EHM The Blue Line

Pavel Brendl goes to Kalpa.

And there's better link to Lajunen's goal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8EyycBwxdE

Eric Perrin makes comeback to Jyp and Sm-league.

He has played 162 Sm-leaguegames wearing Ässät's, Jokerit's, HPK's and Jyp's jerseys. In 2002-2003 he scored 56 points in 63 games for Jyp (regular season: 56, 18+28=46, playoffs: 7, 4+6=10).

Ässät's Joel Armia will be high on next years draft. 17-year-old player has scored 6+4 in 10 Sm-league games. His +/- is also very good: +5. Right-handed winger is not small: 192 centimetres and 85 kilos. Sounds good.

P.s. Jyp's Eric Perrin: 2 games, 4 goals, 2 of them gamewinning-goals.

Anyone know how the promotion/relegation for the Swedish Allsvenskan is going to work this year? stats.swehockey.com shows a solid line after 14th place when looking at the stadings. Is Allsvenskan going to 13 teams this year?

rfroese wrote:Anyone know how the promotion/relegation for the Swedish Allsvenskan is going to work this year? stats.swehockey.com shows a solid line after 14th place when looking at the stadings. Is Allsvenskan going to 13 teams this year?

I think there will be 14 teams with the team placed in 14th will relegated without any qualification and teams in 12 and 13 will play a qualification league to stay in Allsvenskan.

rfroese wrote:Anyone know how the promotion/relegation for the Swedish Allsvenskan is going to work this year? stats.swehockey.com shows a solid line after 14th place when looking at the stadings. Is Allsvenskan going to 13 teams this year?

I am not sure as I don't follow Allsvenskan much, but I think that means the 14th place team will be relegated and the 12th and 13th will have to qualify to stay up

That's an interesting but exciting way to keep teams moving. Course that means that another team from Division 1F will make Allsvenskan. Karlskrona does have a nice looking rink, so that would make sense.

rfroese wrote:That's an interesting but exciting way to keep teams moving. Course that means that another team from Division 1F will make Allsvenskan. Karlskrona does have a nice looking rink, so that would make sense.

They still have to play for it. Teams don't get promoted due to geography.

Vesa Toskala goes to AIK.

Manimal wrote:

rfroese wrote:That's an interesting but exciting way to keep teams moving. Course that means that another team from Division 1F will make Allsvenskan. Karlskrona does have a nice looking rink, so that would make sense.

They still have to play for it. Teams don't get promoted due to geography.

Maybe my translation isn't the best, but I thought D1F was referred to as Allsvenskan South as they have dominated the qualification process of late. Like last year, when the Kvalserien was Olofstrom (1F) Nybro (1F) & Tingsryds (1F) with Enkoping only making it because they didn't face a team from the stronger division.

Sm-league standings after 32-33 games (games, points):
1. Jyp 32 73
2. HIFK 32 67
3. Ässät 33 67
4. HPK 33 56
5. Jokerit 32 53
6. Blues 33 52
7. Lukko 33 51
8. KalPa 33 48
9. Tappara 33 47
10. Ilves 33 41
11. Kärpät 32 40
12. Pelicans 32 31
13. SaiPa 33 30
14. TPS 32 28

Player stats (games, goals+assists=points, pms, +/-):
1. Perttu Lindgren, Lukko, 33 15+27=42, 10, +9
2. Ville Peltonen, HIFK, 26 14+18=32, 6, +11
3. Kimmo Kuhta, HIFK, 31 11+21=32, 8, +15
4. Kurtis McLean, Lukko, 33 10+22=32, 12, +4
5. Janne Lahti, Jokerit, 31 19+12=31, 18, +15
6. Jesse Niinimäki, Ilves, 33 11+20=31, 12, -2
7. Ville Viitaluoma, HPK, 33 7+23=30, 12, -2
8. Lauri Tukonen, Lukko, 30 15+14=29, 69, +3
9. Juha-Pekka Hytönen, Jyp, 32 12+17=29, 18, +9
10. Teemu Pulkkinen, Jokerit, 32 10+19=29, 10, +13
11. Tuomas Santavuori, Ässät, 33 10+18=28, 18, -3
12. Antti Pihlström, Jyp, 31 13+13=26, 37, +13
13. Jakub Petruzalek, Lukko, 33 10+16=26, 20, +9
14. Tyler Redenbach, SaiPa, 33 3+23=26, 10, -16
15. Tuomas Kiiskinen, KalPa, 32 13+12=25, 2, +1
16. Eric Perrin, Jyp, 22 11+14=25, 4, +13
17. Niclas Lucenius, Tappara, 32 8+17=25, 4, +11
18. Sakari Salminen, KalPa, 32 6+19=25, 8, -12
19. Kevin Doell, Tappara, 32 11+13=24, 38, +4
20. Teemu Ramstedt, HIFK, 32 7+17=24, 6, +11

Top goalscorer: 19: Janne Lahti, Jokerit: 19
Most assists: Perttu Lindgren, Lukko: 27
Best +/-: Sami Vatanen, Jyp: +23
Most points by d-man: Markus Nordlund, TPS: 10+12=22

Jypfan92 wrote:Sm-league standings after 32-33 games (games, points):
1. Jyp 32 73
2. HIFK 32 67
3. Ässät 33 67
4. HPK 33 56
5. Jokerit 32 53
6. Blues 33 52
7. Lukko 33 51
8. KalPa 33 48
9. Tappara 33 47
10. Ilves 33 41
11. Kärpät 32 40
12. Pelicans 32 31
13. SaiPa 33 30
14. TPS 32 28

How many teams get relegated?
It would be a shame for a classic team like TPS to be relegated

Yeah, TPS won champion last year and they have almost same team as they had last year

Last team will play relegation playoffs against Mestis-champion. But if Mestis-champion winns, they have to pay 1mill. (that they don't have) for place in Sm-league. And there's much more rules (to not to get relegated ). However it's almost impossible to get relegated.

And even though the Mestis team WOULD fill all requirements, still I think that league wouldn't let a team get relegated. Probably then there would be 15 teams next season.

I think it would be better if the last one relegates automatically and the 2nd last would play in playouts. It would be nice to see new teams on SM-League

I don't think it would be good, because SM-liiga is totally in different level than Mestis. I think the best rule would be that team who wins relegation playoff, gets it's place in SM-liiga.

I'm on the fence about this. On the other hand it would be cool to get new teams in, but like A9L3E said, the level of skill is completely on different levels. Then again, Mestis teams might also improve their popularity with the fans, if they were given a chance to play in SM-liiga, and thus get more resources to sign better players, and eventually they might be good enough to play in SM-liiga, even if they aren't quite there yet at the beginning, right after promotion. They might make it, like Kärpät or KalPa, who were Mestis teams not so long ago.

Relegation might also be a financial disaster to many SM-liiga teams, and you have to consider the risk of teams going broke because they're relegated.

Perhaps adding new teams to SM-liiga, without relegation, would be the best way to go if you don't want to risk teams, that have been playing hockey since the dawn of time, to go belly up only because they had one bad season.

One great example is Kalpa. They didin't go through the relegations to get into the league. Heck after '99 bankruptcy they have been even as low as Suomi Sarja. They started to play Sm-League in '06-'07 and after three years in the bottom muds now they are top contenders. I think the League should see that, and give teams with solid Mestis FANBASE and organization a chance in the League. Like Vaasan Sport.

Heck if Sport had been let in to the League after they won the Mestis in 2009 their economy wouldn't be as bad as it is now. But to me its a shame, that team with SM-league level fanbase enthuasim (i.e. the oldest and one of the most organized fanclubs in Finland the Red Army) has to play the lower league. Well I may be abit biased here living near Vaasa, but I can't say I'm a fan cos I go to so few games.

I agree. Sport is one of the teams that should be given a chance to attempt to succeed in SM-liiga.

foxlockbox wrote:Heck if Sport had been let in to the League after they won the Mestis in 2009 their economy wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

I don't agree that. They would have increased their budget and also player budget and I think that social security payments are bigger in professional league, Mestis is mostly amateur league and players do other jobs besides hockey. Traveling is also a little expensive for pro-team as for amateur team. And also that 1 mill. league license, I don't think Sport has enough funds.

Jypfan92 wrote:

foxlockbox wrote:Heck if Sport had been let in to the League after they won the Mestis in 2009 their economy wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

I don't agree that. They would have increased their budget and also player budget and I think that social security payments are bigger in professional league, Mestis is mostly amateur league and players do other jobs besides hockey. Traveling is also a little expensive for pro-team as for amateur team. And also that 1 mill. league license, I don't think Sport has enough funds.

But at the same time they would've most likely seen an increase in gate receipts and sponsorship deals. Afterall Vaasa has almost 60 000 residents, whereas, for example Rauma only has 40 000 people, and they're still able to bring in enough people to the games to afford SM-liiga size player budget.

It won't happen overnight, but in a few seasons they might be a contender to the other SM-liiga teams, financially and by player material.

That's how I see it...

Tasku wrote:

Jypfan92 wrote:

foxlockbox wrote:Heck if Sport had been let in to the League after they won the Mestis in 2009 their economy wouldn't be as bad as it is now.

I don't agree that. They would have increased their budget and also player budget and I think that social security payments are bigger in professional league, Mestis is mostly amateur league and players do other jobs besides hockey. Traveling is also a little expensive for pro-team as for amateur team. And also that 1 mill. league license, I don't think Sport has enough funds.

But at the same time they would've most likely seen an increase in gate receipts and sponsorship deals. Afterall Vaasa has almost 60 000 residents, whereas, for example Rauma only has 40 000 people, and they're still able to bring in enough people to the games to afford SM-liiga size player budget.

It won't happen overnight, but in a few seasons they might be a contender to the other SM-liiga teams, financially and by player material.

That's how I see it...

But their hall was full in most of games at 08-09. And the hall wouldn't be full, if they lost almost every game and are in the bottom in the league. Most incomes comes from fanshop and their sale doesn't increase very much, even if they had get the Ässät's place in league.

True. All they need is an investment to new ice hall.

Like I said. It won't happen overnight, but they have potential.

What sort of effect has the KHL had on the Finish and Swedish leagues? There is always talk of some sortof euro league of course it is always comes to nothing. Is there a huge resistance to somehow working together. Say you put the top Swedish and Finnish leagues together. So have a top league of 12 teams with 6 from each country. Have two conferences each with 6 teams from each country. Top 4 from each in the championship play offs and the bottom team in each conference relegated or involved in relegation play offs. The level below this would seperate Swedish and Finnish league systems. In Finland's case then you would have 8 teams from the current SM-Liga and you could maybe get say the better mestis teams involved with them and make it a bit easier for clusb with less strict standards unless they get into the top league.

What effect has the development of other leagues (in europe - KHL, growth of Austrian league et) and (in north America europeans from elite countries going to play major junior hockey) had on the talent pool (domestic and imports) in the Swedish and Finnish teams. I just wonder weither there would be a commercial benefit for the top teams to create some sort of Scandinavian elite league which would of course have both benefits and drawbacks. Personally I think it is nice that these leagues run their own system and in Europe cross border league should be more for the smaller hockey markets but I imagine there must be pressure and talk of what I have suggested.

grazza wrote:What sort of effect has the KHL had on the Finish and Swedish leagues? There is always talk of some sortof euro league of course it is always comes to nothing. Is there a huge resistance to somehow working together. Say you put the top Swedish and Finnish leagues together. So have a top league of 12 teams with 6 from each country. Have two conferences each with 6 teams from each country. Top 4 from each in the championship play offs and the bottom team in each conference relegated or involved in relegation play offs. The level below this would seperate Swedish and Finnish league systems. In Finland's case then you would have 8 teams from the current SM-Liga and you could maybe get say the better mestis teams involved with them and make it a bit easier for clusb with less strict standards unless they get into the top league.

What effect has the development of other leagues (in europe - KHL, growth of Austrian league et) and (in north America europeans from elite countries going to play major junior hockey) had on the talent pool (domestic and imports) in the Swedish and Finnish teams. I just wonder weither there would be a commercial benefit for the top teams to create some sort of Scandinavian elite league which would of course have both benefits and drawbacks. Personally I think it is nice that these leagues run their own system and in Europe cross border league should be more for the smaller hockey markets but I imagine there must be pressure and talk of what I have suggested.

That European superleague would consider teams from Sweden (4-6 teams), Finland (4-6 teams), Germany (1 team), Czech Rep. (3-4 teams), Slovakia (1 team), Switzerland (3-4 teams), Austria (1 team) and maybe some KHL teams etc.... I don't like that vision of European league, but it will come some day.