European Junior Leagues

[darkmatter]

I looked around a bit, but I didn't really see anything similar, so hopefully it hasn't been covered already..

I always just play NHL/AHL, but I figured I'd give a European league a try, so I took over AIK. We moved from Allsvenskan to Elitserien after the first season, and I looked through the player search to find some good, young players to put on the J20 team.

Then, I think during the third season, I got a notification mid-season that a random player that I never signed and that, IIRC, wasn't on the team in the first place, was being promoted to the junior team for me to evaluate. I'm not complaining, though. He was terrible, but I thought it was pretty sweet that a player just randomly spawned on my junior club.

My question though, is.. can I expect that to happen more than once? I have a LW ranked #3 in the upcoming NHL entry draft that appeared for the first time on Linköping Jrs. So, hypothetically, if everything in the universe was perfectly aligned and a player like Nicklas Lidström or Mats Sundin retired and was regenerated with an equally talented replacement, is there even a mathematical possibility that that player just simply spawns on AIK J20 and starts his career with my team?

Thanks!

Edited thread title more descriptive
- Tasku

[Tasku]

Not sure about other Euro leagues, but in Sweden and Finland your Junior team is an independent affiliate, somewhat in the same way as AHL teams to the NHL, and they will sign their own staff and players alongside having the junior players contracted to the first team. The only difference is you don't have to pay a transfer fee to sign a player from your junior team, only from other team's junior teams. You will also get players to evaluate sent up to your team. Usually these are regens.

So, yes, it is possible Peter Forsberg might be regenerated into your team, but highly unlikely.

[darkmatter]

Thanks, I won't hold my breath on it, but I'm glad to know that they're capable of signing their own players.

I guess that leads me to one more question: why aren't they?

I had all of my players with the upper club for the summer so that maybe with a roster size of '0', they'd add some of their own - but they haven't. Now I'm finishing up training camp, and in the five years that I've played with this team (AIK) they've signed one player, and it was two or three years ago.

I suppose it doesn't really make a difference aside from the transfer fee, but I have to admit I can't seem to figure out why they won't do anything.

[Tasku]

If you're giving them plenty of your own juniors, they don't need to.


In the almost ten season I've played with Espoo Blues of the Finnish SM-liiga, I have yet to have any good juniors being brought up to my evaluation. Most of my future prospects playing in the junior team are there only thanks to my scouting staff, not for the random signing by the Junior team. Usually they tend to sign those fourth liners you fail to provide them with, and let you handle the acquisition of future stars. If you have no juniors contracted to your own team though, then they should make their own acquisitions.

[Alessandro]

Usually they tend to sign those fourth liners you fail to provide them with, and let you handle the acquisition of future stars.

This seems pretty realistic in my eyes.