Here an excerpt from the Hockey News (Ryan Kennedy):
While teams critical of the draft argue it is becoming too difficult to sign the European players selected and that those who do come over aren’t good enough, I say do your job better.
Let’s tackle the second inaccuracy in the aforementioned statement first: To say major junior has not graduated/developed enough elite Euro talent lately is a farce. Mikkel Boedker was a top 10 pick this summer and this season his Kitchener Rangers could face fellow blue-chipper Nikita Filatov, should the gifted Russian suit up for the Sudbury Wolves instead of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. Of course, Boedker may not be available because the Phoenix Coyotes already want him on their roster, once again proving the young Dane’s development has been coming along just fine.
And Juha Metsola, Riku Helenius and Ivan Vishnevskiy played significant roles on their respective junior teams last season as well.
Other recent CHL Euro grads include Martin Erat, Andrej Meszaros and Sergei Kostitsyn, as well as Atlanta rookie goaltender Ondrej Pavelec and the recently defected Alexander Radulov
I can’t really see what the complaint is, the import draft is seperate from the other feeder drafts for CHL teams, so they don’t really lose anything if a European player does not show up. Each team is only allowed to carry two in any case. If they get two players who are better than the home grown alternatives, great. If not, nothing lost really.
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