Mathradio
Drive for 25
Call me crazy but in 20 years' time I think we could see the first Chinese-trained player being drafted in the NHL. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but how would you see the future of Chinese hockey?
IIRC at the last olys canada-norway (8-0 win by Canada) was shown on national television and got ~20 million viewers (not that that is much in China).
You mean Chinese-born and trained in China? Probably no chance. But Zack Yuen was just drafted by Winnipeg and Brandon Yip plays for the Avalanche, both of Hong Kong descent. For Chinese-Canadians, the future looks much brighter.
Chinese Canadians yes. I'm surprised there aren't many Chinese Canadians in the NHL, Chinese is the 3rd most spoken language in Canada after English and French. Canada in many ways is a Chinese country, much like the US is a Black country.
A real Chinese from China? Probably never. Hockey has zero presence in Asia, I mean zero.
Chinese Canadians yes. I'm surprised there aren't many Chinese Canadians in the NHL, Chinese is the 3rd most spoken language in Canada after English and French. Canada in many ways is a Chinese country, much like the US is a Black country.
A real Chinese from China? Probably never. Hockey has zero presence in Asia, I mean zero.
That's a pretty ignorant comment, have you ever been up north? Try to find some Chinese presence there...
How the eff is US a 'Black' country? Is 'Black' a nationality? Seriously man.... -facepalm-
This sounds a bit wierd, but there's a correlation between the national focus, and the NHL.
China puts little to no emphasis on the Winter Games, comparatively to the summer games
Look at South Korea with an emphasis on speed skating, and figure skating.
I don't know much about their national hockey program, but they've had a couple of notable NHLers in Jim Paek and Richard Park. Not to mention quite a few that made it into juniors and minor leagues.
I was living in Jinan for the last year, very little of the public even knows what hockey is, let alone ever seen/played it.
Surely the 2010 Olympic gold medal game had more than 20 million viewers in China alone... then again I know of no way to substantiate that claim.
IIRC Chinese hockey is mostly a two-city affair: Qiqihar and Harbin. Maybe the Chinese hockey federation wanted to expand their activities beyond Heilongjiang (Mandchuria) but lack of funding halted any effort.
On a side note i went to the Womens World Championships in Harbin in 2008 we had an absolute blast. The Canadian contingent was about 250-300 strong while we found 2 americans in the crowd during the finals.
This.
But you can bet that if the Chinese government wanted to develop hockey, they WILL, as the original poster suggested, in 20 years have a player be drafted by the NHL.
Many of their top national athletes have pretty much been bred since birth and spend most of their lives being groomed and developed to excel in that sport.
And another thing is that as the country becomes richer, many more families are now able to afford hockey gear for their kids. Wouldn't surprise me to see more kids in China starting to play hockey over the next few years.