Financial pressures that have affected ice hockey on either side of the Atlantic are standing in the way of the development of future generations of British players according to Tony Hand.
A change of emphasis in North America has changed the way American owners are selecting players, he reckons.
“Back then they had one or two lines of players and the players I was up against in my position (centreman) were Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, both world class players. Then we had a third line who were just there to make sure the other team didn’t score and the fourth line were just a bunch of guys about 6’5” who could fight,” Hand explained. “The make-up now in NHL is that you’ve got to be able to play the game. They don’t want to be paying a guy a million dollars a year who just goes on the ice and drops his gloves. They want the better players to play and it’s easier now for the skilful players to play.”
Meanwhile in the UK it has understandably become all about results, leaving little room for .
“At Elite League level you’ve got to appreciate that there’s a lot of investment in teams and obviously they are hiring rinks that are very, very expensive to hire out, so they want to make sure that the people who come and pay at the gates are seeing the top players,” Hand noted.
“Don’t get me wrong they do have a policy where they have to have three under-23 players in each team, so they are trying, but I understand it that when push comes to shove coaches who are under pressure to win have to sacrifice playing that young guy in that game to try to win. It’s logical. I’m not blaming anyone, it’s just a hard fact of financial pressure.
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