Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Yesterday TSN showed the 2009 WJC game between Canada and Russia. I was surprised to see how few of the players on the Candian team are now playing in the NHL, or how few games they have played. An 18 year old draft is a crap shoot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Wo...nships_rosters |
I watched it too and, while I thought the number of Canadian kids now in the NHL seemed about right (a few misses but also some guys really blossomed), what stood out for me was the complete lack of ANY Russians from that team being in the NHL now.
Their top guys included Filatov, Petrov and a few others that were very highly touted. When you watch the games, there is no doubt that there is as much talent on the Russian team as the Canadian team.
And yet, when it comes to turning them into NHL players, it just doesn't happen much.
Fun fact from that WJ tourney... the two defensemen on the all star team that year were Karlsson and Subban (the last two Norris Trophy winners)