Something I noticed while going over the rosters this morning....right now it is shaping up that there will be no less than five "two-spot" (overage import) players in the league this year:
Misha Fisenko in Calgary
Igor Revenko in Prince Albert
Marek Viedensky in Saskatoon
Stepan Novotny in Swift Current
Alex Pechurski in Tri-Cities
Seems to me like not that long ago you'd be hard-pressed to find even one of those two-spot players in the league. Last year, for example, there were two (Kytnar and Kundratek).
What's the reason behind this? I think it's pretty safe to say that the overall quality of import players in the league has declined quite a bit in the last five years, so is that resulting in more teams being willing to try to wring one more year out of the few good ones they do get? Is the overall quality of overage players down as well, to the point where teams are more willing to use two designated spots on one player?
Other ideas?
5 comments:
i think it's the known vs the unknown.
why take a chance on a player who might not report, doesn't know the league, the language, the food, the expectations, etc.? with the import draft being an agent controlled event a lot of teams are not on a level surface. and the chl wonders where paul kelly gets his ammunition!
I think its just so many Euros that come to the WHL and cant compete at the level of North Americans. I also know that Revenko in Prince Albert looked like one of the worst players on the ice when I watched them play the other nite. So the Raiders must be desperate
If I recall there was a lot of criticism of Jeff Chynoweth for not participating in the import draft, now comments are being made of the lack of quality of imports. I would suggest more gm's will not draft imports next year, your thoughts Alan.
Regards
Wolf
Everett's new Euro, Jesse Hutuhla, has been a scratch all 4 games... yet to make his debut.
I would think it's an individual team thing, whether they use imports or not. I think as long as teams are able to land imports who are good enough to make an impact on their teams, then those teams will continue to want import players. Impact players equals more wins and everyone wants more of those.
It's the teams who have not had much luck with imports who may consider skipping them. Kootenay has not had many significant import players in the last while and I think after years of watching these high-profile players fill out their 3rd and 4th lines, they finally questioned why they were doing this.
If Kootenay has a very successful season this year without imports, it just might spur some other teams to reconsider, you never know....
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