New league, new vision for honing homegrown talent

With the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League proving a little too advanced, starting next month Chinese pros hoping to play at the 2022 Winter Olympics will be groomed in a rebranded lower-level competition.

Considered the KHL's primary development circuit, the Supreme Hockey League, formerly known as VHL, has been expanded and rebranded as the Silk Road Hockey League with 29 clubs, including two from China.

The revamp, announced in Beijing on Thursday, was initiated by China's ORG Packaging and Beijing-based Kunlun Red Star in an effort to provide homegrown players with enhanced pro experience ahead of the 2022 Olympic tournament, for which China has already qualified as host nation.

A new club funded by ORG Packaging and based on Kunlun Red Star's Heilongjiang unit, will join another Chinese entry, Jilin City Investment, in the Silk Road Hockey League regular season, which opens on Sept 5 and runs through Feb 24.

The top eight teams in each of the Eastern and Western Conferences will advance to the playoffs in March.

Expansion of the SRHL could eventually result in as many as five Chinese clubs - stocked mainly with homegrown players - competing against entries from Russia and Kazakhstan, said Dmitry Kurbatov, the executive director of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.

"The China-Russia cooperation in hockey is achieving new results in this rebranded league. The intense and consistent competition will help Chinese players grow their game," Kurbatov said through an interpreter at Thursday's announcement.

Joining the second-tier Russian league is seen as a compromise of China's hockey ambition after the vision of honing homegrown talent over the past two seasons in the KHL fell short.

Kunlun Red Star, established in August 2016 as a KHL expansion club, was supposed to feature at least 10 Chinese players on its initial roster, but none could hold down regular starting places.

With a roster primarily composed of foreign players and overseas Chinese, Red Star finished last season with a 15-41 record and failed to make the playoffs after qualifying for the postseason the previous year.

Forward Ying Rudi, a Beijing native who was on Red Star's roster in the debut KHL season, said being a spectator on the bench was counterproductive.

"The KHL's level is too high for the Chinese players to handle for now, although we played some minutes off the bench," said Ying, who averaged just under three minutes per game and was held scoreless in his 25 games during the 2016-17 season.

Ying joined Red Star's Heilongjiang unit last year to compete in the then VHL, scoring two goals in 42 games.

"The VHL, which is now the Silk Road Hockey League, is a more practical and suitable platform for us to be able to gain the skills and experience we need with enough minutes and quality play on ice," said the 20-year-old, who developed his game in the Canadian junior ranks.

Red Star Heilongjiang featured 14 local Chinese on its 2017-18 VHL season roster and will have more in the upcoming campaign as KRS-ORG, according to the new entry's management.

"We will keep looking for new talent, especially from Beijing, and add those players to the team's roster," said Zhao Xianglin, president of AZ Sports, the sports affiliate of ORG Packaging.

"Our main goal is to have our own players tested and developed in the rebranded league rather than going for higher rankings, so we will make sure that the Chinese players compete as the core force of this team."

KRS-ORG will play its first four home games at Harbin Sport University Stadium next month and return to Beijing in October for the rest of its home appearances at Ao Zhong Ice Sports Center in the northeastern suburbs of the capital.

"We've learned our lessons after making some unwise decisions," said Ye Maosheng, vice-president of Kunlun Red Star.

"But one thing we believe more than ever is that we have to provide Chinese players with the real test they need, wherever that happens."