What you're saying does not make a lot of sense.
Austria has a large amount of players. They have an interest in hockey. Popularity is not an issue.
Playing overseas will make them better players, that is completely obvious. You can not develop major pro or NHL players in Austria. That's the entire point.
It's the same thing with France, the UK, Poland. The kids are not eager to go abroad, because there are half decent options at home and they don't realize that they're stunting their own development.
Another factor, obviously, is the fact that parents have to be supportive of their kids and that includes time and money. So if there is no hockey culture and expertise (e.g., 'it's not certain that there are much better places for player development abroad'), it's just a self-repeating cycle and a trap you can not get out of.
And this is the main reason why, for example, Latvia has been a tier above Austria for so long despite having fewer rinks, fewer players and less resources in general.
So with Austria, it will never be about what kind of player base they have. And I wouldn't say that there are more Austrian children who want to be like Rossi, more like Hayboeck or Kriechmayr. In addition, it is apparently a bit easier to make a living as a skier than as a hockey player in Austria.
If I am to believe the IIHF, there are 3339 players under the age of 20 in Austria, 2392 in Latvia, for example in Denmark it is 1918 or in Norway 6210 and in such Italy it is 3550. The only thing they have an advantage in is the stadiums, here Austria has a total of 122 of stadiums, Denmark 27, Norway 58, Latvia 27 and Italy 70. But the position of hockey in Austria and Latvia is different, on a solid level Austria has more sports than Latvia, it is also a richer country. But that's not the point when we're talking about ice hockey.
Austrian hockey is certainly on the rise, so it is not unrealistic in the 4-5 year horizon for them to have at least one player in the draft every year from 2025. Of course, it will only be a few individuals and not a system production, which given their size and interest in hockey is good enough. And as long as Canadians, Americans or Swedes play in their league, young players from Austria will play in the Alpine League. In addition, they will be relatively well paid for playing hockey, the same problem is for example in Switzerland.
This is where the Austrian federation should intervene, develop some meaningful concept, or try to hire foreign youth coaches. Just take the necessary steps so that Austria has some promising prospects and raise even more interest in hockey in the country.
Well, it is quite debatable that the OHL, WHL or QMJHL made a significantly better player out of a young player. There are cases when this is the case, but there are also cases when a player returns to the home country from where he left and is not a significantly better player than when he left. It may be so, and playing in Canada will make it easier for him to transition to the seniors, but can you say that a large percentage of players can handle this step? Sometimes it's just better to stay home, try to play more minutes between men and gradually move forward than to run to Canada at all costs. For countries like Austria or Denmark, it cannot be said unequivocally that leaving is a clear win. I clearly don't see it that way in smaller countries.
In the case of Austria, how many players are we talking about? This is not like, for example, the Czech Republic, where I think they have forty of the best juniors in Canada, the USA, Sweden and Finland, and the rest play in the Czech junior competition. If you only have three or four players with elite talent, you're looking for a way for them to be able to play man-to-man. And if they get that chance in Salzburg, Graz or Vienna, it doesn't matter. Mannheim gave Stützle a chance and it worked out for them, he didn't have to go to Canada.
If you have three of the best young Latvian players in your year, do you send them all to Canada or just the ones who want it?
