Can Belarus catch up to Slovakia ?

[Fil]

Here is a guide @Fil

So a above average KHL Team

 

[Eye of Ra]

So a above average KHL Team

Exactly

 

[Fil]

Exactly

So why are we having this conversation

 

[Eye of Ra]

So why are we having this conversation

Im boiling. People on here putting Belarus in top 8. Of course i will engage when i see bs.

 

[Fil]

Im boiling. People on here putting Belarus in top 8. Of course i will engage when i see bs.

Lol I feel the same way

 

[Eye of Ra]

Lol I feel the same way

Means you are a man of logic. As me.

 

[Fil]

Means you are a man of logic. As me.

Amen to that

 

[kutka]

I love how this thread pits two very overconfident countries against each other.

Slovakia, as it stands, is a clear cut #9 in the world, if Russia is counted. Slovakians thought they had an explosion of young talent pouring in, they literally talked about 15 full-time NHLers on these boards like a year or two ago. It's not going to happen. 6 NHLers, not enough high-end talent, the depth is not there. They seem to be religiously convinced that they belong to the elite of the hockey world by divine providence. Or due to them being there 20 years ago. Well, it's not 2004. However, they are still clearly better than Belarus. Slovakia is not trending upwards, though.

Germany is half a step better and just has more high-end talent. Switzerland is better by a mile, both in terms of high-end talent and depth and is not really even a comparable to be used here. Neither of these two belong in this conversation.

Latvia a clear cut #10. It has way more depth than before and has one of the most efficient programs in the world. 5 NHLers and a bunch of young prospects coming up. Trending upwards and holding their own. However, their growth is capped due to their small population size.

Denmark is #11, but has an aging core and is clearly trending downwards. 5 NHLers, not a lot of depth at all.

Belarus would currently sit at #12, but they do have a young team and they still do have room to grow. As it stands, they are clearly trending upwards and are in the process of overtaking Denmark. If we look at the 2025 and 2026 NHL draft prospects, the number of recent NHL draftees, Belarus does not seem to be poised to close in on Latvia in the coming few years. At least not yet.

However, given the increase in the number of rinks available in Belarus, their outlook is positive and they do have the potential to build on their program over the long-term.

If they stop supporting a war of aggression and there's a regime change in Belarus and Russia and they are allowed back into IIHF competitions, we would have 11 competitive teams at the Worlds capable of beating any other team on a good day. That has never been the case before.

slovakia is NOT trending downwards with 5 1st rounders, 4 2nd rounders and 15 drafted players in the last 3 drafts. and high-end draft eligibles such as radivojevic, pobezal, nemec, chrenko, kazda, chovan, svrcek, tomik, straka, ozogany, valek, melicherik...
latvia does NOT have this type of prosects
belarus is NOT overtaking Slovakia, nor Latvia

 

[WarriorofTime]

Slovaks release a pretty good contingent every year, not necessarily to the big 5 levels but pretty consistently at a top 8 level every single cycle. Of course things like 1st Round Picks or future superstars is going to come and go, but there's still a steady enough churn (even if not at Czechoslovakian levels). I never see their players at the U18s and think "wow these kids couldn't make a U18 AAA team in North America" or anything like that.

 

[ViD]

Sharangovich - Protas - Protas
Kolyachonok - Levshunov

Belarus will soon have a pretty formidable young NHL line

 

[WayTooCold]

1 line isn't enough. As Slovakia has just 1 line of good players.

That's simply not enough when Canada has 20 lines of NHL all-stars to choose from. They are getting steamrolled in every game.

Maybe we as Canada don't care about these international waste-of-time tournaments enough. That's your chance...

 

[Elvs]

1 line isn't enough. As Slovakia has just 1 line of good players.

That's simply not enough when Canada has 20 lines of NHL all-stars to choose from. They are getting steamrolled in every game.

Maybe we as Canada don't care about these international waste-of-time tournaments enough. That's your chance...

You mean like how Canada steamrolled over Norway with 3-1 in the last best on best Olympics? Or how they steamrolled over Latvia with 2-1 in the quarterfinals?

 

[Fil]

You mean like how Canada steamrolled over Norway with 3-1 in the last best on best Olympics? Or how they steamrolled over Latvia with 2-1 in the quarterfinals?

Or how Canada did not even medal in 06

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Sharangovich - Protas - Protas
Kolyachonok - Levshunov

Belarus will soon have a pretty formidable young NHL line

Is second Protas making the NHL?

 

[WarriorofTime]

Is second Protas making the NHL?

A bit early to say. Third round pick last season, off to a nice start in the OHL this season.

 

[Caser]

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?

So are we talking about "getting closer" or about "catching up"? I mean, "getting closer" - clearly yes, but I wouldn't say that they are really catching up. With that being said already at this point I think Belarussian goalies look more interesting, but in terms of the skater production it is in favor of Slovakia and it isn't really close. Obviously it can be said that you need just about 20 best skaters in the lineup, but still.

Would be more interesting to see comparison of projected teams for let's say Belarus vs. Germany for the current U30 age group (e.g. projecting for like 5 years from now).

 

[Eye of Ra]

Would be more interesting to see comparison of projected teams for let's say Belarus vs. Germany for the current U30 age group (e.g. projecting for like 5 years from now).

the germans are far stronger

Draisaitl
Stützle
JJ Peterka
Sturm
Kahun
Reichel
Michaelis
Justin Schütz
Stachowiak
Lutz
Andreas Eder
Tuomie

Seider
Szuber
Ugbekile
Huttl
Wissmann
Gawanke

Tiefensee
Ancicka

vs

Sharangovich
Protas
Protas
Sidorov
Klimovich
Moroz
Drozdov
Pinchuk
Skorenov
Alistrov
Usov
Loshko

Kolyachonok
Levshunov
Solovyov
Kuzmin
Falkovsky
Yeryomenko

Tolopilo
Kolosov
Shostak

 

[Caser]

the germans are far stronger

Draisaitl
Stützle
JJ Peterka
Sturm
Kahun
Reichel
Michaelis
Justin Schütz
Stachowiak
Lutz
Andreas Eder
Tuomie

Seider
Szuber
Ugbekile
Huttl
Wissmann
Gawanke

Tiefensee
Ancicka

vs

Sharangovich
Protas
Protas
Sidorov
Klimovich
Moroz
Drozdov
Pinchuk
Skorenov
Alistrov
Usov
Loshko

Kolyachonok
Levshunov
Solovyov
Kuzmin
Falkovsky
Yeryomenko

Tolopilo
Kolosov
Shostak

Top 6 forwards sure, Germany is clearly stronger. For the bottom 6 forwards it is very close, same for the D. Belarussian goalies are clearly stronger. So looks kind of close to me.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Germany is very top heavy, which will carry them through real/hypothetical best-on-best for about 10 years or so. They've had about 5 straight years of duds though, which does raise very long-term questions about where they're going to fall and if a country like Belarus will be at their level. Still so far out that it's all but impossible to speculate though.

 

[Albatros]

Germany has way more depth than Belarus even if it's not in the NHL.

 

[Fil]

Take down this thread this whole debate is so stupid

 

[WarriorofTime]

Germany has way more depth than Belarus even if it's not in the NHL.

At the moment, I'm not so sure if that'll be the case longterm based on players born post-2002. Still so early, and of course having a good domestic league with protected spots helps Germans out a lot as they continue to develop into adult years. It'd be nice to see more Germans performing well in their own domestic league but the scoring list is dominated with a lot of Canadians.

 

[Albatros]

The German team that won Olympic silver in 2018 had two top 20 scorers from the DEL, even four of the best six Germans were missing.

Of course you'd hope for a strong league relying on home-grown talent, but it's always been this way. No particular reason for pessimism.