Can Belarus catch up to Slovakia ?

[kudla]

We can look to NHL players: There are 4 wit secured place (Slafkovsky, Tatar, Fehervary, Cernak).

Nemec is still on the edge, but very close. Ok, ok, i will put him also to group 1.

Pospisil is questionable. Maybe he will cement his position this season. Maybe not

Thats it.

Then we have a group of young prospects, but they will need some time.

National Team? WCH is still a headache, nothing special from year 2012. Ok, bronze on OG 2022 is nice, but that is also a error in system.

Nation Junior Team? Last medal in 2015.

U18 National Team? Last 2 WCHs semifinals. But this is fishy. Look for all results on this tournaments.

Top Europe Leagues?
League the one who must not be named , there are 9 players.
Liiga? 0, maybe 1 if we count Elias.
SHL - 4, if we count Luka Radivojevic
Swiss League - 0
DEL - 0

Czech League is anomaly . There will be always many many Slovak players.

Overall, Slovak fans have not so much fun on big stage. We look forward to the future. But, We do this last 10 years year by year...

Sure, we have sucked big time for the past 12 years, but at that time we also hit our rock bottom. Or maybe it is right now. We now have 4-6 NHLers and I really doubt it is going to get worse, or even stay the same in the nearer future. Therefore I assume we must be trending upwards?

Denmark is the titanic of international hockey. Belarus I'd say is getting a bit better, but they will stay in their own tier. Namejs thinks that Latvia trends upwards too. I could agree with this to an extent, even though I think they will more or less just secure their current position. He says that they have more depth than before and also a bunch of incoming prospects. That quite literally is Slovakia's case too.

 

[Namejs]

What would be the explanation, or argument for this ?

Number of Slovak NHLers by season

• 1995-96: 10 Slovak players
• 1996-97: 11 Slovak players
• 1997-98: 12 Slovak players
• 1998-99: 12 Slovak players
• 1999-00: 11 Slovak players

• 2000-01: 11 Slovak players
• 2001-02: 10 Slovak players
• 2002-03: 10 Slovak players
• 2003-04: 11 Slovak players
• 2004-05: (NHL Lockout, no season)
• 2005-06: 10 Slovak players
• 2006-07: 12 Slovak players
• 2007-08: 11 Slovak players
• 2008-09: 13 Slovak players
• 2009-10: 12 Slovak players
• 2010-11: 12 Slovak players
• 2011-12: 10 Slovak players
• 2012-13: 9 Slovak players
• 2013-14: 8 Slovak players
• 2014-15: 8 Slovak players
• 2015-16: 9 Slovak players
• 2016-17: 8 Slovak players
• 2017-18: 7 Slovak players
• 2018-19: 9 Slovak players
• 2019-20: 7 Slovak players
• 2020-21: 6 Slovak players
• 2021-22: 6 Slovak players
• 2022-23: 6 Slovak players

 

[Namejs]

Sure, we have sucked big time for the past 12 years, but at that time we also hit our rock bottom. Or maybe it is right now. We now have 4-6 NHLers and I really doubt it is going to get worse, or even stay the same in the nearer future. Therefore I assume we must be trending upwards?

Denmark is the titanic of international hockey. Belarus I'd say is getting a bit better, but they will stay in their own tier. Namejs thinks that Latvia trends upwards too. I could agree with this to an extent, even though I think they will more or less just secure their current position. He says that they have more depth than before and also a bunch of incoming prospects. That quite literally is Slovakia's case too.

How does that work? You're trending upwards by trending downwards?

As much as I hate Belarus, they have improved significantly by allowing their prospects to move abroad at a younger age and they simply have a wider pool of players to choose from now.

That is a fundamental change that can potentially lead to long-term growth.

By this very simple logic, Belarus can close the gap with almost every team ranked higher. The question is by how much and at what rate are they going to keep progressing. Or not. I'm not very high on them. Realistically, they're going to be very close to Team Latvia, but likely without the coaching and the philosophy behind it that allows Latvia to remain competitive.

With teams like Belarus and Slovakia, you tend to have a lot of egos on the bench and a lot of players who think they are allowed to dangle around and play undisciplined hockey. It's a part of their culture. And when you have these 3rd liners who think they're a big deal because they play on some Russian KHL team, you're kind of destined to never match the talent level that you have on paper with your actual showing on ice.

And because of how much a single elite player is worth, Levshunov flopping would leave a major dent. Same for Slafkovsky, etc. So to an extent it also depends on pure luck, how are their prospects going to pan out or not.

As for Latvia, there's simply not that much room for growth. We could overtake Slovakia, but that's about it. There's no top 8 potential.

 

[kudla]

Number of Slovak NHLers by season

• 1995-96: 10 Slovak players
• 1996-97: 11 Slovak players
• 1997-98: 12 Slovak players
• 1998-99: 12 Slovak players
• 1999-00: 11 Slovak players
• 2000-01: 11 Slovak players
• 2001-02: 10 Slovak players
• 2002-03: 10 Slovak players
• 2003-04: 11 Slovak players
• 2004-05: (NHL Lockout, no season)
• 2005-06: 10 Slovak players
• 2006-07: 12 Slovak players
• 2007-08: 11 Slovak players
• 2008-09: 13 Slovak players
• 2009-10: 12 Slovak players
• 2010-11: 12 Slovak players
• 2011-12: 10 Slovak players
• 2012-13: 9 Slovak players
• 2013-14: 8 Slovak players
• 2014-15: 8 Slovak players
• 2015-16: 9 Slovak players
• 2016-17: 8 Slovak players
• 2017-18: 7 Slovak players
• 2018-19: 9 Slovak players
• 2019-20: 7 Slovak players
• 2020-21: 6 Slovak players
• 2021-22: 6 Slovak players
• 2022-23: 6 Slovak players

I dont get this, the numbers are completely wrong. There were 38 slovaks in 2003-2004 which makes things even worse. But yes the logic works,, even though you and I both know it is not gonna go lower than what is it now.

 

[Namejs]

I dont get this, the numbers are completely wrong. There were 38 slovaks in 2003-2004 which makes things even worse. But yes the logic works,, even though you and I both know it is not gonna go lower than what is it now.

It's probably not going to go much lower, but the trend is clearly on the way down. It does not in any way imply things are improving.

Sorry about the numbers, I did not have the time to manually check them or copy them over, that was an AI prompt, I guess it f***ed up. I have done my research multiple times before, so I know what I'm talking about and yo do get the point.

 

[Faterson]

More likely, Slovakia is going to catch down with Belarus, North Korea, etc.

 

[Elvs]

It's probably not going to go much lower, but the trend is clearly on the way down. It does not in any way imply things are improving.

The trend was going down and has since stagnated. It's long been expected that Chara, Halak and Sekera would retire from the NHL before the reinforcments would arrive. Now it's about to turn, as is evident looking at recent draft years and also more prospects on the way. Of course not all of them will pan out, but the prospect pool Slovakia will be able to show from drafts 2022-2026 will be a hell a lot better than they've done in a very long time.

 

[Namejs]

The trend was going down and has since stagnated. It's long been expected that Chara, Halak and Sekera would retire from the NHL before the reinforcments would arrive. Now it's about to turn, as is evident looking at recent draft years and also more prospects on the way. Of course not all of them will pan out, but the prospect pool Slovakia will be able to show from drafts 2022-2026 will be a hell a lot better than they've done in a very long time.

There was a singular draftee from Slovakia this year. If it wasn't for his name, there would be 0 draftees from Slovakia.

I don't think this makes it 'evident' that it's about to turn. You have to see consistency both in the number of draftees and the number of prospects making the NHL. We're yet to see that both with Slovakia and Belarus.

 

[ViD]

Slovakia had 38 NHLers at some point ? That’s crazy

 

[Elvs]

There was a singular draftee from Slovakia this year. If it wasn't for his name, there would be 0 draftees from Slovakia.

I don't think this makes it 'evident' that it's about to turn. You have to see consistency both in the number of draftees and the number of prospects making the NHL. We're yet to see that both with Slovakia and Belarus.

You can't expect consistancy in the number of draftees from any country outside of Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Just look at Germany over the last few years compared to a few years before...

Slovakia only having one late round draftee last year was no surprise. It was expected, and it doesn't take away from the fact that Slovakia has seen five players drafted in the 1st round (including a #1 and #2 overall pick) as well as four 2nd round selections in the last three years, all while having another 1st round pick projected to be picked next year.

This group of young players and prospects would have to fail real hard not to be better than the era that came before them. And I don't mean the golden era of players born in the 70's. I'm talking about the players born from the mid 80's to mid 90's, which saw far fewer draftees both in terms of quantity and quality.

 

[WarriorofTime]

With teams like Belarus and Slovakia, you tend to have a lot of egos on the bench and a lot of players who think they are allowed to dangle around and play undisciplined hockey. It's a part of their culture. And when you have these 3rd liners who think they're a big deal because they play on some Russian KHL team, you're kind of destined to never match the talent level that you have on paper with your actual showing on ice.

You're just making things up, "part of their culture", lol, leave your geopolitical hooey out of this.

 

[Namejs]

You're just making things up, "part of their culture", lol, leave your geopolitical hooey out of this.

It has no connection with geopolitics, but it is interesting that you jumped to that conclusion. If you frame it that way, I guess there might be something to it.

Both Soviet and Czechoslovak hockey is built around East-West type of a game. You're supposed to play with the puck, possess the puck and do things with it.

The traditional hockey schools have all shifted towards a more North American style of play, but the differences are clearly still there and it is a part of their hockey culture. For a national team to be competitive, it has to be well structured, well coached and filled with moldable players that don't necessarily care about playing with the puck.

Do you think Slovakia or Belarus could easily adapt a similar game philosophy employed by Latvia? I don't think so.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Ego/dangling/undisciplined is not an “east-west” game. It’s a character defect. To attribute such defect to “culture” is hooey. Undisciplined play gets you to the bench no matter where you’re from.