Ice hockey | A confusing change has taken place in the SM league – even Raimo Summanen was confused

Ice hockey The 50th anniversary season of the SM League started this week.

In the opening round of seven matches on Tuesday, 95 foreign players were seen in the teams’ lineups, which means 32 percent of all the players in the matches.

The number of foreign players will surprise even an experienced expert.

“Shocking”, Raimo Summanen says.

“When leagues have been closed or renewed, it is often justified that something is being done in terms of the development of Finnish hockey and Finnish players. This is now completely against that,” he continues.

At the beginning of the new season, SM league clubs have a contract with a total of 118 foreign players.

In terms of percentage, 25 percent of all players are foreigners. As the opening round showed, in reality the percentage is even higher in the rinks.

The number of contract players includes relatively much more Finnish juniors, who mainly play in the U20 league or Mestis.

Number has risen a staggering amount in recent years. For example, in the 2017–18 season, foreign players were 14 percent of all, and in the 2020–21 season, “only” 18 percent.

“This huge number of foreign players should be in the discussion every time the league bosses get together,” says Summanen.

“There is a lot of talk that this is a nursery league where players are developed. Those benefits are now flowing outwards. Nowadays, it is also difficult to keep foreigners for an awfully long time. They come and go, which is also culturally challenging for the teams.”

Last season, 129 foreigners played at least one match in the SM league. This season, the record will also be broken.

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This huge number of foreign players should be in the conversation every time the league bosses get together

in the SM league gave up the foreigner quota once and for all in 2013. In the last years before that, the teams were allowed to take a maximum of three players from outside the EU region.

Summanen would like some kind of foreigner quota in the current league.

“It would certainly be possible to agree in some way, although of course I understand these free mobility of labor and others.”

One significant factor in the rapid increase in the number of foreign players is the decline in Finnish player production. It has been visible, for example, at NHL booking events for several years.

Grumpy what makes the prevailing situation is that there has been talk for a long time about the weakened appeal of the SM league in the eyes of foreign players.

Luko’s sports director Kalle Sahlstedt said in the summer To the People of Satakuntathat the SM league’s attraction for foreign players is lower than ever during his career as a sports director in Luko, which began in 2017.

Instead of individual top acquisitions, the SM league has mainly acquired huge quantities of metric goods from abroad. Many of the acquisitions are complete lotteries.

“Two players can come from, for example, the ECHL to this model with similar statistics. One of them can score a point per game in the league and the other one may not be of any use,” one league coach describes the pig-in-a-sack situation.

“Before, we came here to take a step towards the NHL. Today, efforts are being made here for the next and better European league. And we send guys in their twenties to the North American junior leagues,” says Summanen.

Summanen is worried about the effects of the league’s foreigner trend on Finnish ice hockey.

“We should think about how to give young Finnish players a chance. It has a big impact on the future. There should be a little patriotism in this matter.”

“What will we be left with if we lose the Finnish players? It’s our best marketing story, that Finnish juniors succeed and become NHL players.”

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It is quite worrying that this is the situation already at this point.

Last In the season, Vaasan Sport’s legion of 14 foreign players was particularly well-placed.

In this season too, the top three chains of Sport’s attack are practically formed by foreign players, but at the beginning of the season, the number of foreign players in Sport (11) is not even the largest in the league.

Koovola’s KooKoo has a contract with 12 and Lahti’s Pelicans with no less than 13 foreign players.

In the opening match of the season, KooKoo had 11 foreigners in its lineup, Pelicans, Sport and Luko had 10.

“It is quite worrying that already at this stage of the season this is the situation. Because during the season there are injuries, which are often patched up from the market specifically with foreign procurement,” says Summanen.

Pori Ässi has the fewest foreigners, three.