The KHL is a better league. Players go from the NHL to the KHL for a reason. The AHL has good young talent, but the KHL's youngsters are better. The top end talent favors the KHL. Not to mention Nikishin is re-writing the record books in the KHL. He's got size, speed, he's physical, he can score for fun, he's incredible defensively. Clarke isn't in the same conversation as Nikishin. Nemec is the only one I think is close.

Players go to the KHL because the money is better. I agree that the top end talent favors the KHL, but because they're not a feeder league where the best players rights are assigned by the NHL team that owns them, the talent is all concentrated to a few teams. The best teams are very good, and the worst teams probably couldn't compete with an ECHL team.

The AHL is also a pretty deep league, while the KHL is absolutely not. The players that round out the roster in the AHL are much better. So if you're having a KHL vs AHL All Star game, the KHL would win. But if you played 30 AHL teams vs 30 KHL teams, I think the AHL team would win the vast majority of the games.

I disagree with your assessment of Nikishin. I think he could be a solid NHL defenseman if he decides to come over, but I don't think he's as good as Clarke.

Top 10 homer takes right here.

Sure, Nikishin is doing great, but on one of the most stacked KHL teams of the last 5 years lol.

Nemec is having a great tenure thus far being thrusted into a top 4 role on new jersey due to injuries.

The guy who might be a good NHL player or the one who’s doing great right now?

Red tinted glasses never come off I guess

Don’t bother. To Caniac, all of his prospects are 10x better than everyone else’s.

No, the KHL has feeder leagues. The best talent of the AHL goes up to the NHL, and the young players in North America tend to be in the CHL or in the NCAA. Young players are thrown into the deep end in the KHL, at the age of like 16. It's a bigger rink, but the worst teams in the KHL would comfortably compete with the mid to high end AHL teams

The KHL has a feeder league, but the KHL isn't a feeder league like the AHL. That means that the superstar players choose which team in the KHL they want to sign with, and they generally all chose the same ones. That's why CSKA Moscow makes it to the Finals pretty much every year, and only 4 or 5 teams are actually in competition for the Gagarin Cup, despite there being 23 teams in the league.

In the AHL, the best players in the league are the young players lookings to break into the NHL. They had their rights drafted by their NHL club and are now on loan to the AHL. The best talent is spread throughout the league because none of these players got to choose where they get to play. 8 different teams have won the Calder Cup in each of the last 8 times it was awarded. The last repeat champion was Hershey in 2009.

So yes, while the teams that feature the star players like Shipachyov and Nesterov are going to be quality teams, there are teams in that league that are primarily built from AHL dropouts. Look at the roster of a team like Kunlun Red Star and tell me they'd compete with AHL playoff teams. Not gonna happen.

Except, even the teams lower in the standings have players that would be effective top six players in the AHL, and some of them even were. It's why good AHL players go to the KHL. It's more difficult, and more impressive. You're more impressed by a dude that puts up 60 points in the KHL than the AHL. I absolutely believe a team like Red Star would compete with an AHL playoff hopeful, maybe not the calder winners, but a team that sneaks into the AHL playoffs final day of the season? Yeah, definitely. And no team in the AHL comes close to SKA. Hell, Im not sure the Sharks and Blackhawks come close to SKA right now.

admit yourself into a mental hospital