How many foreigners does a training club need?

Now, the great Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (not a Russian coach, but a chronicler and landowner) tells us that this pursuit of maximization is not a good thing. Education can be better than more and more possessions. Transfer to hockey: better to train than to fight for the maximum number of foreign licenses. People don't need more property than land to be buried in it.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

So we call it “Tolstoy's principle”. Training and continuing education for young players is what our sport of hockey needs. And there aren’t many foreigners either. Correct. Or not?

Just like in real life, there is always another truth. On September 24, the SCL Tigers defeated eventual league leaders Davos 7-0. There are six foreign players. Joshua Fahrni (22) moved from Bern to Langnau to continue training, scoring a goal and providing an assist. This is his second goal this season. Previously, on September 20, he contributed a goal and an assist in a 4-2 victory over Gottron, when the team almost overwhelmed Gottron. Trainee Dario Allenspach (22), who came to Langnau from Zug, also scored against Gottron. So in this win, the Apprentices scored half the goals. Coach Thierry Patellini was also able to use six foreigners against Gautrone.

After the 7-0 victory over Davos, Langnau's coach was unable to fill all six foreign aid positions for 18 games. Eight times he had only four foreigners and twice he had only three. Langnau lost 6 of these 18 games by a score of zero.

Joshua Fahrni: Has he benefited from having foreigners in his team?Image: trapezoid

Now, it would be logical if young talent, interns, apprentices took advantage of the lack of foreign games to shake up the league. Because now they get more ice time, more attention, more responsibility, in short: more opportunities to showcase themselves, stand out and develop. But that's not the case. Dario Arenspach has only 1 goal and 1 assist in these 18 games, while Joshua Fahni has 2 assists and 1 goal.

Langnau's sporting director Pascal Müller, as Tolstoy taught us, was modest, signing only one substitute foreign player and accepting that the foreign player quota could not be used up for 18 games. In doing so, he promotes the education of young players. But if we look at the statistics, it doesn't help the boys. The “Tolstoyan principles” of self-restraint and humility, of focusing on education rather than possessions, did not work.

• 7

  A leader who can decide games and make his team better on and off the ice.

• 6-7

  A talented player who can decide a game on a good night and is a leader.

• 5-6

  A good NL player: usually a rainbow butterfly of talent, sometimes a serious worker who brings out a lot of talent.

• 4-5

  Players on the third or fourth block, veterans or newcomers.

• 3-4

  The future is still ahead of you, or the future is already behind you.

• The rating is based on the North American Hockey Grading Scale, ranging from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest). There are no levels below level 3, because those who play in the top leagues are at least barely adequate.

Yes, even this has reached the point of absurdity: On Friday, Langnau will finally be able to compete with the largest crowds from abroad for the first time since September 24. They dominated at will, winning 4:2 and the boys put themselves in the spotlight: Joshua Fahrni receives a pass from Dario Allenspach , rewriting the score to 1-0. The more foreigners there are and the more educated they are, the better off the young people are?

Thierry Paterlini used two of his apprentices to attack Ambri on the wing next to American center Sean Malone. He did just that in Lugano on Tuesday, with two goals from Joshua Fahrni and Dario Allenspach in a 5-3 win. The score achieved a surprising result. “Malone just made the whole line better,” he said, as succinctly and clearly as ever.

How great would it be if Dario Arlenspach could play with Foreigners all season long?Image: trapezoid

The question is not just what would happen to Langnau if they used six foreigners every game. The question also remains how much better Joshua Farney and Dario Arlenspach would have been if they had been playing alongside foreign centres.

What do we learn from this? As intelligent people, we can interpret any statistic any way we see fit. We can use statistics to prove that six foreigners have a better effect on educating and training young people than five, four, three, two or even one foreigner. Apprentices learn more and develop better next to good players (usually foreigners) than as followers. The more foreigners there are in a training club, the better. As many foreigners as possible for the good of our hockey!

This conclusion, supported statistically by randomly chosen examples, is of course absurd. Something completely different is crucial: how does the coach use his foreigners and his talents? So the problem isn't our foreigner rule (six can be used per game). The problem is how the coach sees it. The key to developing young players correctly for the good of our hockey lies in the wisdom of the athletic director and coaches. The great Tolstoy would certainly have seen it this way.