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Hockey's Future looks at Danish Hockey
Written by: Unknown on 03/12/2003 
In the beginning of the 1990’s Denmark started to bring in Russian import players, and one of the first was Valery Bragin who came to the tradition filled club Rödovre. Bragin played for four seasons and could easily score a lot of points, as Bragin was clearly several levels better than the Danish players. In his four seasons Bragin played in approximately 110 games and made 186 pts (80 goals and 106 assists), this opened the eyes of many of the other clubs and soon Denmark had a lot of imports.
The list underneath show the top 5 influential players are players that have played in Denmark. This is just to illustrate the importance of these players, as these have been top players that have helped form hockey in Denmark into what it is today.
All-time players in Denmark (in no particular order): Name (country) GP G A PTS PIM Leonid Truhno (Russia)* 434 411 447 858 855 Anatolij Chistyakov (Russia) 269 201 217 418 1078 Oleg Starkov (Russia) 234 176 191 367 120 Petri Skriko (Finland) 240 217 304 521 N/A Todd Björkstrand (USA) 545 621 569 1190 N/A * Truhno still plays at the age of 40 years old.
So these are the major top players in Denmark over the years, and from playing with these extremely skilled players the league and the Danish players improved fast. Many of you might then wonder are these players just several levels higher than the Danish and the answer is not any more! The Danish players have evolved into tough Vikings and true talent are emerging very fast.
An example is the junior teams of Rödovre that are participating in tournaments in Sweden and winning over the top prospects of Sweden. The Junior National teams have also shown that Denmark has the potential to stay in the “A-group” in the WC for years to come.
There have already been three players drafted from Denmark, and if scouts will open the eyes for this hidden talent, more could very easily follow soon. The first player from Denmark to enter the draft was Heinz Ehlers who was drafted by the New York Rangers in 1984, 9th round, 188th overall. Another player is Kim Staal that is now playing in the Swedish Elite series, Staal was drafted by Montreal Canadians in 1996, 4th round, 92nd overall. Latest addition is Malmös super talented player Frans Nielsen, he in the draft last year and was picked by New York Islanders in 3rd round, 87th overall.
Copyright 2003 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.
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