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The Swedish Hockey Federation rejects Elias Pettersson in the WC.
They cannot afford insurance costs between two and three million.
But if that’s the difference between going out for a quarter and winning WC gold – it could cost you ten million in prize money.
It’s never been cheap to bring NHL players home for WC tournaments.
The insurance premiums are on par with a luxury yacht insurance.
Especially if your name is Elias Peterson and you have a future worth over SEK 1 billion on pure salary.
But it’s the first time I’ve heard of a Swedish star being humiliated for financial reasons. Yes, absolutely for that matter.
What bothers me most is that the insurance issue is not included in the agreement between the IIHF and the NHL.
Now it’s the same discussion every time.
Insurance for NHL players is expensive and it gets even more expensive for superstars who are in the prime of their career and where huge future incomes have to be guaranteed.
Like Elias Peterson.
But that never stopped Rijkaard Grunborg when he captained the national team and took a record number of NHL players to the 2017 Cologne World Cup and the 2018 Copenhagen World Cup.
the prize?
Two WC gold medals and around ten million kronor in prize money from the IIHF.
per gold.
biting herself in the tail
Now even that wasn’t enough to cover insurance and other overhead costs for NHL players.
Federation president Anders Larsson wrote a popular publication in the Idrottens Affärer, announcing that WC gold “costs” Sweden around four million kronor.
Today, the value of the prize money, which is paid out in US dollars, has risen exponentially with the increase in the exchange rate.
And if Elias Peterson is the difference between gold and going through to the quarter-finals, it could cost the federation millions instead.
Such was the case at WC in Slovakia, where Grönborg brought 21 NHL players with them, but were knocked out against future world champions Finland in a dramatic quarterfinal.
I don’t even dare to think of the financial loss at that time, when the gold money wasn’t paid.
At the same time?
Should you turn down a player like Elias Peterson if he wants to come?
I do not think so.
Then it should cost.
If the association were an SHL club, they would certainly have started an SMS campaign to collect contributions for insurance.
Now they can bite themselves in the tail and eventually lose gold and millions.
We don’t know that yet.
But it is very strange that Elias is not there when he wants to be.
And it looks even stranger when Finland has already fielded Patrick Lane, who will earn $9.1 million a season for the Columbus Blue Jackets over the next few years.
That is, about 100 million in the winter.
Weak start to the water cycle adventure
Sam Hallam has now made five clear players in the NHL at the same time as the announcement.
But none of the biggest names were there.
Jacob Silverberg (Anaheim), Lucas Raymond (Detroit), Jonathan Berggren (Detroit), Rasmus Sandin (Washington) and Alexander Nylander (Pittsburgh).
None of the backs are Rasmus Dahlen or Erik Carlsson, as I think there is the same problem with the insurance money.
Regardless, it already looks like a weak start to WC’s adventure.
