Best league outside NHL

[Albatros]

Look at the last few U18s before they got banned.

Good, but those leading players are in North American junior hockey rather than the KHL.

 

[EXTRAS]

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.

Do you think pinchuk or timofei davydov have nhl potential?

 

[Caser]

Do you think pinchuk or timofei davydov have nhl potential?

I don't think they do, but it might be just me.

 

[Boonk]

I must admit I'm following NA junior leagues much less nowadays, but something like couple of years ago USHL was considered weaker than any of the CHL leagues and WHL was considered the toughest of the CHL (so maybe less talented, but the most difficult one, particularly for an import player). However it might be that something has notably changed since then.

Lots of investment made into US minor hockey is now coming up. The USHL-NCAA route is now a desirable option and in some cases even more so than their CHL competitors. More high-end talent Canadians are starting to take this route it seems but the CHL leagues will still have most of the elite Canadian junior talents.

BCHL has seen this and left the CJHL, then Hockey Canada all-together to become an independent sanctioned Junior A league, specifically to compete with the USHL for recruiting talent from anywhere they want and to gain more of a foothold into the Jr A-NCAA pipeline. We’ll see how that goes going further, but it just goes to show how notable the NCAA brand of hockey is for prospects, scouts and junior A leagues now.

 

[Caser]

Lots of investment made into US minor hockey is now coming up. The USHL-NCAA route is now a desirable option and in some cases even more so than their CHL competitors. More high-end talent Canadians are starting to take this route it seems but the CHL leagues will still have most of the elite Canadian junior talents.

BCHL has seen this and left the CJHL, then Hockey Canada all-together to become an independent sanctioned Junior A league, specifically to compete with the USHL for recruiting talent from anywhere they want and to gain more of a foothold into the Jr A-NCAA pipeline. We’ll see how that goes going further, but it just goes to show how notable the NCAA brand of hockey is for prospects, scouts and junior A leagues now.

Yeah, I get this, but not a lot of players stay in the USHL for too long, they move to the NCAA rather quickly. So even in terms of the drafted players (not a perfect parameter, but for the NA leagues it can be used to make some conclusions in terms of the league strength) at the start of the season I see now 29 drafted players on the USHL rosters and 54 on the WHL's, so kind of a notable difference.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

AHL then KHL then SHL imo

 

[Czechboy]

AHL then KHL then SHL imo

That is my order too...

But I should say... if a player can't make the NHL then the AHL is garbage and time to go to KHL, NLA or SHL.

Second best league is AHL but it's also the last league I'd want to play in.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

That is my order too...

But I should say... if a player can't make the NHL then the AHL is garbage and time to go to KHL, NLA or SHL.

Second best league is AHL but it's also the last league I'd want to play in.

Completely agree. Would maybe be the 500k guaranteed or a one way deal in a nice town like San Diego but other than that- SHL or Swiss League all day.

 

[AintLifeGrand]

KHL is the best non-NHL league. The veterans in the AHL are just as good and can make just as much, but the status as a developmental league brings down the AHL a good bit as you have a lot of not that good players being put into lineups and bigger roles than merit would have it because the parent club wants to develop them.

SHL pays a lot less than KHL. It's a bit closer with the Swedish and Finnish guys leaving the KHL, but the KHL attracts a much better and much larger contingent of Canadian players, and the Russian guys are less likely to leave the KHL for other non-NHL leagues (and the lack of a transfer agreement leaves a lot of Russian guys in the KHL longer/more permanently even if more borderline NHL).

The other "X" Factor is how much higher quality of player Belarus is producing in recent years. This is offsetting the loss of Finns somewhat.

are veteran AHL guys (not signed to a NHL contract) making multiple six figs??

 

[deleted user]

AHL then KHL then SHL imo

That's my leaning, too.

 

[Albatros]

are veteran AHL guys (not signed to a NHL contract) making multiple six figs??

A handful of players perhaps, common it is not.

 

[Poro24]

People still saying KHL... why? This isn't year 2019 anymore. Have you looked who plays there? Mediocre russian players and mediocre foreign players who dont have conscience and are there just for the easy money.

90% of the top foreign talents with real ambition will go to NLA or SHL. The level of foreign players in these leagues are miles ahead of the russian league.

 

[KingAlfie11]

90% of the top foreign talents with real ambition will go to NLA or SHL. The level of foreign players in these leagues are miles ahead of the russian league.

I agree with you 100%!! The Swiss National League is very high caliber and so is SHL, the DEL is not bad you have a lot ex-AHLer's.

 

[Garl]

Ok so, I will make some controversersial statements and will elaborate them later.

1.KHL is NOT the 2nd best league anymore due to various reasons, the main one is the euro exodus which is very seriously underrated on this forum
2.The idea that some North Americans have successfully substituted those euros and league didn't feel the exodus of euros is incorrect and the quality of NA imports in KHL is vastly overrated, I would make a case than NL has better NA players than KHL does
3.People forget about new import limit which seriously hurt teams like Admiral/Sibir etc

Which league is 2nd best has now become a technical question and a matter of personal preferences rather than a reality based observation. SHL, NL and KHL are roughly at similar level and I would argue that SHL is the hardest league to play after NHL right now, at least in Europe

 

[Speyer]

Stop trying to make NHLe happen. Its not gonna happen.

 

[Caser]

People still saying KHL... why? This isn't year 2019 anymore. Have you looked who plays there? Mediocre russian players and mediocre foreign players who dont have conscience and are there just for the easy money.

90% of the top foreign talents with real ambition will go to NLA or SHL. The level of foreign players in these leagues are miles ahead of the russian league.

NL attracts some good foreign talent, yes, but any league level isn't built on the top foreigners, as on average every league's 60%-70% are domestic players and, with all respect to Swiss players, comparing their talent production with Russian we're not talking about the same tiers like at all. As for the SHL their domestic talent production is solid, but even a brief look via eliteprospects at their "top foreign talents with real ambition" kind of tells everything you need to know.

 

[Albatros]

Almost all of the top Swiss players play in the domestic league though. That's not the case in a lot of countries.

 

[WarriorofTime]

KHL is 73.4 % Russia and 10.1 % Canada

SHL is 72.8 % Sweden and 5.7 % Canada

Liiga is 72.6 % Finland and 6.7 % Canada

NLA is 63.9 % Switzerland and 7.1 % Canada

DEL is 50.3 % Germany and 24.0 % Canada

Czech ExtraLiga is 72.7 % Czechia and 4.9 % Canada

Slovak ExtraLiga is 66.8 % Slovakia and 10.6 % Canada

 

[WarriorofTime]

Basically, the whole "Euro exodus" of the KHL is so wildly overblown and the domestic % of the KHL is the same as the SHL and Liiga, WHILE offering the best salaries that side of the Atlantic in order to attract the number one hockey exporter on the planet, the Canadians that all played a high level of junior or college hockey and often times ran out of "Developmental Player" eligibility in the AHL.

 

[Albatros]

Basically, the whole "Euro exodus" of the KHL is so wildly overblown and the domestic % of the KHL is the same as the SHL and Liiga, WHILE offering the best salaries that side of the Atlantic in order to attract the number one hockey exporter on the planet, the Canadians that all played a high level of junior or college hockey and often times ran out of "Developmental Player" eligibility in the AHL.

...like co-scoring leader Troy Josephs who played for a generally lowly ranked college team at Clarkson, after that got some two dozen games in the AHL but spent the majority of next couple of years in the ECHL with modest success, came to the Swiss second-tier over Norway, tried his luck in the top Swiss league but wasn't good enough, and is now a scoring leader in the KHL.

 

[Caser]

...like co-scoring leader Troy Josephs who played for a generally lowly ranked college team at Clarkson, after that got some two dozen games in the AHL but spent the majority of next couple of years in the ECHL with modest success, came to the Swiss second-tier over Norway, tried his luck in the top Swiss league but wasn't good enough, and is now a scoring leader in the KHL.

Or like Andy Andreoff, who got almost 200 NHL games under his belt and was about ppg in the AHL last season - right now he sucks badly, so probably KHL level is too high for him. Seriously though, what I mean that it is kind of not smart to make conclusions after like 10 games into the season, you can at least use full previous season for that.

 

[WarriorofTime]

...like co-scoring leader Troy Josephs who played for a generally lowly ranked college team at Clarkson, after that got some two dozen games in the AHL but spent the majority of next couple of years in the ECHL with modest success, came to the Swiss second-tier over Norway, tried his luck in the top Swiss league but wasn't good enough, and is now a scoring leader in the KHL.

Or like Ryan Spooner who played 325 NHL games or Jordan Weal who played 218 NHL games.

Just pointing out unusual career trajectories and someone taking advantage of opportunity is a waste of time.

 

[Albatros]

Or like Ryan Spooner who played 325 NHL games or Jordan Weal who played 218 NHL games.

Just pointing out unusual career trajectories and someone taking advantage of opportunity is a waste of time.

Josephs got his opportunities in both the AHL and the Swiss league, but wasn't good enough for a roster spot in either. In Switzerland he was loaned out to the second tier just months ago. Spooner was before going to the KHL released by his Swiss team after only two games.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Josephs got his opportunities in both the AHL and the Swiss league, but wasn't good enough for a roster spot in either. In Switzerland he was loaned out to the second tier just months ago. Spooner was before going to the KHL released by his Swiss team after only two games.

The Swiss league is in high demand for foreigners but it also has a notably poor domestic pool compared to the many of the other big 7 European leagues.

Anyways you are deflecting a lot here. Players aren’t static in time and take advantage of opportunities presented to them often.

 

[Albatros]

The Swiss league is in high demand for foreigners but it also has a notably poor domestic pool compared to the many of the other big 7 European leagues.

Anyways you are deflecting a lot here. Players aren’t static in time and take advantage of opportunities presented to them often.

The pool of players in Switzerland is by default poorer, but the top 200 Swiss players play in the domestic league with only few exceptions, whereas relatively few of the top 200 Finnish players play in Liiga, etc.