NHL Draft Pick in Budapest?

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

Yes if this would be the 2009-10 hockey season then us the hockey fans in Budapest would have had a chance so see the first pick of the 2012 NHL Draft playing for Reaktor Niznekamsk of the MHL. Nail Yakupov is playing his rookies season in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. During the 2010-11 season Vladimir Tarasenko played for Sibirskie Snaiperi Novosibirsk, who this season as a rookie with the St.Louis Blues has 11 points in 13 games. In case you missed it but every hockey fan has a chance to see someone, one that might become a future NHL star this season in Budapest. The 2012-13 season has been the inaugural season of Patriot Budapest in the MHL, a junior hockey league. The MHL which stands literally for youth hockey league but more known as minor hockey league, is functioning as what the junior leagues are acting as in the U.S. and Canada. 

The MHL is the major junior hockey league in Russia and is the stepping stone to the KHL. Unlike in North America where someone is drafted into one of the three Canadian major junior leagues (QMJHL, OHL, WHL) the MHL signs players who have a chance of being called up to the KHL. Almost all the teams in the league are affiliated with a team in the KHL or VHL (Russian 2nd division) almost like a farm club, the KHL/VHL team can call up a player from the youth team if they feel that that player has out grown the junior league, other times they will call up a player from an actual farm club in the Russian second or third division. Below the MHL there is a second tier, MHL-2, the MHL has a relegation system where at the end of the season two teams go down to MHL-2 and are replaced by two that come up. Since the founding of the KHL the Russian ice hockey federation has been trying to copy the North American system the best it can and theatrically in the end pass up the NHL has the top hockey league in the world. Based off of this logic they are setting up a similar junior system as the one found in North America.

The actual on ice product is quality hockey that at times is rare to see. The league is up there with the rest of the top youth or junior leagues through out Europe just like in Sweden and Finland. Benjámin Nemes, Hungarian All-Star center of Patriot Budapest says that the top teams in the MHL are on the same level as the top teams in the Swedish U20 SuperElit league. The MHL also reflects the style of play that one might have to come to know from Russian players, the flow of the game is a faster pace with more passes. Nemes continues saying that the Russian style is not as restrictive in a style as he experienced in Sweden where everything is played within a structured system.

The MHL has proved that it is an adequate league to be tapped into drafted by the NHL. The last five drafts 35 players have been drafted. Compared to junior leagues in North America and the NCAA (U.S. college league) the MHL has been right in the middle of it. Excluding the OHL which has double digit first round picks and the WHL the MHL has been right behind the WHL and the USHL. Do not be surprised if the MHL closes the gap in years to come
Either way it will be an exciting end to the season for Patriot Budapest, this season could have gone better for the team on the ice. Once the regular season is over they will fight to stay in the MHL and hope to avoid relegation to MHL-2 and to be back better then ever for the 2013-14 MHL season.

Check back in the coming weeks to get a first hand account of the All-Star gala and other news about Patriot Budapest.