![]() (While player salaries can vary from season to season during their contract, the cap hit is the amount that counts against the team’s salary cap-this figure is generally the per-year average over the course of the contract. The current top earner is the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, with a salary cap hit of $12.5 million per year, followed by the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Artemi Panarin at just over $11.6 million per year. The top NHL players, as of 2018 data from Forbes, earned an average annual salary of $11.7 million. ![]() Players from all over the globe try to make it to the NHL, for a chance to play for the famed Stanley Cup title and for the potentially large paychecks. The NHL is the top level for pro hockey in North America, and the majority of players regard it as the most competitive league in the world. The season occurs from September to April each year and 14 teams compete for the championship. The Czech Extraliga is one of the world’s most competitive professional ice hockey leagues, currently ranked by the IIHF as the third strongest ice hockey league in Europe. ![]() The league’s motto is Se on totta-Finnish for, “It’s for real.” 5. Viewership, support, and the level of play in Finland have dramatically increased over the last three-and-a-half decades. Liiga is regarded by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) as the second strongest league in all of Europe. The regular season begins in mid-September and runs to mid-March and the playoffs happen in April. Nowadays, 15 teams compete in the league, largely in southern Finland, for the coveted Kanada-malja, as the championship trophy is called. Liiga (or in common parlance, the Finnish Elite League) is the professional league of Finland, founded in 1975. In 2012, the country won the Junior Hockey Championship and before that the 2006 Winter Olympics. The league’s competitiveness has arguably accounted for Sweden’s international hockey success over the past decade or so. Founded in 1975 as the Elitserien, which was often called the Swedish Elite League or SEL in English, the Swedish Hockey League was renamed in 2013 for the branding identity advantages of being known as the SHL. Swedish Hockey LeagueĪlso ranking on the global hockey stage is the Swedish Hockey League. The KHL has expanded to 24 teams, with the top eight in each conference making the playoffs to fight it out for the Gagarin Cup, the league’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup. ![]() The Kontinental Hockey League evolved out of the Russian Superleague in 2008 and now boasts total game attendance among the highest in Europe. Next in worldwide importance is the Moscow-based Kontinental Hockey League, with teams in Russia, China, and Europe. The NHL is the gold standard for professional hockey-the grand, old league that elevated hockey from rural frozen ponds to screaming crowds and major professional stadiums like Madison Square Garden in New York, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Chicago’s United Center (home of the Blackhawks). The World’s Top Five Hockey Leagues, Ranked 1. ![]() Not surprisingly, international professional hockey leagues are gaining ground and starting to challenge the prominence of North America’s National Hockey League (NHL). In the past decades, professional hockey has taken root globally-perhaps an example of the melding of global culture due to the reach of the internet and the merging of sports and social media in modern society. ![]()
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