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NHL Players playing in Europe during lock-out

D

drummond

New member
I guess it would be useful to have a thread following NHLers in Europe. The first few signings:

Jaromir Jagr and Tomas Plekanec will play for Kladno of the Czech Extraleague

Pavel Kubina - HC Vitkovice (Czech Extraleague)

Evgeny Malkin and Sergei Gonchar - Metalurg Magnitorgorsk (KHL)

Alexander Semin - Lokomotiv Jaroslavl (KHL)

Pavel Datsyuk - AK BArs Kazan (KHL)

Nik Antropov - Barys Astana (KHL)

Andrei Kostitsyn - Traktor Chelyabinsk (KHL)

Others will probably follow. Czech Extraleague is open, Russian KHL has put some restrictions but in general it allows teams to add three players, German and Swiss league does not have any specific policy as well.

Swedish Elitserien on the contrary issued a policy that any NHL player can be signed but only for the lenght of the whole season.

Not sure about Finland.
 
European media are full of rumours which NHL players will play in various European Leagues. The trend is so far pretty obvious - each league is mostly interested in local guys, meaning Russians go to the KHL, Czechs to the Czech Extraleague, Swiss (Hiller, Streit) to theirs etc., even Dannish players (Nielsen and Regin) joining their former team in Denmark.

The only speculation which surprised me is that Anze Kopitar could join Mora IF (Swedish second league) where his brother plays professional hockey. Swiss team Servete Geneva is also interested in obtaining Kopitar.
 
WAYNEINIONA said:
It didn't take Thornton and Nash long to get out of town.
Click to expand...

They both played for Davos in the 04-05 lockout I'm pretty sure so they maybe have existing relationships there.

Still, as far as things go, not the worst thing in the world to get to go live and work in Switzerland.
 
WAYNEINIONA said:
It didn't take Thornton and Nash long to get out of town.
Click to expand...

Thornton?s wife is a Swiss, he spends every summer in Switzerland, works out with Davos, so for them it is kind of coming home
 
mirtle: Grabovski says he has an offer from Minsk in the KHL to play but nothing is certain yet. Sounds like he ends up playing there though.
 
drummond said:
WAYNEINIONA said:
It didn't take Thornton and Nash long to get out of town.
Click to expand...

Thornton?s wife is a Swiss, he spends every summer in Switzerland, works out with Davos, so for them it is kind of coming home
Click to expand...

... and the flag is a big plus.

* ducks for cover *
 
Generally a player is returning to his country of origin.  Or a North American born seems to gravitate to the Swiss league.
Then there are the curiosities:
What draws Niklas Backstrom to the KHL?  A guy from Helsinki prefers Moscow?
And Andrew Ference, a good Alberta boy goes to the Czech League. 
If anyone has their reasons or thoughts, please let us know!

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=75388
 
Swedish authorities have decided that the desicison to block NHL-players from playing in the Swedish Elite League was illegal, so NHL-players are free to sign now. Technically the Elite league can ignore the desicion, but it would cost a lot.
 
hap_leaf said:
Generally a player is returning to his country of origin.  Or a North American born seems to gravitate to the Swiss league.
Then there are the curiosities:
What draws Niklas Backstrom to the KHL?  A guy from Helsinki prefers Moscow?
And Andrew Ference, a good Alberta boy goes to the Czech League. 
If anyone has their reasons or thoughts, please let us know!

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=75388
Click to expand...

Andrew Ference played in Ceske Budejovice of Czech Extraleague during last lockout (2004-05). At that time he was a member of Calgary Flames and their goalie Roman Turek talked him into going there during the 2004-05 lock-out. He seemingly enjoyed it there, so he goes again.
 
Nash and Thornton had an excellent debut in Switzerland.  Both registred 4 points in 9-2 Davos victory, Nash scored 3 goals plus one assist and Thornton collected 4 assists. Spezza and Seguin did not dress yet.

As of other notables in the KHL, many of them did not play yet (Kovalchuk, Datsyuk etc.) Gonchar has 2 assists in 2 games for Metalurg Magnitogorsk, Kulemin and Malkin have 1 assist each so does Ovechkin in Dinamo Moscow.

Good thing is that ours Nik Kulemin plays regurarly with Malkin, so hopefully it will help him to regain his former form. Here is a link to their last game - Kulemin wears Nr. 14 (he is spelled Kulyomin) and records an assist on first Metalurg goal on PP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naA6BA5uq8s&feature=player_embedded#!


In the Czech Extraleague, best NHLer so far is surprisingly Jiri Tlusty (2+2 in 2 games), followed by Plekanec (1+3).
 
Here is a nice page, which updates the stats of NHLers playing in Europe on daily basis.
http://www.dirtydangle.com/p/nhlers-european-statistics.html
 
The KHL reminds me of Japan's version of MLB. It's a pretty good representation of the real thing but you feel like you're eating vegetarian salami.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVg_LKYG4w&feature=player_embedded
 
I do not know if this thread is also intended for KHL, but Nail is the rookie of the week over in the KHL.


The KHL tabbed Nail Yakupov as its rookie of the week, which is a pretty impressive feat considering the fact that he isn?t far-removed from some transfer-related headaches.

After two pointless contests and a healthy scratch, Yakupov made an impact in the two games he played last week. He scored all three of his goals in those two contests and also averaged almost 18 minutes per game.

link
 
The Leafs Lupul has joined the KHL (not without some 'rule bending')...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/khl-bends-rules-bring-maple-leafs-joffrey-lupul-194354088--nhl.html
 
According to Crosby's agent, Crosby going to Europe would cost $400,000 per month in insurance coverage.  No European team can afford that price tag, unless of course, a wealthy Euro club owner would pay to cover the cost.  That is highly doubtful.  Which is why Crosby has not traversed the ocean to play overseas as much as he desires to do.  His true preference is hoping for an end to the lockout.

Source:  CBC
 
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