How do you currently rank nations in hockey development ?
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Canada
USA
Sweden
Russia & Finland (interchangeable)
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Denmark
Slovakia
Germany
Latvia
Rest
USA
Sweden
Russia & Finland (interchangeable)
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Denmark
Slovakia
Germany
Latvia
Rest
Last edited:
Denmark and Switzerland are the two countries that improved the most by far over the last 10 years.
Denmark didnt even have a single NHL player prior to 2007.
Now we got 9. A lot in the AHL and a few key players playing in KHL.
Denmark didnt even have a single NHL player prior to 2007.
Now we got 9. A lot in the AHL and a few key players playing in KHL.
Seems about right. Hopefully the Czechs can move closer to the upper ones rather than the lower ones
Canada - first, USA - second. No question here. Taking into account country size and latest junior champs I will place Finland on third and Sweden on forth. Russia is on fifth. With such population, number of players and money spent on hockey we are completely underachieving. Czech on sixth. New program they have show some results, Pasternak is a good example. Then Swiss, Germany, Slovakia, Denmark and Norway in around the same place.
tobu
Registered User
The rankings above seem about right, I'll just add in my thoughts on Slovakia which has been known to be on a decline for over a decade now.
NHL player presence and impact - decreasing as our golden gen is getting old. Few young guns that have good impact (Tatar, Panik), but far from that star level.
National league strength - stabilized, expecting this to improve in the coming years, arenas are being fixed up, budgets might see slight increase, foreign players came in that increased the quality to some extend.
Youth development - I think the worst is behind us. This years U18 was a good sign of that, multiple hockey workshops are happening, even on youth coach level, new generation of coaches are appearing, expecting increase of Slovak draft picks in the coming years. Outside of the Top6, we're definitely the most successful on the junior level.
Overall, out of the 3 categories, 1 we're on a residual decline, 1 stabilized, 1 improving. With some optimism, we could be back as stable Top7 again in 5 years.
NHL player presence and impact - decreasing as our golden gen is getting old. Few young guns that have good impact (Tatar, Panik), but far from that star level.
National league strength - stabilized, expecting this to improve in the coming years, arenas are being fixed up, budgets might see slight increase, foreign players came in that increased the quality to some extend.
Youth development - I think the worst is behind us. This years U18 was a good sign of that, multiple hockey workshops are happening, even on youth coach level, new generation of coaches are appearing, expecting increase of Slovak draft picks in the coming years. Outside of the Top6, we're definitely the most successful on the junior level.
Overall, out of the 3 categories, 1 we're on a residual decline, 1 stabilized, 1 improving. With some optimism, we could be back as stable Top7 again in 5 years.
King In The North
Sean Bennett
I'm glad to see Slovakia adopt a similar model to the US NDTP. Americans are seeing a ton of very skilled players after 10-15 years of its inception.
I disagree.
We have the longest active medal streak at the U20, we usually medal at the senior world championships, we have the strongest European league and a plenty of active NHL stars.
So, all in all, I can't say that we are in deep crisis other than the inability to win best on best, even though we made semi finals this WCH and lost only to powerhouse Canada
Canada
USA
Sweden
Russia
Finland
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Denmark
Latvia
Germany
Slovakia
France
Norway
Belarus
Slovenia
Austria
Italy
Kazakhstan
USA
Sweden
Russia
Finland
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Denmark
Latvia
Germany
Slovakia
France
Norway
Belarus
Slovenia
Austria
Italy
Kazakhstan
There has been some great development in a lot of countres over the last 20 years. Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Switzerland have all improved massively.
We have longest active medal streak at the U20, but how many golds? Just one. And that was Panarin, Kucherov, Tarasenko generation. After that no gold medals and no top NHL players. In a same time Sweden keep producing world stars and Finland produced very good players recently. And we still win medals because players almost 20 and Bragin knows how to build good team. Also it is very questionable that KHL is a best league in Europe. Overrated for sure, but best, I don't know. And if we take in to account population in Russia, results are not what we should expect.
Actually, I think our centralised NTDP is useless. It's basically a group of weak players playing in our slow and low quality senior league, getting blown out most of the time. Almost all of our better players choose to leave for a foreign league and I totally understand them.
kp61c
Registered User
The population does not matter as much because only few regions are exposed to hockey and have decent hockey schools. Finland, for instance, has every single region with access to hockey. I think they even have more rinks than we do.
KHL is most certainly the best league in Europe, I don't even understand how this is debatable.
Bear12Good
Registered User
I would love to hear the reasoning behind SUI over CZE and LAT over GER and SVK. Those are not even debatable in my mind.
BalticWarrior
Registered User
This [MOD] thread has potential. Just compare qty of drafted players from each country, results of juniors U18/20 worlds, specify time frame instead of using vague term "recent" and you get some insight. Whoever does it will be my hero.
Last edited by a moderator:
joe89
#5
- Apr 30, 2009
- 20,316
- 179
NHL player impact and domestic league arguably tips the scale in their favor, going by the OP's criterias. Latvia's got a more consistent national team, both junior and senior, though.
just my personal view, yah czech republic probably should be ahead of switzerland but i feel both countrys hockey development are going in different directions
latvia is ahead of german and slovakia, not even debatable in my mind. slovakia hockey is a joke now
Oh come on... Yeah, our team at current WC is trash, but how is Latvia ahead of us? You should probably do some research on junior and u18 hockey.
EDIT: And I mean absolutely no disrespect to Latvia, I have always cheered for you and I wish you the best in ongoing WC.
yah i should probably do more research at the junior level
again, it just my personal view, doesnt mean much, dont take it too seriously
While we are thrash at this World's, it doesn't say anything about youth development. U18/20 had decent results recently, not so sure about drafted players as I'm lazy to research.
