Leetch3
Registered User
- Jul 14, 2009
- 13,001
- 10,863
If you're good enough, you make the jump straight to the NHL.
Some examples of EU players who never played in the AHL:
Sebastian Aho
Joonas Donskoi
Carl Söderberg
Artturi Lehkonen
Emil Bemström
Jesper Bratt
Alexander Steen
Anze Kopitar
Johnny Oduya
Tobias Enström
Vladislav Gavrikov
Teemu Selanne
Jussi Jokinen
Tuomo Ruutu
Kimmo Timmonen
Dominik Kubalík
Michal Kempný
Marek Židlický
I know that Aho and Kopitar came over at 19 in their D+1 years, but not sure about the age of the rest. but without checking all the ages, I think this is both a combo of being good enough and also being ready...hindsight being 20/20 we rushed chytil, lias and kravtsov over and should have left them where they were to 'bake' for a few years. we are doing that with Nils and hopefully it pays off down the road.