kunlun is nowadays doing well there.
Definining a Euro league quality by NHL draft picks doesn't make sense, as those are mostly prospects.
It works both ways, my friend. I seen good U.S. players come to Canada and flop - it's a different game and the BIG field makes a BIG difference.
Belarus is definitely on the rise... but it was Finn's, Czechs, Swedes and Swiss players that left. There are not 50 Belarusian players offsetting that.
Again, nobody is saying there wasn't a dilutive effect as Swedes, Finns, Czechs, Slovaks, Latvians, Germans, etc. made up about 20 % of the pre-invasion KHL and now make up about 4 % so they've had to add more Russians, Canadians, Kazakhs, Americans and Belarusians to the mix to off-set. Of course that dilutes. Just like adding 2 NHL teams dilutes the quality to a smaller degree, it's just not quite the dramatic upheaval as people indicate because Canadians will continue to go to the KHL which offers better salaries than the rest of the European leagues, and the "new Canadians" aren't dramatically worse than the exiting Europeans. And then you have a rise in more domestic players (but not like 64 % to 100 %, more like to 73.4 %) which has a robust enough youth hockey system to funnel quality enough players into the League.
But the quality of players in the AHL is likely
It's hard for me to believe that the 40+ other players suddenly became relevant after having been previously underwhelming rather than the league becoming worse and thus opening up opportunities for players like them. For example the scoring leaders Pinchuk and Alistrov both played junior hockey in Canada, went undrafted, returned to Belarus and are now suddenly ppg players in the KHL.
You may be surprised to learn that players aren’t static from where they were at age 17. There are so many 2nd to 4th round picks eating up minutes in the AHL that are terrible but getting spoon fed ice time they don’t deserve compared to college free agents that turned pro at 24.. just because the nhl team is trying to see if there is anything there.
Just in case, that "now suddenly" should be read as "after 3 years", it's not like they returned and immediately started playing good, not to mention that calling them ppg players after just 9 games sounds a bit too early to me.
Obviously after these events young players started getting more opportunities, but if they wouldn't be good enough at using those they wouldn't be scoring, as it is not like it would become easier to score (otherwise the players who were constantly good before 2022 would be setting some records, but they are not).
Yeah, Jaskin is a more legit example, but that was before the 2022 events. But yeah, it is frequent that guys like that feel just perfect in the KHL, but on the other hand there were former NHLers, who were rather meh yet they would be expected to be leading their teams.
Belarus performance at international tournaments pretty much always had one big issue - lack of coaches, so not always it was about the talent production. Btw, Alistrov scored 7 points in 5 games at the U18s as a 17 year old, notably outscored a year old Protas who played on the same team, as well as everyone who played on that year's Team Russia lol.
He literally quoted 2020.
