The teams are there because of what they did last season in the domestic league, not what they've done this season. Teams that are participating in the CHL have seen major roster changes since last season. That's just how it is with hockey in Europe. It's also early in the season. Teams may not have all spots filled at the start of the CHL or they're simply not in playoff form. To be a regular contender in both the domestic league as well as the CHL you need continuity and depth. Not many teams in Europe can afford this, which makes Frölunda 's accomplishments even that more impressive.
What I meant is Hradec Kralove is objectively not a very good team this year, they are 9th in the Czech league after 2/3 of the season. And yet they are in the CHL final, they have even won both games in the semis. Proving that CHL, much like in football (remember Liverpool winning the CL but finishing 5th in the EPL), is completely different animal and people who use CHL results as a measuring stick of team's strength or, more importantly, league's strength (NLA gets so much slack because their results are bad, for example) should not do that.
You're taking one teams lackluster league results to discount an entire tournament. Not very scientific. You look at the tournament from its inception up untill this point and it paints a much clearer picture. There are a few odd results here and there but there is a constant and that is the SHLs dominance. It shows what I wrote of earlier. Out of all the leagues represented in the tournament, the SHL is the most consistent. The SHL sends contenders each year despite early schedule, heavy roster changes, etc. That shows the strength of the SHL and that to me is undeniable.
Was anyone trying to deny SHL's dominance? Or discount the tournament entirely? Point is CHL provides very little of such definite evidence as SHL dominance everyone would agree on.
You are not understanding what I am trying to relay to you. The CHL results are not a crapshoot. It can be logically explained and certain conclusions can be drawn, keeping in mind the factors and variables I have already explained to you. With that we can determine that the SHL is the de facto strongest league outside of the KHL. The CHL results is in fact proof of this. However, we can not with certainty draw many conclusion as to which the strongest team is at this very moment. That is a different issue. If you see it differently then please make an effort and explain where in my reasoning you see faults.
I don't think you can use a tournament without KHL teams to determine anything about the strongest league in Europe. Imagine a World Championships without Canada? It has about as much relevance as the Spengler Cup for determining league superiority.
Ok, so please logically explain to me why Hradec Kralove didn't make it out of the group stage last year (Rouen made it out of their group) and is in the finals this year? Why did Djurgardens reach the SHL finals last year and didn't make it past Storhamar (!!!) in the CHL?
No one is arguing that SEL isn't 2nd best. Not that I can see. I'm not.
You are also missing the point I'm trying to make. If you sit your best players in a CHL game and lose it is because you do not have enough depth on your roster to field a team that can be competitive in both the domestic league and the CHL. If a team feels the need to focus all their resources on the domestic league and sees the CHL more as a burden it is because it does not have the financial muscles, depth or talent on the roster to compete in both the CHL and the domestic league and be competitive. That's the core of the issue here. I'm not trying to make the point that the CHL is a prestigious tournament that every team dreams of winning. However, Swedish teams have managed to find success both in the domestic league and the CHL. That tells me that they can afford to take the CHL seriously. We have a large enough sample size at this point to draw conclusions from the results in the CHL. And what it tells me is that the continued dominance of SHL teams in the tournament is a good indication of the SHL teams financial stability, roster continuity, talent, depth along with being well run organizations with a great hockey youth ecosystem.
I had a very long-winded answer typed out in my post but managed to click. A link as I was typing on my phone..
I absolutely believe that NLA teams have been going full throttle the last few tournaments. Their struggles have surprised me somewhat as well. But that doesn't mean we can discount the results. They do tell us something. They tell me that NLA teams have lived in a bubble and the CHL results should come as a wake up call. Extraliga is a good competitive league. It is certainly not weak.
What? What does it have to do with playing in SEMIFINAL? We aren't talking about the group stage here, we are talking about the 4/32 best in THIS competition THIS year.
We've seen teams from Norway or Brittain find success in the tournament, sure. But it does not contradict my point. It enforces my point. These teams do not concistently find success in the tournament. They might make it out of group stage one year and the next they are hardly a factor at all. That a team like Storhammar would win the tournament is highly unlikely. Yet, you seem to claim that we might as well have Storhammar against Cardiff in the finals this year. After all it's a total crappshoot. Strange, then, that this has never happened. I will and I have conceded in the past that the tournament format with pre season games is sub optimal. But it is not nearly as chaotic as you claim. The leagues with the most success in the later rounds of the tournament are the ones you could expect. Sweden, Czech Rep, Finland, Switzerland and Germany.
Sounds like a pretty good phrasing of what I'm saying. Albeit it can be applied to almost any team.
I can't illustrate it any better than the medals table. CHL results prove that the Swedes and Czechs have the best 2 leagues in Europe. One of those is not like the others. In fact, if the president of the Czech federation is showing these same stats to 'prove' the Extraliga is doing great, then he should be fired.
So the counter to this point is the medal table that I linked above. Using your argument that the CHL proves this about the SEL... then it also proves this about the Extraliga because they are, by and far, the 2nd most successful nation in the last 4 years.
