Euro Hockey Is On The Rise

 Hockey is one of the four major sports in America. It happens to be the largest sport in Canada. The National Hockey League is a league where 32 teams across The United States and Canada compete for The Stanley Cup. For quite some time, the majority of the players have come from either Canada or The United States. The only interaction the North American players would have with outside players would be at The Olympics. Over the past 50 or something years, European hockey has been on the fast rise for all of us to witness. They have produced some unreal talent to play in the National Hockey League such as Saku Koivu, Marian Hossa, Peters Forsberg, Patrik Elias, and Pavel Bure to name a few. The first European player to come play in the National Hockey League was in 1965. That player was named Ulf Sterner and he played for the New York Rangers. He paved the way for every European player in the league after him and all those in the league today. We are starting to see hockey take off in Europe like never before. It is great to see part of the world catch up with North America in terms of hockey. I was browsing and found an article that kind of discusses this. The article is called "This Is Why European Hockey Is on the Rise" by Jay Stepan. One thing that amazed me that Jay said was "The top 5 teams in Sweden were also considered the very top of Europe competition, highlighted in the Champions Hockey League, where top European clubs yearly compete in what is an equivalent to the soccer version Champions League." (Stepan) This blew me away because I was aware of the soccer champions league, I did not know they were doing this with hockey. After doing some research, I found that there are 32 teams competing from 13 different countries across the continent of Europe! This makes me happy because it shows the sport is growing internationally at a faster pace than I anticipated. Seeing all these different teams around all these countries should help grow the game across the pond, as the sports fans over there are quite passionate about supporting their club. According to Stepan, a huge reason why European leagues are taking off is due to the fall of the KHL, otherwise known as Russia's hockey league. A bunch of great European players would go to play in Russia because the KHL was considered the top premier league on that side of the world. "One of the fundamental factors that have massively helped European hockey was, weirdly enough, a war in one of their countries, Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, everybody who knows hockey immediately understood what it meant for the Russian KHL, which was for many years seen as the second best hockey league in the world. It became apparent that most non Russian essential players would leave the KHL on short notice, and that is precisely what happened. So the vast majority of Swedes, Czechs, and Finns amongst other nationalities, suddenly became available to European clubs."(Stepan) It is always sad to see that war is occurring, but top players leaving the KHL is great for every European league. It draws attention to the league and any exposure is great exposure for any league and team. Many players will want to go back and play for their home city or country in hopes to bring a championship to their name. More proof that European hockey is on the rise is the most recent international hockey tournament that just took place. This tournament was run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. This is a yearly tournament and the results are pretty outstanding for European teams. Team German took home the silver medal to the world favorites, Canada. Everyone expected Canada to win this tournament, but nobody expected Germany to be in the gold medal game. Germany is one of those European countries where hockey has seen an increase of players over the years. They have already produced some great talent that play in North America such as Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, and Lukas Reichel. Shockingly enough, Team USA did not even earn a medal at this event. They fell in the bronze medal game to Team Latvia. Seeing the team's success against The United States will motivate more players in the country to play the game. In the future, North American teams should not take any European team lightly in any game because they can get knocked out of a medal like Team USA. Another international tournament that takes place is the World Juniors. This is for young players to compete in. The USA, Canada, and Russia were seen as the favorites every year. With the emergence of Finland and Sweden, they have proven they can win the tournament as well with Finland winning it in 2016 and 2019. While Sweden won it in 2012. Over the history of the NHL drafts, the main players to go first overall are primarily from The United States or Canada. In 2022, The Montreal Canadians selected Juraj Slafkovsky first overall out of Slovakia. The last time someone from Europe was selected first overall was Rasmus Dahlin in 2018. Seeing European players go first overall in a highly prolific draft over American and Canadian players is solid proof the sport is becoming more serious and popular in European countries. Seeing these players get drafted so high will encourage more NHL teams to scout more players from Europe as it has proven to produce solid players at a constant rate. If there is anything I am trying to prove, it is that Europe has put the world on notice with its hockey skills and up and coming league. In the future, I would not be too surprised if the Champions League in Europe is what players would want to compete for rather than The Stanley Cup in North America. Europe is a proven hockey continent.

https://discover.hubpages.com/sports/why-european-hockey-is-rising 

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