With the National Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League agreement under fire again, it is time the two come to a better agreement. One that can benefit both sides but focus on the growth of hockey.
Is the Canadian Hockey League Agreement Working?
Taking An Alternate Route
What the Stats Suggest
From 2005 to this current day, with help from analyst Prasanth Iyer‘s work, the stats show that Finnish and Swedish defenceman drafted inside the first four rounds made the league faster. 50 percent of defenceman drafted out of one of the Nordic pro leagues made it to the NHL by the age of 22. Canadian Hockey League defenceman took two years longer on average to hit the 50 percent mark. As for outside the third round, 33 percent of fourth to seventh round defenceman drafted from Nordic countries make the NHL by 22. Compare that with just 4 percent from the CHL.
When it came to analyzing forwards, 27 percent of Nordic draftees make the NHL by age 24 compared to 19 percent for the CHL.
– Jesper Bratt
– Oskar Lindblom
– Victor Olofsson
– Andreas Johnsson
– Victor Arvidsson
– Lucas Wallmark
All these players are prime examples of players who are late-round Liiga/SHL drafted players who have become NHL successes pretty early on in their careers. This is due to being in a pro league, developing against men as teenagers.
Since 2015:
– 22 percent of Finnish Liiga eligible players have been drafted
– 15 percent of NCAA and USHL eligible players have been drafted
– 12 percent of SHL eligible players have been drafted
– 9 percent of CHL eligible players have been drafted
