The World Hockey Agenda-Pushing Summit

While IIHF president Rene "The Dentist" Fasel's inflammatory remarks regarding the NHL's supposed desire to intrude upon sacred European ground very rightfully stole most of the headlines from the World Hockey Summit on Tuesday afternoon, a few storylines popped up this evening that merit mentioning before heading back to Fasel's blather--which, it must be mentioned, will be met in kind when Gary Bettman addresses the media at 1:30 PM Today:

NHL.com's Shawn P. Roarke, USA Today's Kevin Allen, the National Post's Michael Traikos, the Ottawa Sun's Chris Stevenson and the Globe and Mail's James Mirtle all duly note that Czech Ice Hockey Federation "representative" Slavomir Lener brought a powerpoint-heavy presentation that claimed, per ESPN's Scott Burnside, that, "527 players who left the Czech Republic to play in North America as juniors only 22 went on to play 400 or more games in the NHL."

In other words, Lener, who is actually the coach of the Czech Under-20 team (Red Wings director of player development Jiri Fischer will lend him a hand at the World Juniors), blamed the CHL for the downfall of Czech and Slovak junior programs that have disintegrated over the past fifteen years, just as the Russian junior programs have turned into dust (to the point that the KHL is trying to re-start Russian junior hockey).

There aren't many, if any, teams in the Czech Republic or Slovakia where junior-aged players can play against other junior-aged players and develop--as Wings prospect Tomas Tatar's case illustrates, he had to leave Slovakia to join the Grand Rapids Griffins because he was stuck trying to compete for a spot on HkM Zvolen's men's team and wanted to come over and play for the Kitchener Rangers instead. His rights happened to shift to the Plymouth Whalers, and then the Wings sent him to Grand Rapids so that HkM Zvolen wouldn't demand that he return to Slovakia, but he just wanted to play at the level of hockey which would best suit his development into a professional hockey player. There wasn't a real option for him in Slovakia. Ditto for Wings prospect Andrej Nestrasil, who's playing in the QMJHL because it was a better option for him than "staying home."

It's not the CHL's fault that the Czech and Slovak developmental hockey infrastructures need serious-arse revivals based upon serious investment by the pro teams that increasingly rely upon aging NHL'ers and import players to survive.

Hell, former Wing Igor Larionov's steered half a dozen Russian prospects to the OHL over the past three years while slowly but surely separating himself from SKA St. Petersburg and beginning his career as an agent for Ian Pulver's "Pulver Sports" agency, and here's what he had to say to the London Free Press's Ryan Pyette about what he's doing:

August 25, London Free Press: “I have another kid at Val D’Or in the Quebec league and four or five kids in the 1994, ’95 age groups interested in coming over,” Larionov said from Motown. “I don’t think the NHL-KHL thing (tug of war over players) has anything to do with it. The Russian kids see Canada and the United States having success internationally and they see it as the best place to develop. I think it is and I believe if they come here to play, it is the best for Russian hockey.”

The London Knights are benefiting from Larionov's latest OHL recruits, Vladislav Namestnikov and Igor Bobkov, and assistant coach Jacques Beaulieu makes a few telling comments about the reality of life for many hockey parents in Eastern Europe, not just Russia:

“There’s no middle class in Russia,” Beaulieu “You’re either wealthy or you’re not and for a lot of the players who can come to Canada and earn a living playing hockey, it’s a way out for them."

Of course Rene Fasel told Mirtle that the NHL is largely to blame for the systemic issues the Czech Republic and Slovakia face because the league is "stealing" players in the absence of a player transfer agreement, which Lener, of course, assented to in spades:

August 25, Globe and Mail: “There is no compensation,” Lener said. “When the player comes over here [to North America], at 16 or 17, there is not one single dollar coming into our bank account.”

International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel said the lack of funding is part of the problem.

“That’s what I try to tell my NHL friends all the time – it costs a lot of money to develop players in Europe,” Fasel said. “It’s a huge investment. We need this balance – it’s just not a product that you take and use and when it’s over you throw [it] away. Try to help us balance. [Europe] can produce stars, we can produce players – give them the means.”

It also costs a lot of money for parents to foot the bill for their kids' hockey development in North America, but nobody asks for the NHL to compensate them...

As for Lener spouting off the usual rhetoric, per ESPN's Scott Burnside, he assented to Fasel's belief that NHL prospects should not be "forced" to leave for North America "early"--because the IIHf's position essentially suggests that it's patently unfair for European players to have to do anything less than head over to North America when they're guaranteed spots on NHL teams' rosters, and that apprenticeships in the AHL are nothing less than soul-draining, career-shortening experiences:

August 25, ESPN: Lener said he doesn't advocate an outright ban on European players playing in the Canadian Hockey League (the CHL is the umbrella organization that oversees the three major junior leagues in North America), but would like to see the CHL -- and, by extension, the NHL, which drafts these players at age 18 -- be more patient.

"You have to take it step by step or player by player," he said. "We have to create the environment for them to stay [home] as long as possible," so they are better prepared when they do come to North America.

"I understand those clubs want the product right away, and in some way, they have to be impatient and they want to fill in holes as soon as possible," Lener said. "I'm still behind the idea that if we were two or three years more patient, we would send over a much better product."

It does work on a player-by-player basis, and, right now, Czech, Slovak and Russian junior-aged players are voting with their feet...

And USA Today's Allen inadvertently noted that Larionov's position is at odds with that of a former teammate, Slava Fetisov:

August 25, USA Today: Slava Fetisov, a Russian sports minister and the Kontinental Hockey League's chairman, also said too many young Russians come to North America to play in the CHL or American Hockey League and only a small percentage make the NHL. Fetisov said the KHL isn't interested in obtaining a transfer agreement with the NHL because it doesn't think it would get enough value for its players.

...

The Russians have formed a junior league with the hopes of keeping their top players.

"What you have to realize is that there are talented players in Europe who don't want to leave home," Fetisov said.

It's unbelievably ironic that a man who challenged the Soviet system because he wanted to play in the best league in the world is now denying that many Russian players are still willing to leave home to earn the opportunity to play in the best league in the world.

Did anybody make constructive comments on Tuesday? Sure. ESPN's Burnside notes that Brendan Shanahan and Flyers coach Peter Laviolette discussed the proper ways by which younger players could be safely taught to bodycheck, the Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek notes that the WHS at least invited concussion specialist Dr. Mark Aubry to the affair, and Duhatschek also reports that Aubry's attempting to link concussions to long-term brain damage or degenerative neurological disorders.

Perhaps moreover, Steve Yzerman at least spent Monday talking bluntly about the game, and Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazenueve caught a gem from Yzerman on Monday (and you might like to hear what he has to say about Dino Ciccarelli's HOF induction at the end of the interview):

August 24, Sports Illustrated: Will NHL players be available to the top Olympic squads at the Sochi Olympics in 2014? Steve Yzerman says he'd like to see it, though the former Red Wings star, Team Canada boss and newly-named GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning said he understood the hesitation of owners to break up the season and expose their star players to injuries.

"The owners have legitimate questions," Yzerman said from the world hockey summit in Toronto on Monday. But showcasing the game at its highest level of skill to a global audience "is something we shouldn't pass up."

Yzerman also took part in an interview with The Fan 590's Greg Brady on Tuesday, and he's not spouting rhetoric by any means, whether he's talking about player development or the possible return of the World Cup or 2014 Olympic participation...

Download file.

The Fan 590's Bob McCown also spoke to Dr. Aubry...

But in terms of consensus-making discussion and debate instead of agenda-pushing and statement-making, the Toronto Star's Damien Cox spoke to a man who should be there--College Hockey Inc.'s Paul Kelly, who has engaged in an in-the-press war with the CHL about the battle between NCAA Division I hockey and Canadian Major Junior Hockey in terms of recruiting the game's top prospects.

Why didn't the organizers invite Kelly, and force him to sit in the same room as CHL commissioner David Branch, if not actually speak with him about some of the serious differences between the organizations?

August 25, Toronto Star: “If the summit is truly what it says it is, you’d think they’d want to hear all views,” said Kelly. “You’d think they’d welcome the chance to heard from an NCAA perspective and from someone on the front line. But for whatever reason, they didn’t want me there.”

Of late, the bodies have been flying between the NCAA and CHL, mostly one way. Last year, it was Leaf draft pick Kenny Ryan bolting Boston University at the last minute and joining the Windsor Spitfires. This summer, Habs first round pick Louis Leblanc left Harvard for the Montreal juniors, while Jerry D’Amigo bolted RPI for one of several possible destinations, including the Leafs, Toronto Marlies or Kitchener Rangers. Then, Jarred Tinordi, after committing to Notre Dame and even taking summer classes, left to play for the London Knights.

And, as Pro Hockey Talk's Joe Yerdon mentioned to me via Twitter, it would certainly have behooved CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos to realistically address this threat to the CCHA's viability:

Penn St. is starting a program in September 2011, Indiana University is considering doing the same[.]

Instead, we come back to The Dentist, who set the table for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to issue a rebuttal worthy of the tens of thousands of tons of BS Fasel issued about the IIHF supposedly not being driven by the mint it makes off the World Championships or the cut of Olympic funds it enjoys.

Fasel drove home the concept that the IIHF won't allow the NHL to skip the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, invoking the whole "good of the game" spiel:

August 24, Canadian Press: "Everybody in the world knows the NHL is at the Olympics," Fasel said. "And this is the best promotion for the league, and it's also the best promotion for the game and also for the players."

Fasel recalled how he had begun to dream of the NHL sending its players to the games in 1992, when NBA superstars such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson led the U.S. to a glittering gold medal win in Barcelona. He said he was "nearly crying" when the NHL followed suit six years later, in Nagano, Japan.

"I would say that this summit here in Toronto is an important part of going to Sochi," Fasel said. "We're doing that for the fans at the end, not only for nice buildings or TV or the media."

Let's all feel mushy at these comments made to the Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby:

August 25, Toronto Sun: “I was watching the games in Calgary in 1988 (before becoming president) and there were only a couple of NHL guys. But I came back to my hotel and the NHL was still playing. That doesn’t happen in Europe. We should have the best players. In Nagano (1998) I was nearly crying when the Canadians, Americans and all the other countries came in (for the opening cermony).”

He dismissed suggestions from executives such as Maple Leafs’ president Brian Burke that NHLers be compensated to attend the international tourneys, such as the world championships. Fasel stated the IIHF spends millions in developing the game around the world, but is essentially non-profit. And he worries if the planned return of the World Cup every couple of non-Olympic years would diminish the IIHF’s precious world championships.

“In North America, you don’t understand what world championships mean,” Fasel lectured. “It’s a celebration, 400,000, or 500,000 fans at the end of the season. My friend Brian says you make too much money, you must give it back. But it’s not about money, it’s a (passion) thing.”

The IIHF may claim that it's a non-profit, but they sure as hell make money...

And of course, as the Toronto Sun's Paul Hunter notes, the non-financially-motivated Fasel has no problem with the concept that the KHL's petro-dollar-fueled fist might destabilize the respective leagues of the IIHF's European federations:

August 25, Toronto Star: Fasel said he’d rather see Russia’s KHL and league’s from other countries such as Sweden, Finland and Germany work towards a European club champion. Then have that champ play the Stanley Cup champion.

“That would be for the hockey fan. That would be music,” he said.

Just as nothing that Gary Bettman will say today has anything to do with what's "best for the fans," Fasel didn't point out that it's his dream that a European team skates around with the Stanley Cup one day. That's what he really wants, and has wanted all along--to build a European soccer-style league that competes directly for the Stanley Cup with the NHL, regardless of who he has to sell out to engineer it, just as Gary Bettman wants to establish an NFL-like league driven by parity, parity, more parity and an NFL-payroll-subsidizing-style TV deal, fans' rooting interest in stable, winning organizations be damned.

Ahem, per USA Today's Kevin Allen:

August 24, USA Today: For those of you who have enjoyed thinking about the idea of the NHL expanding abroad with an all-European division, please note that International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel isn't sharing your dream

"Try to come,” Fasel said. “Good luck. This is our territory, and I will fight like hell and not allow anybody to come from abroad. I think in Europe we are strong enough to do something on our own and then have the competition between Europe and North America. That makes the fan happy. That’s really what we should do.”

Thankfully, the CBC's Jeff Marek talked a little sense into the equation:

August 25, CBC Sports: Right now the market isn't there for the NHL and we all know that. The rinks aren't big enough, the economies of the league aren't sympathetic with what Europeans are used to paying for hockey, travel costs are sky high (to say nothing of competitive balance issues that come along with some teams making the Euro jaunt more than others) and hey, how do you tell a kid from Kamloops he's just been drafted by the Munich Maulers and better start brushing up on his German?

But those Euro hockey fans sure do know how to buy jerseys and hats and pins and just about anything else the NHL sells these day, and with a strong brand presence in Europe the league is able to hock its wares without the pesky issue of running a full schedule in those markets. Wanna sell some jerseys in Sweden? Just parachute the Detroit Red Wings in for a couple of games against the St Louis Blues and watch the #5 and #40 sweaters fly off the rack.

Expansion in Europe? A long-shot and not on the immediate radar (by the way how'd you like to be a hockey fan in Winnipeg or Quebec City hearing all this talk about NHL teams in Stockholm and Helsinki?) but it's always been an intriguing possibility for the NHL as it looks to cement itself as the premiere international hockey brand.

And that's why Fasel said what he said. The "someday" scenario was enough to compel the man who is essentially the commissioner of European hockey to spend his day in the media spotlight issuing threats and spewing BS about what "fans want."

For the record, the Globe and Mail and TSN posted videos of Fasel's comments, and he looks and sounds just as scary as you'd think.

The worst part of all of this, of course, is that you can be sure that Bettman's going to one-up Fasel in terms of the "creepy" factor today.

Welcome to the World Hockey Agenda-Pushing Summit, where two little men with Napoleon complexes will steal the show.