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

[Bravid Nonahan]

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=93696

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=93707

Can anyone tell me anything about these players?

 

[Granlund2Pulkkinen*]

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=93696

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=93707

Can anyone tell me anything about these players?

Nothing notable... Sorry

Dutch League isn't anything to expect anything out of...

 

[Maverick41]

Sometimes there are Dutch players in the German Junior Leagues, who are not doing too bad.

The latest would be Rick van Haren.

A few years back there were Julian van Lijden, who now plays in Salzburg and Diego Hofland, who has played some games in the DEL. Hofland seems to have dual citizenship, though.

There are some others but no one that really stands out.

 

[Valdemar]

Danish prospects born 1994, 1995 and 1996

Danish prospects born 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Below I have listed the Danish players with the best chance of getting drafted. Feel free to disagree with my list, it is not final and a lot can happen before the players mentioned will be draft eligable.

1994 born players:
It is an ordinary year class and only a few players will have a draft chance. They will probably be late round picks if they get drafted.

Dallas Maxwell, Gentofte (C/LW, 01.13.94; 6'0''/181 lbs) He is a very good play-maker (sees the ice well), and also a good goal scorer. He has Canadian family relations.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=45033

Christian Chapman, Frederikshavn (C, 06.20.94; 6'2''/194 lbs) Great size, a good skater with soft hands and fine hockey IQ. More of a goal scorer than a play-maker. Also he has Canadian family relations.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=33794

Christoffer Lindhøj, Malmö (SWE) (RD, 01.24.94; 6'1''/190 lbs) He is a strong D-man who is responsible in his own end and with some offensive ability. He has a good frame, and is still growing.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=50172

1995 born players:
This seems to be an extraordinary year class. It got some high end talents as well as a lot of depth. I will only mention 4 players, but several more will have a chance to get drafted if they develop as expected.

Matthias Martini Asperup, Rødovre (RW, 03.03.95) A fantastic skater with soft hands and high hockey IQ. He is still on the small side, and that’s what holding me back from appointing him top 50 potential. He is going to play junior hockey in Frölunda (SWE) next season (together with Mads Eller - brother to Lars Eller (MTL)).
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=93350

Oliver Björkstrand, Herning (C, 04.10.95) Great play-maker with soft hands and a good shot. He has really stepped up in his development this season. He has family relations with USA.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=92803

Sonny Hertzberg, Rögle (SWE) (LD, 04.21.95; 5'11''/176 lbs) He is a very promising D-prospect who is technically gifted and strong offensively. He has a good shot he is not afraid to use. Will he be the next Phillip Larsen (DAL)? He is also going to play junior hockey in Frölunda (SWE) next season.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=67234

Marcus Nielsen, Rungsted (F, 04.03.95; 6'0''/174 lbs) A physically strong player and a hard worker. He is good skater with a knack of finding the net. This year he has seamless taken his game to the next level playing in a men’s league.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=68170

1996 born players:
This is again an ordinary year class with few top prospects, but the 2 I have mentioned below both stand a good chance to get drafted high.

Nikolaj Ehlers, Biel (SUI) (F, 02.13.96) He is a technically gifted forward with soft hands and outstanding hockey IQ. He has been among the best players his age in Switzerland the last couple of years. His father is a legend in Danish hockey, and by many considered the best Danish hockey player ever.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=66581

Emil Grandal, Gentofte (F, 02.08.96; 6'0''/163 lbs). He is a strong forward, with good size for his age. He is a very good skater and has fine goal scoring instincts, though he is more of a shooter than a passer.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=88822

 

[Maverick41]

Danish prospects born 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Below I have listed the Danish players with the best chance of getting drafted. Feel free to disagree with my list, it is not final and a lot can happen before the players mentioned will be draft eligable.

Thanks for all that information. I am very impressed with the development of Danish hockey over the past years, and it's always nice to read something about up and coming players from other countries.
I am looking forward to see how these players pan out.

 

[Valdemar]

Thanks for all that information.

You are welcome

Could you tell me how the German youth hockey is organised? For a small country like Denmark, the tournaments for U9, U11, U13, U15 and U17 are divided in an Eastern and Western part, with a playoff (a week-end) for the best teams. That way the traveltime for games are reduced considerably. Is it the same in Germany with "regions" where the best teams teams promoting to a playoff?

Sometimes there are players who scores an incredibly amount of goals/points, how is this possible? I suppose that there is a huge difference in level in the leagues, and some teams are getting a profound beating, or am i wrong?

 

[Maverick41]

You are welcome

Could you tell me how the German youth hockey is organised? For a small country like Denmark, the tournaments for U9, U11, U13, U15 and U17 are divided in an Eastern and Western part, with a playoff (a week-end) for the best teams. That way the traveltime for games are reduced considerably. Is it the same in Germany with "regions" where the best teams teams promoting to a playoff?

Sometimes there are players who scores an incredibly amount of goals/points, how is this possible? I suppose that there is a huge difference in level in the leagues, and some teams are getting a profound beating, or am i wrong?

I am not that familiar with the structure of German Youth Hockey so I am not sure if everything I'm gonna say about it is actually correct, and there surely are going to be a few holes in it. Maybe someone more knowlegable about it can correct or add some stuff. But here is what I know or think I know.

There is the "Junioren-Bundesliga" which is a league at the U20 level.
This league is divided into 2 regional groups, one for the northern teams and one for the southern. This season there wer 8 teams in the southern group and 6 in the northern. The 2 best teams of each group play a championship round to determine the champion.

However, probably the highest level of youth hockey in Germany is played in the DNL, which features the 10 best teams in Germany at the U18 level. There is no regional separation at this level but the quality of the teams does vary considerably. After the regular season where all teams play each other 4 times, the 8 best teams make the playoffs and play for the championship. This year was quite a surprise as 8th seed EV Landshut not only upset regular season champion Heilbronn, but went on to win the championship in the final against 4th seed Rosenheim. There are also lower tier leagues at the U18 level and I believe most of them are divided into regional groups, but I don't know how this is structured exactly. I think the 2nd tier league for U18 teams is the "Jugend-Bundesliga". Which is structured pretty much in the same way as the "Junioren-Bundesliga". 2 groups (North and South) and the 2 best teams of each group play in championship round to determine the champion. This year there were 8 teams in each group. I am not sure if there is some sort of relegation system between the "Jugend-Bundesliga" and the DNL.

At the U16 level there is the "Schüler-Bundesliga" which is divided in 4 regional groups, 2 in the north with 6 and 8 teams respectively. and 2 in the south with 6 teams each. At least that's how it was this season. I am not entirely sure how the champion at this level is determined.

I have no idea how things are organized for the younger kids. I think the regional federations are in charge there and it is very difficult to find information on that.

When it comes to the incredible amount of points some kids put up, you are correct that there are always some teams that get pounded pretty much every game, beacuse there are not that many teams with really competitive youth programs. And at some point the best players at each level are usually found playing on the same teams. When you look at the stats of the "Schüler-Bundesliga" and see that 2 players put up a total of 398 points between them, when one of them played 30 and the other 29 games, that is quite insane. But if you compare it to past seasons, those still are impressive numbers.

I hope this helped a little, and hopefully someone else can correct any mistakes I made or add something useful.

 

[Teus]

My guess is that both Nikolai Meyer from Denmark and Konstantin Komarek from Austria will be drafted this year. They both dominated in the wjc D1 as first time draft eligble which will get the scouts attention. Meyer was the top-scorer at that tournament. Komarek finished fourth in the scoring race and improved his stock even more by playing great in the SEl-playoffs. I will be surprised if they won't get drafted. Both have a good shot at playing fulltime senior hockey next year.

Meyer got 11 points in 3 games so far in the World U18 Championship Division I Group B. 6 goals and 3 assists against Korea lol.

 

[Valdemar]

Meyer got 11 points in 3 games so far in the World U18 Championship Division I Group B. 6 goals and 3 assists against Korea lol.

Well, the game against Korea was a pretty one sided affair, but 6 goals in one game is not bad at all

@ Maverick41

Thank you very much, that was an interesting read. I wish you all the best in your developent of young players, it seems like some very interesting prospects are on the way.

 

[Pulkkinen]

Holy crap Spanish hockey is developing insanely fast! O_O Already a player in the Swedish league.

From what i know, we don't have any player at the Swedish League. We have some players developing outside Spain, like Carlos Quevedo (KooVee Tampere, 1993) and Pol Gonzalez (Toronto East Enders, 1992) but Swedish League seems a bit of a long shot. We had some players like Alejandro Pedraz and Juan Muñoz who tried at KalPa. Pedraz returned this year to Spain and Muñoz is one of the best Spanish players at the National League. Maybe France of Italy are better chances to develop, even Holland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland in a better case, but Sweden or Finland are really, at this point, impossible.

For the record, Ivan Gracia is the nearest Spanish player to the NHL. He was selected at the 2nd Round of the 2001 CHL Import Draft and spent some time with the Spokane Chiefs and in 2005, Tom Thompson, scout from the Minnesota Wild, came to Madrid to see him play.

 

[Esope]

Maurin Bouvet. This guy is a 1995 born and he's playing in the U18 french league. I think he could be the next top offensive player for France. If Stéphane Da Costa was able to reach the NHL, I don't see why Bouvet cannot follow the same path...of course it means leave France for better junior leagues.

 

[Granlund2Pulkkinen*]

From what i know, we don't have any player at the Swedish League. We have some players developing outside Spain, like Carlos Quevedo (KooVee Tampere, 1993) and Pol Gonzalez (Toronto East Enders, 1992) but Swedish League seems a bit of a long shot. We had some players like Alejandro Pedraz and Juan Muñoz who tried at KalPa. Pedraz returned this year to Spain and Muñoz is one of the best Spanish players at the National League. Maybe France of Italy are better chances to develop, even Holland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland in a better case, but Sweden or Finland are really, at this point, impossible.

For the record, Ivan Gracia is the nearest Spanish player to the NHL. He was selected at the 2nd Round of the 2001 CHL Import Draft and spent some time with the Spokane Chiefs and in 2005, Tom Thompson, scout from the Minnesota Wild, came to Madrid to see him play.

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=89822

 

[Pulkkinen]

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=89822

First notice about him, thanks for the heads up. There's some players who spend a few seasons outside Spain for any reason, academical exchange, parents work, but not on a regular basis. It's strange, because it wasn't listed for the recent WJC U18. Maybe it sounds funny, but it's possible that Spanish Staff doesn't know nothing about him. For example, Ignacio Martinez-Barona played the last year at Highland Park Varsity, and Roberto Pedrós at Rotary Club, but they returned to Spain this year. I'll follow him, it seems an intriguing prospect.

It's not Spanish exactly, but Rafael Diaz, his parents are from Lugo (Spain), so maybe we can consider him as "our" best prospect. Some Spanish newspapers wrote about him when he played with Switzerland at the Olympics.

 

[Hasbro]

With ZUccarello and Holos it looks like Norway has picked up in development.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Hungary has some players plaing in the Nordic countries:
Istvan Bartalis (1990) has played 51 games in Allsvenskan scoring 21 points and another 6 in Kvalserien. He will join team Hungary for the home IHWC Division I.

Then there´s Benjamin Nemes (1993) playing J18Elit and from the even younger players- Janos Hari´s lil bro Norbert Hari (1995) and Ferenc Kocsis (1995).

In Finland there´s Balasz Sebok (1994) and Krisztian Nagy (1994).

Asides from the Croatian kids playing in Slovakia there are two more interesting players playing in Austria currently: Marko Å akić (1994) and Luka Vukoja (1995).

 

[HalbertGil*]

I started to look for some Asian prospects that might have a future in ice hockey. I found these "prospects"

Yu Hikosaka
15 year old playing in the Austria U-18 leagues.
Shin Owaku
Haha, I suppose playing Midget AA in Canada is a start.
Go Japan!

This South Korean-German player who looks to be doing well in the German U16 ranks
Jess Lim

China has this player in the Finland juniors.
Xiaobi Bao

Taiwan with a 14 year old goalie in this year's U18
Fu-Hsiang Kuei

Thailand with some players in Finland and Norway
Kim Aarola
Niwat Hellerød

 

[DrPabloRamirez]

I started to look for some Asian prospects that might have a future in ice hockey. I found these "prospects"
...

There is vietnamese origin GK playing U18 SVK league: Nam vam Nguyen
Article about him is here.

 

[DenGC]

Meyer got 11 points in 3 games so far in the World U18 Championship Division I Group B. 6 goals and 3 assists against Korea lol.

He had one goal and 3 assists today, when Denmark secured promotion to the top level by beating Belarus 4-3.
Finished the tournament as scoring leader with 17points (7g and 10a) in 5games. I'll be surprised if goes undrafted.

Honorable mention goes to Patrick Russell for scoring the game winner today. He had a point total of 14point (5g 9a) and was honored with best forward of the tournament.
The top line consisting of Patrick Russell, Nicolai Meyer and Thomas Spelling combined for at total of 41points.
Note, that top prospect Nicklas Jensen (Oshawa Generals) was unavailable.

2012 will be a fun season with both the U20 and U18 team playing at top level.

 

[DenGC]

I doubt that they'll ever get drafted but here is a couple of Icelandic prospects:

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=57002

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=69533

 

[CPFC]

Kim Won-Jun, a Korean guy who has played several seasons in the Finnish Junior leagues, at the highest level.

http://eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=25486

 

[Maverick41]

Just checked the results for the first game at the Division I World Championships and this guy kind of stood out.
I don't think he will be a star in any of the bigger leagues, but 58 saves on 60 shots were pretty impressive even if it was only div I.

 

[ChaiTiefling]

From Britain, the next big thing is Ross Venus. 14pts in 52 games as a 16yo in a fully professional league and looks right at home. Politics and idiocy stopped him making the U18 national team (don't ask) but he looks to be the real deal. His Blaze coach Paul Thompson, also the GB national team coach, called him the best player he's ever seen at that age. Outstanding hockey sense and work ethic, and unlike most British youngsters he seems to have his head screwed on right.

Also, he's 20yo now but Ben Bowns is going to be the next great British goalie, potentially best-ever, he's single-handedly dragged a terrible Sheffield team into the EPL playoffs two years in a row. Named as the best goaltender in the U20s this year (despite the Latvian goalie having a .975 sv%) and was the main reason they won the bronze medal after being favourites for relegation. As good as any goalie in the country right now and has big things ahead.

 

[Mikkel]

Just checked the results for the first game at the Division I World Championships and this guy kind of stood out.
I don't think he will be a star in any of the bigger leagues, but 58 saves on 60 shots were pretty impressive even if it was only div I.

I had no idea that FC Barcelona had a hockey team

 

[Pulkkinen]

Just checked the results for the first game at the Division I World Championships and this guy kind of stood out.
I don't think he will be a star in any of the bigger leagues, but 58 saves on 60 shots were pretty impressive even if it was only div I.

Here's a recap of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-08TezzihQ

Alcaine is probably the best Goalie of Spain right now. He was also named Best Goaltender with Spain U20 at the WJC, and is one of the key reasons of the improvement of Spain's National Team. The FC Barcelona missed him a lot with their absence by injury and since he returned, the team secured better results. Barcelona has hockey team, but is actually the second best of the league behind the Aramón Jaca, who won the 3 Spanish competitions. Barcelona has been runner-up in all of them.

About FC Barcelona, here's some of their best players: Juan Muñoz, who is also an important part of Spain's offense, Danylo Didkovsky, who finished the season with really impressive numbers, and his Ukranian mate, Vitaly Kulikov, one of the key pieces of the defense. They have also some promising names like Oriol Boronat and Einar Meyerson. Another important names are Adrian Sosa, adquired this year from Switzerland and Joakim Engström, a defender from Sweden, Ramon Morer, a regular contributor on the offense, and Alejandro Zapata, another regular at the defense.

 

[ocarina]

From Britain, the next big thing is Ross Venus. 14pts in 52 games as a 16yo in a fully professional league and looks right at home. Politics and idiocy stopped him making the U18 national team (don't ask) but he looks to be the real deal. His Blaze coach Paul Thompson, also the GB national team coach, called him the best player he's ever seen at that age. Outstanding hockey sense and work ethic, and unlike most British youngsters he seems to have his head screwed on right.

A shame he couldn't play in the U-18, I've read some less then flattering things about the state of hockey in Britain.

Do you think Venus has a chance of getting drafted? It's very rare to see someone that young put up decent numbers in a pro league, even if it is comparatively low-level. I'm sure he could have a spot on a major junior team if he wanted to come over.