Kukla's Korner Hockey

Protecting The ‘Canadien’ Net
by Paul on 06/11/13 at 08:21 AM ET
Comments (4)
from Damien Cox of The Spin at the Toronto Star,
The door is shutting to puckstoppers from Europe.
Within four years or less, there will be no more European goalies playing major junior hockey in Canada and the U.S. after the CHL officially moved to make goaltenders ineligible to be selected in the league's import draft starting next year.
As reported 10 days ago by The Star, the three junior leagues - OHL, QMJHL and WHL - agreed on the drastic move amidst concerns that Canadian goalies simply are being squeezed out of opportunities in major junior and the country is developing fewer and fewer elite netminders.
The change was officially announced Monday night at the OHL's "Protect the Net" symposium, a gathering designed to address the "crisis" in Canadian goaltending, specifically in Ontario.
from Neate Sager of Yahoo,
This is how you get Canadian goalies ready to be world-beaters, by fearing competition? That question mark was just typed as a reflex, honestly, eh.
Every so often, the Canadian Hockey League will offer a reminder that its teenage players have no monopoly on being juvenile. In what can only be called self-serving, scapegoating, shortsighted, protectionism-writ-large, wagon-circling overreaction to Team Canada's four-year gold-medal drought at the world junior championship, the CHL is phasing in a ban on European goalies in order to solve a problem that does not actually exist.
Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: chl
Comments

Canada hasn’t had it as good as it used to at the U20 level, so there must be some foreign element one can blame it on.
Since all of this nonsense is about nationality then Canada needs to wake up, Europe isn’t the threat, it is the US. They should ban American players, and while they are at it, they should ban American based teams CHL teams. For our part why are American fans spending US dollars to support Canadian player development in the eight CHL cities based in the US? The NCAA should also close the door to non-American players, these are our universities with government funding, why are they helping non US hockey players. If all of this is really about nationality and not hockey, it is time to close the border.
Posted by timbits on 06/11/13 at 09:50 AM ET

Since all of this nonsense is about nationality then Canada needs to wake up, Europe isn’t the threat, it is the US.
You’re right and it’s probably because, as the article states, the US already doesn’t allow Euro goalies in their junior hockey.
Posted by Garth on 06/11/13 at 09:55 AM ET

Nothing like giving the KHL a huge boost in talent for tthe sake of national pride. Which is kinda funny considering that you would think the pride would come in beating out players from other nations for the job, not in being sheltered from competition to protect some fragile egos.
Posted by Hootinani on 06/11/13 at 10:21 AM ET
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This is hilarious.
Oh well, I guess Don Cherry gets what Don Cherry wants.
Posted by Mandingo from The Garage on 06/11/13 at 09:37 AM ET