Continuing the series on where (and why!) to watch CBJ prospects.

There are a lot of hockey leagues in Europe.

While the Blue Jackets will have six prospects playing on my beautiful continent this coming season, they’re spread across four leagues and 3000 kilometres, so I decided to consolidate them into one article rather than give myself an entire article to hype Elvis Merzlikins.

Skaters

Of the four European skaters, the highest scoring this season was Carlsson with 9 points as a defenseman. Kevin Stenlund seemed to struggle in the transition from the U20 team to the adult league, but will hopefully improve this season (after rehabbing a foot injury sustained during training). Gavrikov got 7 points with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and participated in the recent Sochi Hockey Open.

Vainio’s team, the Espoo Blues, dissolved at the end of season due to bankruptcy, finishing last in the league with 59 points and a record of 19-33-8. This may have contributed to his bad showing (4 points in 30 games) – this season should help establish whether it’s indicative of a general downswing in talent or mostly due to outside influences.

Markus Nutivaara, the most successful European skater prospect from last season, should be coming over to play for the newly rebranded Cleveland Monsters.

Some highlights!

Gabriel Carlsson (Linköping HC – SHL)

HV71 J20-player Kevin Stenlund scores a nice goal

Gavrikov hits Kovalchuk, then ties the game with a slapshot

Veeti Vainio (KooKoo – Liiga)

European leagues are much harder to watch legally outside their respective countries than the NHL, let me tell you. If you have money to burn you could travel all the way here and watch a game live, but otherwise there’s not really any way to watch the National League A (or the EIHL, but that’s not exactly a prospect generating machine to my eternal sadness).

The KHL broadcasts games on its site, although it appears at least some of those games are not accompanied by commentary. While the commentary would be in Russian if it did exist, it’s still a strange experience. This is a paid service but the translated version of the site wasn’t clear on how expensive it is. There are presumably other methods we won’t share here – use your initiative.

SHL games are broadcast on the C More Sport channel, which is exclusive to Scandinavia. Highlights from most games are posted on youtube, although there doesn’t seem to be an official league channel that I can find (feel free to correct me on any of this). As far as I can tell, all radio broadcasts of the game are from Sveriges Radio, although I don’t know if they are available after the fact.

The Liiga also broadcasts on a paid cable service, but releases game information including box scores and general statistics on its website. Its YouTube channel only has 40 videos at the moment but appears to have been active last season, so should hopefully update during the upcoming one as well.

Goalies

The news that Elvis Merzlikins had signed a three year contract with HC Lugano was not that surprising, given the current backlog in goal for the Jackets, but the lack of an NHL exit clause is a little depressing for all who enjoy good goaltending. And whatever he’s doing with his instagram account at any given moment.

Having represented Latvia at the 2016 IIHF World Championships, Merzlikins also won the award for the NLA’s Best Goaltender. Hopefully we’ll be seeing him in Columbus sometime down the line, but until then, keep an eye on Worlds.

Oscar Dansk is technically still under contract to the Jackets, as far as I’m aware, but was loaned to Rögle BK last season and is likely to return there this year as well. His one stint in North American hockey was fairly lackluster, but there’s always hope for the future.

Some videos:

Oscar Dansk (Rögle BK – SHL) (I couldn’t find any highlight videos for him so here’s an interview with some practice footage)

Elvis Merzlikins (HC Lugano – NLA)

Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins Shootout Skate Save

That One IIHF Worlds Save (with cameo by Bob!)

See above for SHL streaming ideas (limited) and NLA despair (nonexistent streaming).

Next up, the other CHL prospects, and much more solid ground for legal streaming options!