Hockey's second-tier nations making strides

By foxsports
Published

Is the hockey world shrinking or growing? Depends on your perspective.

From an elite angle, it may indeed be getting smaller. At any given major international tournament these days, the list of true contenders has dwindled to four or five — Canada, Russia, Sweden, the United States and sometimes Finland. Those nations also dominate the first couple of rounds of the entry draft, with the Czechs and Slovaks stubbing their toes in terms of prospect development. Senior writer Ken Campbell analyzes this phenomenon in an upcoming issue of THN.

At the same time, there are several indicators that point to world growth.

Start with the Kontinental League, the first league since the World Hockey Association that has poached big-time players from the NHL. A scan of this year's Olympic rosters shows 60 players (about 22 percent of the total pool) skate in the Russian league.

Then there are the high-level players who won't be in Vancouver solely because their national teams didn't qualify. That list includes NHL key cogs such as Anze Kopitar (Slovenia), Thomas Vanek (Austria), Cristobal Huet (France); and other regulars such as Nik Antropov (Kazakhstan), Ruslan Fedotenko and Alexei Ponikarovsky (Ukraine); Dainius Zubrus (Lithuania); and Danes Jannik Hansen, Peter Regin and Frans Nielsen.

At the same time, the nations that are represented at the Games will do so almost exclusively with homegrown talent. There was a time, not too long ago, when Canadian-born-and-trained skaters dotted the rosters of Italy, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. That trend has greatly diminished. The only true-blue Canucks we could find who fit that profile in 2010 are Hnat Domenichelli (Switzerland) and Jason Holland, Chris Schmidt and John Tripp (Germany).

Conclusion? The Big 7 may have lost a couple of long-standing members, but the second tier of hockey nations is expanding and developing more and more capable players.

ROSTER WATCH

Some facts and trivia about the recently announced Olympic squads: