Should Import Limit Be Scrapped ?

[boulder]

After a post that was put up on the scoreboard thread from last night it was brought up about scrapping the EIHL Import limit.

Me personally think it should here is my reasons

- If every team can play unlimited I feel it would put us on a more even playing field, the big EIHL teams can afford to take the Brits who can actually make it in EIHL as a 3rd or 4th liner, and even at that there are not many.

- Players (majority of them) have evolved in last 10 years being more professional in terms of training, conditioning, dietary, speed. British players who have played hockey as a hobby since age of 6 just don't get the support like proper Hockey countries kids do, so Brits will always be at a disadvantage.

- Brits that have half a chance to make it are ones with parents that can afford to send there kids to Canada for Hockey/Education, but look at the numbers of kids who have done that and its still not a great return for who is EIHL ready 

-Think we need to open our eyes and see that EIHL is not a development league and Brits wont cut mustard in EIHL, I said in other thread also for as good as our Brits were in the BNL, I dont think many of those Brits would cut it in todays EIHL.

-I am sure we would love to see a success story and have homegrown Brits play for Fife, but when was the last time that happened, we have been watching EIHL last few years without Brits and we moan at something that just wont happen ..... so why not just scrap the import limit.  

[ppltms]

I also agree that it's time to scrap the import limit. Those that are good enough will break through Brit wise.

It is the only way the smaller teams can compete with the arena teams.

That being said, I think we would also need some kind of wage cap, one that teams couldn't exploit, otherwise there would still be a gulf in the quality of imports each team could sign.

[suds]

I'll go the other way, I think we're in danger of becoming "hockey snobs" with the thought we want to see the best quality we can get to the detriment of the local players.
If you remove the limit you won't level the playing field, the big teams will still acquire more expensive players.
For me we should be looking at what is the most entertaining to watch, and that isn't the EIHL in my opinion.
The quality of teams in the late 80's early 90's was miles behind what we see now, but the entertainment was light years better.

[ffdrw]

I personally want to see the best quality of hockey and if that means we have to go all imports then so be it, but it has to be moderated in some way. As others have said the arena teams will continue to bankroll their way with more imports instead of Brits so a salary cap would have to be implemented.

What really needs to happen is for hockey in the UK to be streamlined. I'll admit that I'm not entirely clued up on NIHL and English leagues, and I somewhat follow the Kestrels but seems to be all over the place - are they governed by the same body or are they all separate?

The mantra of Fife being a local team for local lads is long gone and people need to stop clinging on to it.

[boulder]

Jan 29, 2024 13:31:06 GMT suds said:

I'll go the other way, I think we're in danger of becoming "hockey snobs" with the thought we want to see the best quality we can get to the detriment of the local players.
If you remove the limit you won't level the playing field, the big teams will still acquire more expensive players.
For me we should be looking at what is the most entertaining to watch, and that isn't the EIHL in my opinion.
The quality of teams in the late 80's early 90's was miles behind what we see now, but the entertainment was light years better.

To an extent I agree in regards of the detriment of local players, but .... if a player is good enough they will get a game in the EIHL on their own merit I have no doubts about that.

Its not even just with the Flyers there are no homegrown at the required level ....even with Kestrels its not packed with youth coming through the system its all ex flyers players in there 30s and 40s and players who never made the grade in there 30s.

We then have to shift our attention to other players who would make the grade around the UK and they cost much more than an import as they know there worth to the team in terms of being a Brit player.

If we look at other end of the spectrum and say we drop down a league to NIHL, what Fife would have as a product using what we have at KIHC i reckon would have us as just an average middle table team, would fans want to drop down to that ...I dont think so, EIHL is our only viable option just now and only way it could make us on a more even keel is remove import limit.

But in the mean time KIHC gets there finger out and stop all these cliques, only supporting an handful of players in development and game time because of who there parents are within the cliques. That is a big part of the detriment of local players IMO.

With the money that parents fork out to KIHC rather than have someone with own kids or ex local player who has kids to run the program. Bring in a total outsider who has no ties to any child or parent in club. I honestly think would see an improvement and maybe see some the juniors who have opted to steer clear of there home club due to the cliques

[domi28]

Jan 29, 2024 14:19:37 GMT boulder said:

Jan 29, 2024 13:31:06 GMT suds said:

I'll go the other way, I think we're in danger of becoming "hockey snobs" with the thought we want to see the best quality we can get to the detriment of the local players.
If you remove the limit you won't level the playing field, the big teams will still acquire more expensive players.
For me we should be looking at what is the most entertaining to watch, and that isn't the EIHL in my opinion.
The quality of teams in the late 80's early 90's was miles behind what we see now, but the entertainment was light years better.

To an extent I agree in regards of the detriment of local players, but .... if a player is good enough they will get a game in the EIHL on their own merit I have no doubts about that.

Its not even just with the Flyers there are no homegrown at the required level ....even with Kestrels its not packed with youth coming through the system its all ex flyers players in there 30s and 40s and players who never made the grade in there 30s.

We then have to shift our attention to other players who would make the grade around the UK and they cost much more than an import as they know there worth to the team in terms of being a Brit player.

If we look at other end of the spectrum and say we drop down a league to NIHL, what Fife would have as a product using what we have at KIHC i reckon would have us as just an average middle table team, would fans want to drop down to that ...I dont think so, EIHL is our only viable option just now and only way it could make us on a more even keel is remove import limit.

But in the mean time KIHC gets there finger out and stop all these cliques, only supporting an handful of players in development and game time because of who there parents are within the cliques. That is a big part of the detriment of local players IMO.

With the money that parents fork out to KIHC rather than have someone with own kids or ex local player who has kids to run the program. Bring in a total outsider who has no ties to any child or parent in club. I honestly think would see an improvement and maybe see some the juniors who have opted to steer clear of there home club due to the cliques

The Kestrels aren't all ex-Flyers players as you say. There are 6/7 out of a roster 25 players.
Also KIHC aren't anything to do with the Flyers.
EIHL has a lot of players who never made the grade so they head to the UK.

[coloradoflyer01]

If you scrap the import level you go back to that daft super league, only teams that would be left after a year or 2 would be devils, Sheffield, Nottingham and Belfast the rest of us would be gone or in a lower league because that's what happened the last time, us, Dundee, Coventry and storm can't compete money wise just now with them.

[flyerdown]

Jan 29, 2024 12:19:31 GMT boulder said:

-Think we need to open our eyes and see that EIHL is not a development league and Brits wont cut mustard in EIHL, I said in other thread also for as good as our Brits were in the BNL, I dont think many of those Brits would cut it in todays EIHL.

-I am sure we would love to see a success story and have homegrown Brits play for Fife, but when was the last time that happened, we have been watching EIHL last few years without Brits and we moan at something that just wont happen ..... so why not just scrap the import limit.  

Every league in the world is a development league, including the NHL. If you're training and playing, you're developing. Doesn't end at 18 after leaving juniors. Even that Connor McDavid lad needed to keep learning & developing, & he was quite a good player at 18.

We won't see a homegrown Flyer come through probably in our lifetimes now, as our "Junior Development Director" wasted over a decade of time to prepare anything to do so. As such, not even one 4th line player produced in 13 years, and our rep is so bad with development anyone promising here shoots off elsewhere first chance they can at a very young age. Need to start from scratch with a clean slate, but I doubt this will happen, too much time and work to do it now.

Import limit needs to go down, and banning import netminders for all would be a big step forward. Denmark done this yonks ago, and even though the ban is lifted, there's only a few import netminders signed per season by clubs, and a dozen or so players have made it into NHL regulars. It works if you have a long-term plan and stick with it, now Danish teams barely have more than a handful of imports per roster, rest are Danish.

[jbrand91]

maybe they could scrap the import limit but introduce a minimum of 5 homegrown/brit in a matchday squad forcing them to fill out the lines with brits?

[roryracer]

Scrap import limits but set a budget/wages cap

[stevej]

Jan 31, 2024 10:40:09 GMT jbrand91 said:

maybe they could scrap the import limit but introduce a minimum of 5 homegrown/brit in a matchday squad forcing them to fill out the lines with brits?

The current roster rules limit teams to a bench size of 20 players - made up of 15 non-homegrown players (imports) and 5 homegrown players (brits). Therefore if a team want to run a full bench - they already must ice 5 brits.

Unfortunately, this runs to a gold rush for the better brits with the biggest teams paying way over the odds for top end brits. Other teams are left scrambling for what’s left. The bigger teams are now even signing up young Brit talent on 2 way deals so that they can be brought in once the current top brits hang them up.


A salary cap was agreed in the days of the Superleague era but again, was abused by the bigger teams who simply employed players wives etc in an effort to get round the cap ( was amazing how many players wives were actually figure skating coaches 😮😮😮)

When it comes to creating a more level playing field in the EIHL - as far as the big teams are concerned, turkeys don’t vote for Xmas….

[kestrelsfan63]

I'd rather see it go the other way. The elite league is stale and boring,playing the same clubs 6 times a year. Massive turnover of players every year, playing with no care for the badge on the front, it's just a job. It lacks passion. I think a restructure of UK ice hockey, a proper pyrimid. Add in Edinburgh, whitley bay, solway and a couple more southern teams, make a 16 team league playing 3 teams a year, 45 game season with promotion and relegation as well. 10 import limit with a salary cap. Hockey would be a lot more entertaining imo, forces brits to be given ice time which then helps team GB as well.

[newyorkflyer]

Feb 5, 2024 8:10:03 GMT kestrelsfan63 said:

I'd rather see it go the other way. The elite league is stale and boring,playing the same clubs 6 times a year. Massive turnover of players every year, playing with no care for the badge on the front, it's just a job. It lacks passion. I think a restructure of UK ice hockey, a proper pyrimid. Add in Edinburgh, whitley bay, solway and a couple more southern teams, make a 16 team league playing 3 teams a year, 45 game season with promotion and relegation as well. 10 import limit with a salary cap. Hockey would be a lot more entertaining imo, forces brits to be given ice time which then helps team GB as well.

In a 10 import limit team then requires the EIHL teams to find an additional 40 Brits between them. There’s no where near that amount of players ready to play elite standard hockey. (Hense the reason why Fife are in the mess the are this season). Giants and steelers would Hoover up the best and the rest would be scrambling to pick up guys to make up numbers and with that the standard of hockey would collapse.

[suds]

The question comes down to what you want to watch. Given the current set up there's little to no chance of any team out with the big 4 ever winning any of the competitions.
If we're happy providing them a platform to allow them to dominate I'm not sure what benefit it gives the small teams other than just existing.
For the playing field to be levelled the big guns would need to give something up and I don't see that happening any time soon.
I think the NIHL with Dumfries is where we should be looking, get Dundee, Edinburgh, Whitley Bay on board and you have a realistic northern conference that would provide good competition, and leave the big guys to their full time import hockey.

[--G--]

I’d much rather see fife in the top tier with imports, than watch British only ice hockey.
Mostly because British only hockey is such a shabby standard. I don’t want to go back to the days of castleray knights getting humped 11-0.
The lower leagues are full of games with cricket scores.

I don’t think anyone really wants to watch British only games. I think we want to see the best hockey we can.