Can Belarus catch up to Slovakia ?

[ViD]

It seems that there are some promising things in Belarus and I wonder if they can get on a similar level as Slovakia

Slovaks have Slaf, Nemec, Cernak as their main stars with a few other decent guys like Tatar, Pospisil.

Belarus biggest stars now are Sharangovich and Protas. They also have Levshunov entering the league.

The last draft there were 3 Belarusian players selected to only one Slovak.

Is Belarus getting closer to Slovakia’s level of development?

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[erikhamren]

I dont think so. Slovakia has Slafkovsky, Nemec and Dvorsky as their young core and Radivojevic as their next big D prospect. Apart from Levshunov theres currently no Belarusian high end forward prospect

 

[kudla]

Catching up to Germany*

 

[Albatros]

Catching up to Germany*

Draisaitl, Stützle, Seider from Belarus? Not going to happen.

 

[Zine]

I don't see them passing Slovakia. Maybe Germany long-term.

They'll undoubtedly supersede Latvia and Denmark as the #1 country in the tier just below Slovakia/Switzerland/Germany.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Keep an eye on Belarus, last few drafts are promising, will need to see how that carries over to pro ranks. Like Russia, there will always be a bit of a KHL factor where the fringe talents may stay on that side of the pond which can give a bit of an underrated perception if only looking at NHL. I think they can likely enter the Slovakia/Switzerland/Germany 7, 8, 9 tier to make it 10. I think they are probably already at that level on the youth level. "Best on Best" level though will depend on some of the draft picks pulling through. Germany can coast on "best on best" (real or hypo) for a while with Draisaitl, a '95 born bonafide superstar and Seider ('01) and Stutzle ('02) both very good young NHL players that have the potential to be considered superstars soon.

 

[Czechboy]

They are risers for sure!

 

[Jets4Life]

I don't see them passing Slovakia. Maybe Germany long-term.

They'll undoubtedly supersede Latvia and Denmark as the #1 country in the tier just below Slovakia/Switzerland/Germany.

No they will not. Denmark is becoming stronger at hockey each passing year.

Germany? LOL

 

[ViD]

No they will not. Denmark is becoming stronger at hockey each passing year.

Germany? LOL

What makes you say that about Denmark ? They don’t really have any promising prospects, do they ? Only 4 active NHL skaters which is going to be similar or even less than Belarus

 

[WarriorofTime]

What makes you say that about Denmark ? They don’t really have any promising prospects, do they ? Only 4 active NHL skaters which is going to be similar or even less than Belarus

Yes Denmark has only one nhl draft selection in the 2020s. Their results in recent U18s and U20s are pretty bad even with Russia/Belarus ban giving them a theoretically decent shot at making it into the top division.

 

[Namejs]

Given the trajectory of Slovakian hockey, I think Belarus can definitely catch up with Slovakia by 2034 and make the top 12 in IIHF rankings. If the war in Ukraine is over.

If we're talking about 2024, Belarus has not even caught up to Denmark (#11) yet.

 

[Zine]

No they will not. Denmark is becoming stronger at hockey each passing year.

Germany? LOL

If having 3 NHL drafted players in the last 7 years is 'getting stronger', well I suppose Denmark is will soon be a hockey superpower.

 

[Old Man Jags]

Belarus may be getting better with some promising players, but in the long term I think they are still pretty far off Slovakia.

 

[Kuracmugger]

What makes you say that about Denmark ? They don’t really have any promising prospects, do they ? Only 4 active NHL skaters which is going to be similar or even less than Belarus

Oscar fisker molgaard but besides him i don‘t know any promising ones. Norway is on the rise tough.

 

[Levshunov]

The Belarusian national team has a very interesting team on paper. Next year there will already be 5 players on one-way contracts in the NHL. Perhaps Moroz and Pinchuk will leave next year. We are waiting for progress from Sidorov and Protas Jr. I hope that Kuzmin and Klimovich will remember how to play hockey. It's a shame for Kolosov that he behaves this way, because of his behavior he himself suffers.
If you believe the Belarusian media, Eremenko could have gone to Nashville on a two-way contract. Sapego and Alistrov could have gone on a two-way contract as well, but they went to SKA. There were rumors about Drozdov, but he was traded to CSKA. Another interesting defenseman is Karpovich, who plays in the Avtomobilist system.

 

[Speyer]

I personally don't see them catching up neither to Slovakia nor to Germany or Switzerland in the forseeable future. They had a good few years of prospect production lately (not as good as Slovakia though) and thats it. With the smaller nations you always have ups like that but those are usually followed by a down again. Switzerland couldnt sustain its production with the 96-99 born players long term. Germany couldnt sustian its golden generation (01/02). Therefore I don't see any reason why Belarus should be able to pull that of going forward. The fact that their national teams can't play in international tournaments right now is not helping them either.

 

[Hinterland]

I personally don't see them catching up neither to Slovakia nor to Germany or Switzerland in the forseeable future. They had a good few years of prospect production lately (not as good as Slovakia though) and thats it. With the smaller nations you always have ups like that but those are usually followed by down again. Switzerland couldnt sustain its production with the 96-99 born players long term. Germany couldnt sustian its golden generation (01/02). Therefore I don't see any reason why Belarus should be able to pull that of going forward. The fact that their national teams can't play in international tournaments right now is not helping them either.

The one thing Belarus has over these other countries is an efficient national development program. So I do think that it's sustainable but it's a long way up.

If you look at current NHLers the verdict is pretty clear. They're miles apart and there's no guarantee for promising prospects to turn into actual NHLers. I also think that many Belarussian prospects are overrated while some Slovakian prospects are underrared. Honzek is a good example. Fully expecting him to make huge progress if he can stay healthy.

 

[Speyer]

The one thing Belarus has over these other countries is an efficient national development program. So I do think that it's sustainable.

Maybe, but that doesnt compensate the fact that they have significantly fewer active junior players than the other countries mentioned. And that is definitely the most important metric when trying to project future level of development.

Still, if you look at current NHLers the verdict is pretty clear. They're miles apart and there's no guarantee for promising prospects to turn into actual NHLers.

That also. A lot of the more promising Belarussian prospects are still very early into their development cycle. But then some people argue that some of them are already surfire superstars with zero chance of busting.

 

[Czechboy]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1838228434096423417

Here are the Top 10 Slovaks under 23 (not saying this is gospel, I'm sure Slovak fans will want to change orders or add/delete players)

That is a damn good looking group!

 

[Eye of Ra]

Nah.

1; Canada
2; USA
3; Finland
4; Czechia
5; Germany
6; Switzerland
7; Sweden
8; Slovakia

Russia nr 3 or 4 if not banned.

Keep an eye on Belarus, last few drafts are promising, will need to see how that carries over to pro ranks. Like Russia, there will always be a bit of a KHL factor where the fringe talents may stay on that side of the pond which can give a bit of an underrated perception if only looking at NHL. I think they can likely enter the Slovakia/Switzerland/Germany 7, 8, 9 tier to make it 10. I think they are probably already at that level on the youth level. "Best on Best" level though will depend on some of the draft picks pulling through. Germany can coast on "best on best" (real or hypo) for a while with Draisaitl, a '95 born bonafide superstar and Seider ('01) and Stutzle ('02) both very good young NHL players that have the potential to be considered superstars soon.

currently no Belarusian high end forward prospect

 

[WarriorofTime]

currently no Belarusian high end forward prospect

Yes, they basically need a "powerplay worth" of players to be dangerous, which they don't have. As is, if they can throw enough volume, someone surprising could come through like how Sharangovich is better than people thought (but someone better than that), but ideally yes they'll need to have some clear cut level superstar forward prospect that also delivers. I think it's fairly likely in a theoretical, longer-term sense based on number of solid players coming through with some positive variance, but it'd be a ways away since there is no obvious existing name at the moment.