ECHL hockey

solelace84

Active Member
Thread starter #1
So I just watched the Indy Fuel highlights because I was curious to see how Shalla got on in his first game back... He scored 2 goals and bagged 1 assist, having only scored 1 goal in 20+ games in Nottingham. Darian Dzurzinski (former Storm player) is also on the Indy Fuel roster and bagged a goal...

I haven't watched ECHL hockey for a couple of years, but what I noticed is that the game seemed a lot slower than the game here. I was quite surprised by this, as everyone always claims the EIHL is of a similar standard.....

Has the EIHL surpassed the ECHL in terms of speed and skill?



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Temme

Well-Known Member
#5
I think it's a very difficult one to judge as without watching it week in week out LIVE you don't get a good look.

John Dunbar has taken 31 games to reach 50 points in our league, however last year it took him 61 games (ECHL)
Sylvestre the same - 30gp 43p in EIHL, 64gp 53p in ECHL.

However as you mentioned, Shalla came over and has struggled.

I'd say on average the East coast league is marginally better than ours - but not by much!
 

James

Administrator
#6
Historically ECHL would be better than our league based on the depth of the lineup. I'd guess we're pretty comparable these days though.
 

solelace84

Active Member
Thread starter #7
There are obvious other elements of the ECHL that make it an infinitely better league than the EIHL. structure, professionalism etc. We can only dream of that here.

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Rempel16

Well-Known Member
#8
There are obvious other elements of the ECHL that make it an infinitely better league than the EIHL. structure, professionalism etc. We can only dream of that here.

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Is it infinitely better though? Far more teams suffer from instability and disappear in that league compared to ours.
 

solelace84

Active Member
Thread starter #9
I'm sure that if there was a viable league beneath the EIHL, that several EIHL teams would be going down... Not mentioning any names.... Haha

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kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#10
I think they are almost identical - it's where the bulk of the EIHL players come from. Take an ECHL team, plonk 4-5 brits in it and it'll be almost identical to the EIHL.
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#11
I think they are almost identical - it's where the bulk of the EIHL players come from. Take an ECHL team, plonk 4-5 brits in it and it'll be almost identical to the EIHL.
4-5 brits have been to the ECHL, and interestingly *all have struggled.

Colin Shields probably the pick of the bunch - http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=18379
Ben Davies, struggled massively and didn't get a roster spot - http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=20888
Matthew Myers, again did not match his EIHL play by some margin - http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=20949
Robert Farmer - lasted 4 games before being released - http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=37293
Liam Stewart (i know, not a "Brit...") - http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=122003

*there may be others, this was done off memory rather than searching...

I'm not saying this makes the ECHL a better league though, as there are obviously countless players that were productive in ECHL but no good in EIHL (Shalla being the most recent example i guess).

I don't think i'm really fit to judge how the two leagues sit as i don't watch enough east coast hockey, just wanted to post a few brits that have dipped their toe over the pond :)
 
#13
To be honest I've watched some AHL matches on my trips over to States and I've not been that impressed and I thought that was a step up from the ECHL? It may be that the likes of Nottingham, ourselves, Sheffield etc are better but the standard across the league on average has a wider variation. Though it's a rough guide I understood the SHL to be the best league outside NHL and KHL and the Devils only lost my an odd goal
 

trapped

Active Member
#14
I've seen a lot of people suggest that we sit somewhere between the top of the ECHL and the middle of the AHL level. Certainly when you look at players in our top 3 lines, that would seem to be about right
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#15
I've seen a lot of people suggest that we sit somewhere between the top of the ECHL and the middle of the AHL level. Certainly when you look at players in our top 3 lines, that would seem to be about right
middle of the AHL would be overshooting it.

Mid-high ECHL i would guess.
 

bb1

Well-Known Member
#16
I remember having a conversation with a very well respected former hockey player last season and to be fair he said the same thing as Trapped said.

We are a better standard than any ECHL team and would easily compete with mid table AHL teams.

Not after the last 4 home performances however.....
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#17
We are a better standard than any ECHL team and would easily compete with mid table AHL teams.

I'm interested to know what other people think about this.

Some information that leads me to think mid AHL is overshooting it:

Of all AHL forwards last season that completed 65+ games, the average # of points was 39.55

Assuming points has ANYTHING to do with team success -

Based on stats and form alone, the only person on our roster that i can see getting anywhere close to that number would be Hedden, Linglet.

39.55 was just the AVERAGE. Matt Pope through 200 AHL games managed a total of 45 points.

Add in our bottom 6 players to this - Duggan, Moore, Rutkis, Faryna, Mo, (insert +1 name here)

I cannot personally see how our roster could compete at any level in the AHL,

and that's not to single any particular guys out on our roster for ability/performance.

Typically the imports in our league are players that cannot get an AHL contract, so travel oversees.

If Ben Blood had been offered a LIIGA contract at the start of the year we would never have known his name; much the same as Parisi.

Our league is improving at a decent rate each season, however to think we can be mentioned in the same sentence as teams in leagues such as: NHL,AHL,KHL,LIIGA,SHL,ALLSVENSKAN,NLA, EBEL(?), Slovakia(?) is, in my very small minded opinion, naive.
We would compete very well in leagues such as Denmark, Division 1 (Sweden), NLB, Mestis, Ligue Magnus (France), VHL, DEL2,
and are above ALPS HL, Metal Ligaen.


Again - this is just my very small opinion, i respect your opinion that we are at AHL level comfortably right now and welcome any healthy discussion :)
 

bb1

Well-Known Member
#18
What i'm about to say does only have reference to one off games but when you look at the CHL most AHL teams would struggle with the likes of Bern, Vajxo etc.....

I mean Bern only just lost in OT to NJ Devils.

We have competed and had chances to put away these European giants in our CHL campaign who's leagues are ranked higher than AHL.
 

Ocko

Well-Known Member
#19
in a one off game we might push an AHL side to a respectable result. However on the whole I dont think we are anywhere near AHL quality. We are talking about a league which has numerous NHL prospects on every team, and a league which someone our best ever player Joey Martin could barely buy a game in (in what were very average teams in his org too). I know we are signing players from the AHL in this league more than ever, but we arent signing the top players - we are signing the one who were surplus to requirements.

The top teams in the EIHL would do well to compete with top ECHL teams. Over the course of a long season the ECHL teams would come out on top such is their depth, however in a one off game I'd say we'd would go into the game confident.
 
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