An American who knows very little about European hockey

Hello fellow hockey fans. I am a 16 year old from Rochester, New York USA that is a major hockey fan. Although I don't know how much of a fan I am due to the fact I have just recently read up on the different leagues in Europe, and I feel rather ashamed for being so ignorant about Euro Hockey, considering the large number of hockey fans in your continent that know a lot about the NHL. I mean I knew you guys had hockey over there, I just didnt know that it was so big. I think that that's a common opinion that many Americans have when they think about hockey, they usually associate it with North America. I was just wondering about how big is hockey in Europe? Because I know that soccer(well football, which is a better name for it, I dont what idiot changed the name when it came here) is the most popular in most of the countries, but is hockey popular also? Or is it kind of in the middle like it is here in America where it's below baseball, basketball and football? My second question is about NHL players playing in the Sm-Liiga, the DEL and the other league that I cant remember the name of now. Are there many of them and are they respected? I know a lot arrogant Americans dont like the fact that the NHL is "being invaded by a bunch of Fins and Swedes." Is it kind of the same way there or are people more accepting of foreign players? I know that there's probably been an increase in the number of American and Canadian players moving to Europe to play hockey because my hometown team, the Rochester Americans of the AHL (farmteam of the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL), has lost a couple of players recently who have tried hockey in Europe even though they are American or Canadian. In fact I was wondering if any of the German fans know who Jason Cipolla is? He played for uss in like 2000 and 2001 and then left to play in the DEL I think. Well thanks for reading my long post, I just want to hear about what hockey is like across the Atlantic. Thanks!

Feel free to explore www.eurohockey.net which lists transfers, player profiles, results etc.

Also you can put up the same question on the forum, asking European hockey fans allover Europe which might just give that extra information that is not coming through this site.

Best regards,

Joeri Loonen

Wooha - lots of questions.

I´ll try to answer some ;)

Former NHL-Players are well respected - it was more difficult for them in the past (not really difficult, but more difficult), when german players didn´t have a roster spot, because of players who would have had a hard time to crack an ECHL-Roster.

You can´t describe hockey for all countries.
Hockey seems to be much bigger in Finland and Sweden than it is in Italy and France for example.
Each country has it´s own style of hockey, some styles are influenced by a lot of former Canadians. Italy, Germany and France have had rosters with a lot of guys on it, which were born in Canada. This changed in the last years, but young players adopted that style a little bit.
I´m sure you know that Swedes play different than Russians etc - same thing here.

The hockey crowds are enthusiastic and loyal to the sport and their teams. The crowds are smaller in comparison to Soccer, but hockey in Germany (that´s where i´m from) gets bigger because of bigger Stadiums (Arena in Cologne for example).

The number of former NHL-Players differs in each league. In some leagues you´re allowed to dress 3 players from foreign countries, in other countries you can dress 5 or even 10 (each country has it´s own rule).
I´m sure you know some names: Kent Manderville, Shjon Podein, Yves Racine, Ricard Persson, Denis Pederson and so much more (i´m sure someone will jump in and tell me that i forgot this or that guy) - just go to eurohockey and surf around the team rosters, you´ll find lots of intersting stuff :)
The DEL has lots of former NHL-Players (Norm Maracle, Andy Delmore, Shawn Heins and Matt Herr signed with german teams this week..) other leagues do have NHL-Players, but not as much as the DEL, cause the DEL-Teams are allowed to have more players from foreign countries.

I know Jason Cipolla, cause i watch the DEL on a regular base.
Cipolla signed with the Roosters in the mid-season 2002/203
He played for the Roosters in 2003/2004 and will play for the Hannover Scorpions in 2004/2005.
Further information: try Jeanenne


If you do have any further questions - feel free to ask :)

I know Jason Cipolla, cause i watch the DEL on a regular base.
Cipolla did so well for the small market team of Iserlohn in 2002-2003, that the finnish team Lukko Rauma signed him in the midseason. - here we do come back to the different style of hockey.
Obviously he couldn´t fit in that well in Rauma and he came back to Iserlohn in 2003-2004 and did very well for Iserlohn (15 goals and 24 assists in 54 games).

Iserlohn is on the rise - they signed Mike York and Adrian Aucoin recently (in case if there´s an NHL Lockout).


Cipolla began the 2002/03 season with Lukka Rauma and then signed with the Roosters in December 2002. He was re-signed by the Roosters in June of 2003 for the 03/04 season. He is signed with Hannover for the upcoming season.

Mike York is an announced signing for Iserlohn. I've only seen Aucoin mentioned in Rumours (http://www.hockeywelt.de/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1006&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) after a story in the Toronto Sun reported Aucoin "is in talks with a German team."

Have you read other news of Aucoin, Bakos?

@puckstopper23: All the team rosters you can find on www.marcel-bohl.de.vu !! Then yuo must click on "Eishockey 2004-05" and click on "Kader DEL-Teams", that´s it ;) The rosters will be updated every day...

Cipolla began the 2002/03 season with Lukka Rauma and then signed with the Roosters in December 2002. He was re-signed by the Roosters in June of 2003 for the 03/04 season. He is signed with Hannover for the upcoming season.


Was he resigned fast or late ?
I remember him or the other "C" guy (Cirone) being in rumours about returning or of a late decision about not resigning - maybe that was Cirone

Obviously i mixed them up :blush:
I´ve read, that the Roosters signed a NHL defenseman, but it´s not announced yet - so it´s more speculating, but most of the other rosters are full or in search of different types. I was too optimistic here ;)

Was he resigned fast or late ?
Greg Poss always seemed to hold on to a couple of foreign licenses for late acquistions to re-energize his lineup.
I was too optimistic here.
We Rooster fans know better than to be "too" optimistic.
Talk this week suggested that the promised NHL defenseman was re-signed to his home club.
Roosters did sign Kevin Mitchell from the Houston Aeros this past week.

We Rooster fans know better than to be "too" optimistic.

As long as only 4-6 people from the DEL do post in this thread, there´s always a little bit of wrong information - but we can´t stop posting and hope that a XY Fan shows up.


Atleast it was a example by me, but it was a wrong example - which is just rumoured.
Maybe it would have been better to let this out of the thread, but i wrote it, it was a mistake by me - i was not informed well.
This information was partly not correct, you corrected it - fine and it would´ve been better to let this part out of the topic.
Re-signing by the home club doesn´t mean much as long as the NHL season is not a sure thing ;) Mike York has a NHL-contract (according to nhlpa) for the 2004-2005 season, which doesn´t mean, that Aucoin must be a free agent to sign with any European Team.

I edited my first postion and told puckstopper to ask the Rooster fan.
Hopefully that´s good enough...