SHL - Team Sweden vs Liiga - Team Finland

[SoundAndFury]

If you watch soccer I think the former Real Madrid star Guti would be a decent comparison, a magician dominating any opposition when he wants to but that's only every so often. The Finnish Kovalev of sorts, but there are differences too.

Oh yes, I know. I have been a fan ever since his stint with Magnitka which really wasn't a very exciting team back then (pre-Mozyakin era) and he was definitely a bright spot. That's why I have written him on the line with Kangasniemi as well. They both have their flaws but that line would be fun to see.

 

[Ciccarelli]

I don't mean to poop on Liiga which is really good at the top but you have to take the good with the bad. Things like the fact that Mestis legend Nick Lucenius is currently top-10 in PPG in your league. Or the fact that someone like Justin Danforth, who is doing great, is essentially an ECHL import. This used to never happen. ECHL guys used to go to EBEL and DEL maybe, not to the top-5 of Liiga scoring.

You accused us finns for being homers about our league, picking things that make the league look good, but meanwhile you are cherry picking individual players that make the look as bad as possible and/or alter the actual truth. Aaltonen's case got already discussed, has always been and will always be a player with different modes, depending on his mood. Lucenius you describe a "Mestis-legend" which only shows you don't follow Liiga very closely at all, but even if you only go by stats, you should notice that he's played multiple times the amount of games in Liiga he has in Mestis. Already scored almost 50 points as a 20-year old. Super skilled player with attitude problems, a lesser version of Aaltonen. Danforth, yes he came from the ECHL, but unlike you stated, theres been ECHL guys coming to the league for quite sometime now, some perform well, others flop completely. I remember a season, well over a decade ago, my team Ässät signed Derek Damon and Preston Callander from the ECHL with similar stats, both very good ECHLers, one was rock solid, the other one couldn't even skate backwards. Besides, Danforth was absolutely too good for the ECHL, and will have a great career where ever he decides to go in Europe, worse players score 30+ points every season in the KHL. Finding good players from lesser leagues is also called good scouting and you really can't use those guys to put down a league. What about Kodie Curran then? Does his outstanding success in the SHL somehow make that league worse? Ofcourse not. Players have the tendency to develope also. Immonen is another name you used for your cherry picking purposes, making it sound as if 0.5 point PPG pace in NLA translates to PPG in Liiga. First of all only using one player, while the Liiga-NLA PPG ratio translates pretty much one-to-one if you use all the data. For a jarkko immonen, there is antti erkinjuntti, who scores less in Liiga than he did last season in NLA. And in Immonen's case, he had one slightly lesser regular season in the NLA, only the followed by a solid play-off performance (which you - ofcourse - ignored, as if the play-offs somehow had lesser meaning than the regular season, not the other way around)

And just to be clear, I think the SHL has surpassed Liiga a while ago, and there is no debate about that. What makes Liiga still a small notch above the NLA is our domestic player development, drafted and even undrafted players making the step every year to the NHL (Kotkaniemi, Heiskanen, Mäenalanen, Riikola, Suomela) and performing well in the KHL (Puustinen, Nättinen, Ruohomaa, Matushkin, Maione). So, nothing wrong in stating that SHL>Liiga, but just using these individual stats and even false claims to back your agenda up is pretty disrespectfull even, especially considering you don't even follow Liiga much at all.

 

[SoundAndFury]

You accused us finns for being homers about our league, picking things that make the league look good, but meanwhile you are cherry picking individual players that make the look as bad as possible and/or alter the actual truth. Aaltonen's case got already discussed, has always been and will always be a player with different modes, depending on his mood. Lucenius you describe a "Mestis-legend" which only shows you don't follow Liiga very closely at all, but even if you only go by stats, you should notice that he's played multiple times the amount of games in Liiga he has in Mestis. Already scored almost 50 points as a 20-year old. Super skilled player with attitude problems, a lesser version of Aaltonen. Danforth, yes he came from the ECHL, but unlike you stated, theres been ECHL guys coming to the league for quite sometime now, some perform well, others flop completely. I remember a season, well over a decade ago, my team Ässät signed Derek Damon and Preston Callander from the ECHL with similar stats, both very good ECHLers, one was rock solid, the other one couldn't even skate backwards. Besides, Danforth was absolutely too good for the ECHL, and will have a great career where ever he decides to go in Europe, worse players score 30+ points every season in the KHL. Finding good players from lesser leagues is also called good scouting and you really can't use those guys to put down a league. What about Kodie Curran then? Does his outstanding success in the SHL somehow make that league worse? Ofcourse not. Players have the tendency to develope also. Immonen is another name you used for your cherry picking purposes, making it sound as if 0.5 point PPG pace in NLA translates to PPG in Liiga. First of all only using one player, while the Liiga-NLA PPG ratio translates pretty much one-to-one if you use all the data. For a jarkko immonen, there is antti erkinjuntti, who scores less in Liiga than he did last season in NLA. And in Immonen's case, he had one slightly lesser regular season in the NLA, only the followed by a solid play-off performance (which you - ofcourse - ignored, as if the play-offs somehow had lesser meaning than the regular season, not the other way around)

And just to be clear, I think the SHL has surpassed Liiga a while ago, and there is no debate about that. What makes Liiga still a small notch above the NLA is our domestic player development, drafted and even undrafted players making the step every year to the NHL (Kotkaniemi, Heiskanen, Mäenalanen, Riikola, Suomela) and performing well in the KHL (Puustinen, Nättinen, Ruohomaa, Matushkin, Maione). So, nothing wrong in stating that SHL>Liiga, but just using these individual stats and even false claims to back your agenda up is pretty disrespectfull even, especially considering you don't even follow Liiga much at all.

Firstly, I have absolutely no idea how mentioning like half of the players in top-10 of Liiga scoring could still be considered cherry picking. Seems pretty extensive to me.

Secondly, you may or may not remember Lucenius played in Riga and I really liked him as a player so I followed his career roundabouts pretty closely. "Mestis-legend" is a sarcastic expression about his situation and I do know exactly what I'm talking about on this one.

Now, you are absolutely right about players from ECHL, be it Danforth or somebody else, yes they might be good and they might progress but again, as with so many other of my points, you are missing the point. Players from ECHL come cheap but they are without the mark of approval. They are happy to be here, but for a team, they are hit or miss. Timur Bilyalov had a great season for Riga this year but the very fact they had to rely on Ak Bars' 3rd string goalie to be great tells something on its own, doesn't it? Same way Coddie Curran came to SHL to play for Rogle, not some team which is actually any good. And that's why Danforth came to Lukko. Teams striving for results go for proven options and you used to need some stamp of approval to come into the league. Because teams wouldn't bank on your development when they only sign you for a year. You either work or not. Now the smaller teams are lucky to just try you out and hit or miss. So no, the fact that Curran plays there doesn't make the SHL better or worse but the fact that selection takes teams to places like Slovakia, Norway or ECHL is telling about the overall picture. Gone are the days when guys with Eric Perrin profile used to come to Liiga.

And let us make one thing clear, that's regarding Erkijuntti, Karpat and Tappara are in their whole own world. Most of the things I talk about are very far from their realities. Naturally, if you come from a bottom team in NLA to Tappara your role is probably going to change. But again, it says more about Lagnau that they are relying on guys like him to score than anything else. Just like I happened to mention Immonen came into the Liiga from very stacked Zug which is noteworthy and explains his scoring pace increasing so harshly. The fact that you didn't see me mention that also tells something about your attitude towards this conversation.

And this argument of "not following much at all".. How can you prove something by "following" the league? European hockey is such a small, closed system that it really doesn't take a genius to paint an overall picture from players moving around, playing international competitions and yes, even doing good or bad on the scoresheet. Surely there are outliers in everything but how does "following the league" help you make a comparison? Being from Lithuania, I watch more hockey player all over Europe than some proud Finn "following the Liiga" ever will. And sure I don't know much if anything about some generic 24 y.o. 3rd line forward on a mid-table team, is it really so relevant in this discussion? Yet you continue to talk to me on the premise I know nothing that I'm talking about and blabber on some "disrespectful agenda". Might as well rename yourself Atas2001.

It's really funny to me, being from the most hockey-neutral nation ever, how every homer out there immediately goes to this. "You have an anti-something agenda and I live closer to here so you don't know what you are talking about". When it just doesn't stand up to logic. Why would I have an anti-Finn agenda? And being further, not having my own horse in the race, just makes the evaluation more objective, I'd say. Because the more you are following something, the more your perception gets bent by its perspective.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Firstly, I have absolutely no idea how mentioning like half of the players in top-10 of Liiga scoring could still be considered cherry picking. Seems pretty extensive to me.

Secondly, you may or may not remember Lucenius played in Riga and I really liked him as a player so I followed his career roundabouts pretty closely. "Mestis-legend" is a sarcastic expression about his situation and I do know exactly what I'm talking about on this one.

Now, you are absolutely right about players from ECHL, be it Danforth or somebody else, yes they might be good and they might progress but again, as with so many other of my points, you are missing the point. Players from ECHL come cheap but they are without the mark of approval. They are happy to be here, but for a team, they are hit or miss. Timur Bilyalov had a great season for Riga this year but the very fact they had to rely on Ak Bars' 3rd string goalie to be great tells something on its own, doesn't it? Same way Coddie Curran came to SHL to play for Rogle, not some team which is actually any good. And that's why Danforth came to Lukko. Teams striving for results go for proven options and you used to need some stamp of approval to come into the league. Because teams wouldn't bank on your development when they only sign you for a year. You either work or not. Now the smaller teams are lucky to just try you out and hit or miss. So no, the fact that Curran plays there doesn't make the SHL better or worse but the fact that selection takes teams to places like Slovakia, Norway or ECHL is telling about the overall picture. Gone are the days when guys with Eric Perrin profile used to come to Liiga.

And let us make one thing clear, that's regarding Erkijuntti, Karpat and Tappara are in their whole own world. Most of the things I talk about are very far from their realities. Naturally, if you come from a bottom team in NLA to Tappara your role is probably going to change. But again, it says more about Lagnau that they are relying on guys like him to score than anything else. Just like I happened to mention Immonen came into the Liiga from very stacked Zug which is noteworthy and explains his scoring pace increasing so harshly. The fact that you didn't see me mention that also tells something about your attitude towards this conversation.

And this argument of "not following much at all".. How can you prove something by "following" the league? European hockey is such a small, closed system that it really doesn't take a genius to paint an overall picture from players moving around, playing international competitions and yes, even doing good or bad on the scoresheet. Surely there are outliers in everything but how does "following the league" help you make a comparison? Being from Lithuania, I watch more hockey player all over Europe than some proud Finn "following the Liiga" ever will. And sure I don't know much if anything about some generic 24 y.o. 3rd line forward on a mid-table team, is it really so relevant in this discussion? Yet you continue to talk to me on the premise I know nothing that I'm talking about and blabber on some "disrespectful agenda". Might as well rename yourself Atas2001.

It's really funny to me, being from the most hockey-neutral nation ever, how every homer out there immediately goes to this. "You have an anti-something agenda and I live closer to here so you don't know what you are talking about". When it just doesn't stand up to logic. Why would I have an anti-Finn agenda? And being further, not having my own horse in the race, just makes the evaluation more objective, I'd say. Because the more you are following something, the more your perception gets bent by its perspective.

Yes, cherry picking is when you only look at the top of the scoring board. Is it a surprise that by doing so you'll find guys who are having career seasons, or new upcoming players with not much merits yet? For a balanced perspective you might wanna check out the bottom of the scoring as well, you might find guys who are doing worse in Liiga than they did in some of the bigger leagues. There are plenty of names I'm not super impressed about in the SHL and KHL top scoring as well. BTW Lukko has one of the biggest budgets in Liiga and are capable of signing guys like Krejcik, but Danforth got offered to them for 50k dollars a season. That is like nothing, why wouldn't you take a shot, especially knowing that he completely crushed it in the ECHL, and playing style vice was a perfect match for European hockey (that's one thing too, 40 point AHL'er might not be suitable to the bigger rink at all, but a 50 ECHL'er could).

Perrin (came after a 19 points season in the KHL by the way..) and the calibre of players with that background have been a rare sight since the 90's in Liiga, there's nothing new to that. People act like the NLA drawing better individuals from NA is a new thing, while that has been the case for atleast 20 years now. HIFK signed Quincey this year, similar quality to Perrin so there are some every now and then. What makes Liiga what it is, a quality product, is guys like Heponiemi, Kakko, Kupari and Lundell that will become good to solid NHL'ers and to a lesser scale Leskinen, Turunen, Kaski, Palve, Kalapudas, Innala etc etc some of which will become NHL'ers and the rest good players for the European leagues with regular appearences on Team Finland, EHT and WC. Foreigners come and go, and every year there will be a good bunch of guys that will excel and take a next step in their careers (Maione, Matushkin last year, Strömwall, Danforth, Thorell and some others this year).

My attitude, what's that excatly? I just corrected you on some points I clearly have a more educated view on, also stating that Liiga, for now, is a clear step below the SHL (without going too deeply into the reasons why, a closed league being one, having "filler" teams being another, 12 teams would be just fine for a small country), and a slight notch above the NLA.

"Being from Lithuania, I watch more hockey player all over Europe than some proud Finn "following the Liiga" ever will" - I think you are, for the most parts, a semi decent contributor to these boards, but don't take things personal like this, and get all emotional. I don't claim to know more about European hockey overall than you do, but you know there are plenty of people, myself included, who wacth all sorts of hockey more than they sometimes even wanna admit. I always downplay the amount of hockey I consume to friends even, 20 years of atleast 2-3 hours of something hockey related, every single day (reading books, boards, watching live hockey, youtube, choppy CHL streams from Rouen etc etc.), I don't even wanna think about what noteworthy skills I could've learned, instead I'm the guy who gets messaged when somebody wants to know if a player X will do well in league and team Y.

 

[SoundAndFury]

You corrected me on what exactly? You missed my sarcastic remark on a player I know very well, you corrected me on the Immonen thing even though I pointed it out myself in an original post. You wrote the whole bunch of stuff about ECHL which doesn't change the fact they are from the ECHL which is what the original point was all about.

I would love if some Finnish poster would write a coherent view on why they see Liiga is as good they do but all that's out there is "you don't know Lucenius and you don't understand Immonen did well in PO". Ok, even if I'm wrong, there is nothing built upon that. All the pro-Liiga arguments seem to rely on "I watch it, it's really good". Yeah well. that's not getting us far, is it?

Liiga objectively has following problems:

1. Being drained of talent massively by other European leagues, especially KHL (Jokerit factor).
2. Bringing almost no quality imports, almost all the players who come in move up the Euro-hockey ladder or look to re-establish themselves.
3. No parity, almost a 2 team league at this point. Karpat and Tappara are on the level playing field with other big teams in Europe but at the same time, it causes even more of a drain in the league internally.

And SHL stands up to that so much better. It seems that Finns' answer to this is "we just produce that much more talent" but that just isn't so, is it?

 

[Ciccarelli]

Orignally you said that Liiga teams never used to sign ECHL players, that is false, unless you ment like 20 years ago. Did that league even excist back then? Even SHL teams sign guys straight from the ECHL. With good scouting you can find gems there. Zaborsky is another example. Also, you were the one bringing up individual players and even individual seasons to make a claim, I just debunked those, that's all. What do you mean by "as good as they do"? If I say that I view Liiga clearly behind the SHL but a slight notch above the NLA, am I overrating Liiga? SHL has better imports and is able to keep their domestic players longer that is why that is a better league. Why I think Liiga is still a tad above the NLA overall, is becose of the talent in young players and even older domestic players. NLA has clearly better imports. If Switzerland remains in their tracks on the player development, they will surpass. But that remains to be seen. You keep mentioning Kärpät and Tappara, while Tappara isn't even 2nd in the standings right now. Atleast TPS and HIFK have equal chances to win it. BTW JYP won the CHL last season, they are now seated 10th in the Liiga standings, that's got to be a plus for the parity talk. KalPa, practically out of the play offs this season, went and won the Spengler last christmas, a bit of an "fun tournament" but regarded highly in Switzerland, so worth mentioning in this context. I agree somewhat on the import part, eventhough you exaggerate. The imports are mainly of little merit when they come to Liiga, but the ones that do well, will most often than not do well in KHL, SHL and NLA aswell, there are some every year that could play in other leagues aswell, so it's not just left overs. Imports are only imports though, what makes the meat and core of the teams and leagues are the domestic players.

 

[SoundAndFury]

What do you mean by "as good as they do"?

10 people voted for Finland in this poll and even the creator of the thread himself to him "the vote is easy" for Finland.

On the side note, Tappara played in the league finals 6 years in a row so it hardly matters they are 1 point (or something like that) out of the 2nd place in the regular season at the moment.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Pretty even. I think Liiga has more promising prospects.

 

[tuozzi]

Yes Liiga is much more based around the local guys, how exactly does it reflect anything or even more so, make it good?

Well, the question wasn't which league is better. The amount of homegrown talent very much affects the OP's question as opposed to the overall level of the leagues.

BTW, I agree that SHL is better and I suspect the question is designed to avert that fact to make Finland look better. But that's another thing entirely..

 

[ijuka]

I think a Finnish Team Liiga would be stronger than a Swedish Team SHL. I guess most people here don't understand the question. The major reason for why SHL is stronger than Liiga is the numerous imports.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Jokinen-Palve-Leskinen
Turunen-Ruotsalainen-Kuusela
Kakko-Filppula-Ojamäki
Osala-Immonen-Heponiemi

Kaski-Ohtamaa
Hakanpää-Nikkilä
Kemiläinen-Kousa
Eronen

Vehviläinen
Rynnäs

I tried to do an all-star lineup out of Finnish players playing in Liiga. Who did I miss? What would Swedish SHL all-start lineup look like in comparison?

 

[VictorLustig]

Highly doubt anyone here follows both leagues close enough to even have a clue.

 

[SotasicA]

They need to have this match. Loser has to take Aland.

Winner gets Gotland.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

I don't mean to poop on Liiga which is really good at the top but you have to take the good with the bad. Things like the fact that Mestis legend Nick Lucenius is currently top-10 in PPG in your league. Or the fact that someone like Justin Danforth, who is doing great, is essentially an ECHL import. This used to never happen. ECHL guys used to go to EBEL and DEL maybe, not to the top-5 of Liiga scoring.

Any league will look pretty damn impressive if you only look at the bright spots but you have to look at the overall picture.

Jesus talk about nitpicking. "EX ECHL players used go to EBEL/DEL not the top 5 of Liiga scoring" Danforth is one player and he's grown a lot in his own right. It's not like Liiga is being taken over by ECHLers.

I like how you, after carefully grasping at very specific straws, proceed to say "you have to look at the big picture".

I take it you're new to hockey and maybe don't get that players can fit some environments better than others either due to psychological reasons or because the way they play can better suit the new team/league they're in.. Just like how Nigel Dawes fits perfectly in the KHL but he probably wouldn't be as impressive in the AHL.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Jesus talk about nitpicking. "EX ECHL players used go to EBEL/DEL not the top 5 of Liiga scoring" Danforth is one player and he's grown a lot in his own right. It's not like Liiga is being taken over by ECHLers.

I like how you, after carefully grasping at very specific straws, proceed to say "you have to look at the big picture".

I take it you're new to hockey and maybe don't get that players can fit some environments better than others either due to psychological reasons or because the way they play can better suit the new team/league they're in.. Just like how Nigel Dawes fits perfectly in the KHL but he probably wouldn't be as impressive in the AHL.

Again, I love how you write 4 paragraphs of "you are wrong" rather than something, anything, constructive. I have written this:

Liiga objectively has following problems:

1. Being drained of talent massively by other European leagues, especially KHL (Jokerit factor).
2. Bringing almost no quality imports, almost all the players who come in move up the Euro-hockey ladder or look to re-establish themselves.
3. No parity, almost a 2 team league at this point. Karpat and Tappara are on the level playing field with other big teams in Europe but at the same time, it causes even more of a drain in the league internally.

And SHL stands up to that so much better. It seems that Finns' answer to this is "we just produce that much more talent" but that just isn't so, is it?
​

Before starting to "grasp as a very specific staws" (it's called an example) but I assume you read the very last post of discussion and felt the need to insert your smart opinion here.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Again, I love how you write 4 paragraphs of "you are wrong" rather than something, anything, constructive. I have written this:

Liiga objectively has following problems:

1. Being drained of talent massively by other European leagues, especially KHL (Jokerit factor).
2. Bringing almost no quality imports, almost all the players who come in move up the Euro-hockey ladder or look to re-establish themselves.
3. No parity, almost a 2 team league at this point. Karpat and Tappara are on the level playing field with other big teams in Europe but at the same time, it causes even more of a drain in the league internally.

And SHL stands up to that so much better. It seems that Finns' answer to this is "we just produce that much more talent" but that just isn't so, is it?
​

Before starting to "grasp as a very specific staws" (it's called an example) but I assume you read the very last post of discussion and felt the need to insert your smart opinion here.

You emphasised those examples I quoted and made one ECHLer doing great into selling it as how ECHLers can now just come into the league and dominate.

Also I was only adressing those examples you brought up. Personally I believe (albeit as a homegrown Luleå fan) that SHL is definitely a better league with better funding and development.. especially now that the Jokerit are in the KHL. That's why I'm not adressing anything else you said, I just thought using someone like Danforth as an example was a bit ridicolous.

 

[Sanf]

Again, I love how you write 4 paragraphs of "you are wrong" rather than something, anything, constructive. I have written this:

Liiga objectively has following problems:

1. Being drained of talent massively by other European leagues, especially KHL (Jokerit factor).
2. Bringing almost no quality imports, almost all the players who come in move up the Euro-hockey ladder or look to re-establish themselves.
3. No parity, almost a 2 team league at this point. Karpat and Tappara are on the level playing field with other big teams in Europe but at the same time, it causes even more of a drain in the league internally.

And SHL stands up to that so much better. It seems that Finns' answer to this is "we just produce that much more talent" but that just isn't so, is it?
​

Before starting to "grasp as a very specific staws" (it's called an example) but I assume you read the very last post of discussion and felt the need to insert your smart opinion here.

1. I agree that we can´t keep our best players. To some extent it has been so since the Bosman rule. I don´t see Jokerit being a factor though. The key players of Jokerit wouldn´t play in Liiga anyway and the depth players wouldn´t make much difference.

2. Certainly agree. We can´t afford quality foreigners anymore. Then again there still has been roughly 70 foreign players in Liiga. Why if the Finns are better. Truth is that there isn´t enough quality and depth so we need those players. Sure there will be few who can manage to develope their game and create career in Europe. But certainly the quality isn´t what it used to be.

3. Agree. There is absolutely too much teams. There isn´t "talent pool" to fill those. Current situation isn´t healthy.

Our young talent situation is definitely better than it was. Still the diluted league is one of the reasons why they get such a big role. Imagine when Saku Koivu arrived to the league he competed with Esa Keskinen, German Titov, Kari Kanervo and Jouko Narvanmaa for the center position.(and they even brought Kari Jalonen to the team).

Still I think the teams would be closer than some think. Sweden has half more players in NHL (and there is more in AHL). KHL has more Finns than Swedes, but if you took the Jokerit depth players the difference isn´t much. Surely that needs to hurt Sweden too.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I think a Finnish Team Liiga would be stronger than a Swedish Team SHL. I guess most people here don't understand the question. The major reason for why SHL is stronger than Liiga is the numerous imports.

not true.

 

[Pensionsraddare]

SHL-teams are recruiting Liigas best players while they send players who quite not make it in their league to Liiga. I think that says about it right?

 

[Ciccarelli]

SHL-teams are recruiting Liigas best players while they send players who quite not make it in their league to Liiga. I think that says about it right?

Names?

 

[Pensionsraddare]

Names?

Jesse Virtanen for example. He was the highest scoring defenseman in Liiga before he moved to Färjestad and now he did the same thing in SHL this season.

Erik Thorell and Malte Strömwall the other way. Good players in the swedish second tier but not good enough for SHL. Would be exciting to see if they could make it today.

 

[Ciccarelli]

Jesse Virtanen for example. He was the highest scoring defenseman in Liiga before he moved to Färjestad and now he did the same thing in SHL this season.

Erik Thorell and Malte Strömwall the other way. Good players in the swedish second tier but not good enough for SHL. Would be exciting to see if they could make it today.

Best players rarely go to Sweden, it's NHL or KHL obviously. Thorell and especially Srömwall are too good for the SHL now, feel free to follow their careers develop in the KHL. Both could've signed for SHL clubs before they came to Finland. Players with far lesser stat lines in Allsvenskan sign to play in the SHL every year. Finnish teams sign similar guys from Allsvenskan as SHL teams do. Nothing odd about that. Alot of guys coming over from Sweden to play in Finland next season. I read that some swedes are even panicking abit over that. Hockeysverige wrote an article, yesterday I believe.

 

[VictorLustig]

Best players rarely go to Sweden, it's NHL or KHL obviously. Thorell and especially Srömwall are too good for the SHL now, feel free to follow their careers develop in the KHL. Both could've signed for SHL clubs before they came to Finland. Players with far lesser stat lines in Allsvenskan sign to play in the SHL every year. Finnish teams sign similar guys from Allsvenskan as SHL teams do. Nothing odd about that. Alot of guys coming over from Sweden to play in Finland next season. I read that some swedes are even panicking abit over that. Hockeysverige wrote an article, yesterday I believe.

Yeah riiiight. Why would a top Swedish player move to Finland when they could make more money playing at home? Thorell and fringe AHL'er Strömwall did not get good deals in Sweden so they had to look elsewhere.

Strömwall being too good for the SHL is just laughable.

 

[Aahlstroem]

Best players rarely go to Sweden, it's NHL or KHL obviously. Thorell and especially Srömwall are too good for the SHL now, feel free to follow their careers develop in the KHL. Both could've signed for SHL clubs before they came to Finland. Players with far lesser stat lines in Allsvenskan sign to play in the SHL every year. Finnish teams sign similar guys from Allsvenskan as SHL teams do. Nothing odd about that. Alot of guys coming over from Sweden to play in Finland next season. I read that some swedes are even panicking abit over that. Hockeysverige wrote an article, yesterday I believe.

You mean the article where they wrote that players in minor roles on Swedish teams are offered more money to play bigger roles in Liiga instead?

 

[Ciccarelli]

Strömwall being too good for the SHL is just laughable.

Well too expensive atleast, becose he will sign with a KHL team. And ofcourse top SHL players aren't going to Finland becose they go to KHL and NHL. Just like top finnish players.