Slovakia ice-hockey in 5 years (2027)

[kabidjan18]

Slovakia has larger playerbase and moree rinks than Germany? I mean I don't know, but that's a surprising fact to me. Germany is big, so I'd think they have more pro players than Slovakia by a factor.

Oh, I was talking about Germany.

 

[Elias40]

Thrilled some stars are coming through for Slovakia!

Czechs have hung on to 6th place with rougly 2 NHL players per draft and around 30 NHL players. A few bumper crops didn't change it that much for us because as they came (eg. Zadina, Necas, Chytil, Hajek, Dostal) the older players left (Jagr, Plekanec, Krejci)... We have a nice little bumper crop this draft as well with Jiricek and Kulich (Sapo and Hamara and most likely another goalie in Malik going on his second try at draft).

Currently we do around 8 guys per draft.. most later on and that keeps us a float. Not enough for a medal though.

Big concern for Slovakia is no NHL goalie coming up that I can see? Same as the Swiss... some elite pieces but no NHL goalie coming.

The other thing that hurt the Czechs big time was that the majority of our players were wingers... need to build around C, D and G.

So in 5 years I think they'll be in the Top 8 with the potential for upsets like the Swiss and German's. Having said that.. Swiss are awesome today but the last few drafts have not been good and U18 and U20 results are not encouraging. I'd argue same in Germany after that tremendous crew joined Drai and Grubauer. Denmark rose like a comet but couldn't sustain 2 or 3 NHL players per draft.

I do not agree here on Switzerland. They are a bit of an exception, because they are not limited by the number of players on the draft, and yet they put together a team that can play quality hockey with the Euro players. Their euroteam is at a higher level than Slovakia. They have many players who don't look good at WJC or U18, one would even say that none of them have made a good career as they lag behind the top teams in tournaments. But they have so-called late bloomers, they are ready to play for NT calmly at the age of 23, long after the end of junior age. This compensates for the absence of top talent among juniors. This is because NL is an excellent league and the players from here are better prepared for international competition.

Perhaps one of the reasons they don't produce as many players per draft each year is that, as an economically strong country, the difference between a hockey player and an official is as small as in any other European country. I read this some time ago, so a hockey player in Switzerland does not automatically mean a higher salary unlike other professions. But I would need to have this confirmed directly from Switzerland. In the Czech Republic, these differences will be much greater, so a large percentage of parents and children see a chance to financially secure the family by playing hockey.