Ten years ago, the number of Europeans in the NHL was roughly a quarter
of what it is now. Going into the 1992/93 season, the numbers of Euros on
NHL teams have escalated to the following stats:

Canadians: 400
Americans: 100
Europeans: 100

   Please note that these numbers are rounded off, and taken from the top
25 players on each of the 24 teams. My source is the Vancouver Sun.

   Here's the point: there are far too many Europeans in the NHL. I am sick
of watching a game between an American and a Canadian team (let's say, the
Red Wings and the Canucks) and seeing names like "Bure" "Konstantinov" and
"Borshevshky". Is this North America or isn't it? Toronto, Detriot, Quebec,
and Edmonton are particularly annoying, but the numbers of Euros on other
teams is getting worse as well. 

    I live in Vancouver and if I hear one more word about "Pavel Bure, the
Russian Rocket" I will completely throw up. As it is now, every time I see
the Canucks play I keep hoping someone will cross-check Bure into the plexiglassso hard they have to carry him out on a stretcher. (By the way, I'm not a
Canucks fan to begin with ;-). 

    Okay, the stretcher remark was a little carried away. But the point is that
I resent NHL owners drafting all these Europeans INSTEAD of Canadians (and
some Americans). It denies young Canadians the opportunity to play in THEIR
NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE and instead gives it to Europeans, who aren't even
better hockey players. It's all hype. This "European mystique" is sickening,
but until NHL owners get over it, Canadian and American players will continue
to have to fight harder to get drafted into their own league.

    With the numbers of Euros in the NHL escalating, the problem is clearly
only getting worse.

    I'm all for the creation of a European Hockey League, and let the Bures
and Selannes of the world play on their own continent.

    I just don't want them on mine.


 
 
-- 
Richard J. Rauser        "You have no idea what you're doing."
rauser@sfu.ca            "Oh, don't worry about that. We're professional
WNI                          outlaws - we do this for a living."