Maybe some interesting international pre-season-facts

I did put some efforts into researching some statistical comparisons between the most important hockey-countries and the according leagues. The qualifying date for my figures was 1st September 2010.


What countries (except Canada and USA who are lightyears away) do export the most players in the best paying leagues (NHL, KHL, SWE, FIN, SWI, GER, AHL)?


1. Sweden 113 players
2. Czech Republic 95
3. Finland 93
4. Slovakia 56
5. Russia 46
6. Germany 16
7. Switzerland 11




What countries (again without Canada/USA) do export the most players in the very best paying leagues? (NHL, KHL)?


1. Sweden 73 players
2. Czech Republic 66
3. Finland 43
4. Slovakia 39
5. Germany 10
6. Switzerland 7




What is the average size of a hockey-player in what league? (in cm)


1. NHL 185.78 cm
2. AHL 185.48
3. Sweden 183.82
4. Russia 183.76
5. Czech Republic 183.74
6. Germany 183.20
7. Slovakia 183.18
8. Finland 183.15
9. Switzerland 182.40




What is the average weight of a hockey-player in what league? (in kg)


1. NHL 91.40 kg
2. AHL 88.49
3. Russia 87.33
4. Sweden 87.23
5. Germany 86.11
6. Czech Republic 85.99
7. Switzerland 85.59
8. Finland 85.57
9. Slovakia 84.97




What is the average age of a hockey-player in what league?


1. AHL 23.39 years
2. Finland 24.52
3. Sweden 25.59
4. Czech Republic 26.67
5. Switzerland 26.74
6. Russia 26.93
7. NHL 27.07
8. Germany 27.12
9. Slovakia 27.27




Conclusions:
I’m Swiss so I dare to take the focus of these conclusions a bit to Switzerland. The low amount of exported players indicates that the quality of Swiss hockey is still overrated in my home-country. Especially if we take the figures of exported players to the very best paying leagues (significantly better paying leagues than the Swiss league). At least according to these figures It’s also an arrogant and naiv common Swiss view to think that German hockey is worse than Swiss, it’s very close in my eyes with Switzerland having a tiny little small edge in terms of depth but at the very top Germany is right there.


If you take a look at the age-average of the leagues one can easily notice that a player exodus abroad (e.g. Sweden, Finland) leads into a significantly younger home-league and this is probably one of the best instruments to develop younger players. They start to play on a high level already at a young age. Switzerland can’t really tell - with an age-average of close to 27 years - that it has a development-league. This honour goes to the AHL to Finland and to Sweden.


It looks like the Swiss have some problems in terms of height and weight. Yes, could be that the Swiss genetics leads into a little bit smaller people in average than in other hockey-countries but if you really study these figures you will easily find out that these differences are probably overrated: Even the small Swiss will find out that their tallest team, EHC Biel (average size 185.23 cm) would face 6 NHL-teams with a smaller size-average (Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings and the Nashville Predators) – this finding-out was a bit of a surprise for me! So, yes, Switzerland has to try to get a little bit bigger and stronger in average (scientific guided off-ice-training-programs and a little bit different player-recruiting can solve this small problem more or less). In my eyes the main-difference is still in the skill- and skating-department. Especially hand-skills, passing, shooting, puck-control is the main-problem and in terms of skating it’s the stability-part, not really the mobility. We also have some really fast, quick skaters but we don’t have enough players with stable, powerful skating.


So, let’s discuss these figures and my conclusions.


Thomas Roost / Central Scouting Europe, NHL