Up-and-coming prospects from non-traditional hockey countries

[kabidjan18]

Holy crap, I'm more impressed by him putting more than PPG as a 15 year old against men. Probably not the best talent in Lithuania's men league, but still it's adults and that should mean something IMO.

Against grown men who can't skate, it's a so-so accomplishment. And for shrimper's, I knew it was MEP even before I opened the link haha

 

[brentdog]

Has anybody seen much of these Latvian kids in the US?

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=310135
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=226434
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=217795

I'll assume their stats only look ok because they're over-aged relative to who they're playing against until told otherwise...

With that said, Robert is the brother of Teddy Blueger who went and got himself drafted, so it would be interesting to know who is considered the more talented sibling...

 

[Shrimper]

Pittsburgh has to draft Bluegers now

 

[ozo]

Has anybody seen much of these Latvian kids in the US?

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=310135
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=226434
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=217795

I'll assume their stats only look ok because they're over-aged relative to who they're playing against until told otherwise...

With that said, Robert is the brother of Teddy Blueger who went and got himself drafted, so it would be interesting to know who is considered the more talented sibling...

All three are pretty decent, all should be able to get a NCAA gig and eventually carve out atleast a pro career in Europe, but hard to see them becoming NHL players as they right now playing in pretty obscure places.

I know I've pimped him here before, but currently brightest Moldova-born kid, Dmitrii Caraseni has moved to USA to play hockey for Green Bay Gamblers programme and is doing a decent job there. Shame that there's no team Moldova to play for...

 

[Maverick41]

The NCAA-route seems to becom more popular amongst German prospects.

Forward Cedric Schiemenz (eliteprospects) and huge goalie Benjamin Beck (eliteprospects) have both committed to the University of Maine.

I wonder if either one of them is planning on playing in the USHL oder NAHL next season.

 

[VictorLustig]

Travis Treloar from Norway has been the most productive 01-born player in the Swedish U16 league this season. Scoring at a 1.5 PPG pace is pretty good for a player his age.

 

[S E P H]

Travis Treloar from Norway has been the most productive 01-born player in the Swedish U16 league this season. Scoring at a 1.5 PPG pace is pretty good for a player his age.

It says he's Swedish with a Canadian father, curious where did you get Norway from that?

 

[DonskoiDonscored]

Has anybody seen much of these Latvian kids in the US?

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=310135
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=226434
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=217795

I'll assume their stats only look ok because they're over-aged relative to who they're playing against until told otherwise...

With that said, Robert is the brother of Teddy Blueger who went and got himself drafted, so it would be interesting to know who is considered the more talented sibling...

Ahh finally Markuss gets mentioned here. The EHL isn't a great league but I've seen him a few times (3-4). I like his offensive tools, but I'm not sure the adaptability is there for anything more than a European career. Again, it's only a limited viewing of an awful live stream, but I like what I see.

The EHL Premier isn't great, but Markuss put up a crazy amount of points the first few months of the season IIRC. He was above PPG for quite awhile IIRC.

 

[VictorLustig]

It says he's Swedish with a Canadian father, curious where did you get Norway from that?

Noticed it now. Could have sworn he was Norwegian, he came over from Norway to HV71 this season and has played for the Norwegian selects teams. Pretty sure he wasn't listed as Swedish on eliteprospects earlier.

 

[Maverick41]

1 more to add to the list... kid just turned 14 and has good size.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=295171

Vachkov is Bulgaria's youngest player on their roster for the U18-WJC that is played in Sofia this week. They are playing Australia right now.

 

[SoundAndFury]

A bit different kind of prospect than the ones mentioned before but according to Eliotte Friedman Leafs and Canes are in talks with Mantas Armalis.

 

[ozo]

A bit different kind of prospect than the ones mentioned before but according to Eliotte Friedman Leafs and Canes are in talks with Mantas Armalis.

How would you rate his chances of carving out a job in NHL?

 

[SoundAndFury]

How would you rate his chances of carving out a job in NHL?

Well one thing I have to say about Mantas, his dedication and work ethic is next to no one. He ate like a pro, slept like a pro and trained like a pro ever since he was 19, if not earlier. And you can look both at his play and his numbers - he just got better and better season after season. And he has good size for an NHL goalie, obviously.

So there are a lot of moving pieces but I think if he gives himself enough time to succeed and organization he chooses gives him enough time to succeed we can have an NHL goalie by the time 18/19 season comes. Not sooner than that though, he is still pretty raw and I think staying in Sweden for one more year would be best for him.

Long story short, he has potential and more importantly, he has the right attitude to put it all together someday so if he also would have the right people around him to help him do that he can actually be a successful NHL goalie someday. But he won't be Bobrovsky kind of story where kid nobody knows about starts on the opening night. He really still does need time.

 

[kaiser matias]

Yuki Miura may be an interesting prospect. If his name sounds familiar, it is because his father is Hiroyuki Miura, the first real Japanese player to be drafted (260th in 1992 by the Canadiens; though he never played in the NHL). Miura has spent the past few years in the Czech junior leagues with HC Kladno, and this year he was one point off from leading the U20 league in scoring (with five fewer games played). He was offered a contract by the senior team, but instead is planning to come to North America, apparently to play NCAA. He is 19 (turning 20 in July) but may be worth following.

 

[kabidjan18]

Recently Team Austria won a Quebec Hosted tournament, becoming the first international invitational team to do so. A few potential prospects to feature in the tournament were Redmond Savage, son of Brian Savage and the brother of US U16 player Ryan Savage, and Travis Pokel, the son of former Madison Capitol Tom Pokel.

Redmond is an interesting situation. His feature on the Austrian team leads me to assume that he has dual citizenship (though this is not yet verified). The tournament they participated in counts as "friendly matches", they aren't IIHF sanctioned, so he is not locked in yet to play for Austria. Where Redmond differs from his brother Ryan however is that when Ryan moved to Austria he was 15, and had already played many seasons in the US. If Redmond (2003) is a dual-citizen, he will need to have played in the US two seasons after his 10th birthday for him to be eligible to represent the US. Depending on when his birthday is he could be eligible to play for the US. However, if he is ineligible, and remains in the Red-Bull program until he reached his brother's age he would be ineligible for the U16 Junior Olympics, the U18 World Championships and the U20 World Championships in his draft year, which could factor negatively towards potential draft value. Of course if anyone has more information on this situation I'm interested to find out more.

The situation with Travis Pokel, son of US citizen and former Madison Capitol Tom Pokel, is a little more straightforward, as he was raised in Dornbirn and currently plays in Switzerland but is not a Swiss national. Other promising prospects include Tim Geifes, Steffan Klassek, and Alexander Schmidt.

 

[kabidjan18]

Top 5 (+1) Austrian Hockey Prospects 96'-01' (4/20/16)

https://twitter.com/TXAut_hockey/status/723072694569177088

 

[Rangerss]

Hidden talents!

Hi guys! I have a good picture of this draft but a question to all hardcore guys is if any of you have a good picture of the French and Italian youth leagues and if you have please write to me about this I'm from France but been living in Sweden since age 7 that's way!

Thanks!

 

[LeafChief]

As an Italian, prospects don't come out of the Italian league.

 

[Roughly6Owls]

As an Italian, prospects don't come out of the Italian league.

Yeah, this. Since 2010 (so, in the last 1000 and a bit players selected) there's been literally no one chosen from any French or Italian league at any level. There's been more players selected from China.

I'd think most French players would either play in Switzerland (like Huet did), or immigrated to Canada or the US ala Roussell.

According to quant-hockey, there hasn't been a purely Italian player in the NHL since 2002 (obviously not counting guys like Scandella or Sbisa who are dual citizens that grew up in the other country), so I don't even know where promising Italians would play.

 

[LeafChief]

Yeah, this. Since 2010 (so, in the last 1000 and a bit players selected) there's been literally no one chosen from any French or Italian league at any level. There's been more players selected from China.

I'd think most French players would either play in Switzerland (like Huet did), or immigrated to Canada or the US ala Roussell.

According to quant-hockey, there hasn't been a purely Italian player in the NHL since 2002 (obviously not counting guys like Scandella or Sbisa who are dual citizens that grew up in the other country), so I don't even know where promising Italians would play.

Who was it?

 

[Passchendaele]

Who was it?

This would be Tony Tuzzolino.

 

[kabidjan18]

This would be Tony Tuzzolino.

You mean the dual citizen born in Buffalo who played all his junior hockey in America?

There's one kid I like, Enzo Guebey.

 

[Franck]

Thomas Larkin is the only NHL draftee Italy has ever produced, and he went to the US to play at a prep school in his mid-teens.

This thread is a great resource if you're interested in prospects from less successful hockey nations.

 

[Maverick41]

Yeah, this. Since 2010 (so, in the last 1000 and a bit players selected) there's been literally no one chosen from any French or Italian league at any level. There's been more players selected from China.

I'd think most French players would either play in Switzerland (like Huet did), or immigrated to Canada or the US ala Roussell.

According to quant-hockey, there hasn't been a purely Italian player in the NHL since 2002 (obviously not counting guys like Scandella or Sbisa who are dual citizens that grew up in the other country), so I don't even know where promising Italians would play.

There are always a few Italians playing junior hockey in Germany and Austria, and some of them turn into decent players, like Alex Trivellato (his younger brother David is also playing in Germany) or Joachim Ramoser.
There was also Alex Lambacher who made the move to the NAHL this past season.

 

[Rangerss]

Have anyone a good review on MARKUS SPINELL in Italy and ALEXANDRE TEXIER in France?