Defections to Euro leagues

[honduranhockey]

It\'s becoming commonplace to see NHL-quality players either bailing out of the NHL to go play in the European leagues, or never leaving to come to the NHL (particularly Russians).

Is this an effect of the salary cap, where massive contracts for star players leave 4th line grinders with no money? Or are we seeing the playing field slowly level out between the NHL and these other leagues as the Europeans put better hockey infrastructure into place?

If it keeps going this way, the NHL won\'t be the best league on the planet anymore...

Discuss!

[angus]

salary cap. You will see a lot of mid to lower range guys going to Europe. The cap allows teams to spend big on three to five players, and then fill out the rest of their roster each off-season with lower paid guys. These guys can often make more (sometimes significantly more) money overseas.

[The Comish]

honduranhockey wrote:

If it keeps going this way, the NHL won\'t be the best league on the planet anymore

Not a chance. The NHL will lose some players for sure, but not enough to become a second place league. Ever.

[honduranhockey]

The Comish wrote:

honduranhockey wrote:

If it keeps going this way, the NHL won\'t be the best league on the planet anymore

Not a chance. The NHL will lose some players for sure, but not enough to become a second place league. Ever.

Maybe not a second-place league, but I can see the talent gap narrowing between the leagues - particularly the RSL. Which should make the competition better all around. Maybe someday we\'ll see a Champions League tournament!

[Dobber]

My opinion is that there are about 100 elite players in the world and the NHL has about 95 of them. There are than 500 really good players in this world and the NHL has about 400 of them. From there, we\'re talking about \"decent\" pro hockey players, of which there are probably about 2000 or more of them out there, and the NHL has about 200 of them. Interchangeable parts, really.

B)

[ultrawhiteness]

salary cap and russian oil barons...

i\'m not worried. have you seen the list of teams for that new \"KSL\" or whatever its called? there is a team way out near japan! whose gonna want to play there, or fly 16 hours just to play an away game there?

i\'m all for players going there to get more money. but the guys going... who really cares? simon, metropolit, chistov... not exactly impact NHLers. just opens more spots for the kids.

\"champion\'s league\" is already happening.. check it out on wikipedia.

also this summer, the New York Rangers will be playing a team from the RSL in an exhibition that they\'re calling the Victoria Cup. my bet? Rangers will win. the ruskies play a soft version of the game.

Q:That (physical hockey is more accepted) is not how it is in Russia?
A. Svitov: Of course not…you won’t even finish your hit, when you are instantly given 2 minutes. It would be interesting to know how the referees would like the physical aspects of the game to happen? Every contact with another player is considered to be a violation of the rules.

[fzusher]

It started with more money entering European hockey. Not huge money at first, but enough to ensure that any European player good enough for an NHL team to want to bring them over for a tryout in the A would be pretty much guaranteed to make more money in Europe than they would playing in the AHL.

That meant that coming to North America became a long term investment - a player would come over in the hope that after a few years in the A, the money they\'d be making in the NHL will for sure be better than what they\'d make at home.

Then the lockout year showed entrepreneurs in Europe the financial potential hockey does have there. Now bigger money was willing to get into hockey, and the better players could be getting higher salaries.

Then Russia didn\'t sign the transfer agreement. What that meant was that whereas in the rest of Europe NHL teams could just waltz in and take drafted players over at whim, without teams being able to refuse (providing the player wanted to go), in Russia teams could refuse. So the Russians were able to keep more better players playing at home, which translated into higher incomes again enabling higher investments.

The salary cap effect only enters at this point. An unforeseen consequence of it has been teams giving their top liners longer and more lucrative contracts, pushing the salaries of 3rd and 4th liners lower. It has also pushed an increasing number of older players on long term contracts to 3rd line jobs, and older players out of contract out of jobs as those spots were being filled by players on entry-level contracts. The new hockey money in Russia and the realization in the rest of Europe that it is viable for them to get to the same point means that in Russia for sure, and increasingly in other major leagues, teams are able to offer these 3rd and 4th liners the same or slightly better money that they would be making in the NHL.

The result? Without a financial hit, European players who\'ve been here for some years prefer to go back home where they can raise their kids in their own culture. Much older North American NHLers are faced with better money and less physical and demanding play or retirement, and go. Younger North Americans destined for 4th line or career AHLer money who do not mind trying out living in a different culture pack and go. And most importantly, those players who in the past would be willing to take pay cuts and get away from their families to come to the AHL in the hope of bigger money later, never bother.

European players with top-6/top-4/starter potential, or believing they have that potential, will still come over as they still have reasonable hope of making better money here than in Europe, and as long as that does not change, the NHL is safe. If the Europeans succeed in preventing NHL teams from bringing players over to the AHL in the new transfer agreement, or do not sign a new transfer agreement (and frankly, I don\'t see what\'s in it for them to do sign one), there\'s reason for the NHL to be concerned enough long term to monitor the situation, particularly further raises in European teams\' salary capacities. That the new KHL will have a salary cap that\'s less than half of the NHL\'s suggests they are not a threat now and that they know it.

I agree with Dobber\'s breakdown. I\'d add that what we will see in the next few years is a North Americanization of 3rd and 4th lines in the NHL, with most Europeans playing in the top-6/top-4 level.

[repenttokyo]

i think it is going to be really, really hard to convince enough elite players that russia is the kind of place they want to raise their kids, in order for the defections to become such a problem that the NHL starts to suffer.

[fzusher]

repenttokyo wrote:

i think it is going to be really, really hard to convince enough elite players that russia is the kind of place they want to raise their kids, in order for the defections to become such a problem that the NHL starts to suffer.

Oh, that won\'t happen; the worst that could happen is that the NHL lose its ability to draw non-North Americans, and it\'d require a specific and not extremely probable set of circumstances (inability for NHL teams to take contracted players away for AHL duty; a leveling out of the cap; persistence of both over a span of 8-10 years).