Naturalized talent
Olympic team hunts for hockey players born in China or abroad
Chinese hockey is opening its arms to overseas talent in order to bolster the men’s and women’s national team rosters through naturalization.
In a groundbreaking move, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association recently announced it has sanctioned tryout camps in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver next month to select players of Chinese ancestry who might qualify for the national teams.
The tryout camps mark the first time a State governing body of any sport in China has opened its national program to overseas talent tasked with boosting its Olympic prospects.
The camps, co-organized by Kunlun Red Star, China’s Beijing-based franchise in the professional Kontinental Hockey League, will evaluate players born in China or overseas after Jan 1, 1990, who are willing to apply for national team eligibility.
Wang Zhili, deputy director of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center, said more than 40 players have signed up to participate in the tryouts. The application deadline is May 22.
“Our preparation for the 2022 Olympics is urgent, considering what we hope to accomplish in such a limited time,” Wang said at Tuesday’s signing ceremony of Red Star’s partnership with the national program. “We have to break from the traditional system in order to seek all available talent and maximize our resources.”
China has set goals for its world No 18 women’s team to win a medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and for the men’s squad, currently ranked No 37, to qualify for the tournament and perform “decently”, said Wang.
“As long as foreigners of Chinese ancestry are willing to give up their current citizenship, we will welcome them with open arms into our national program,” he said.
According to International Ice Hockey Association rules, male players must have at least two consecutive hockey seasons in the national competition of an adopted country after changing citizenship in order to be eligible to repre- sent the country on the international stage.
Female players need one season under the same rules to be eligible.
South Korea recently reaped the benefit of that policy when its men’s national team qualified for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with the help of six Canadian-born naturalized players.
Kunlun Red Star defenseman Zack Yuen, a fourthround pick by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2011 NHL draft, is intrigued by China’s overseas recruitment initiative.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said the 24-year-old, who was born in Vancouver to a Chinese immigrant family. “I’d love to trade my Canadian passport for Chinese citizenship in order to play at the 2022 Olympics. This is my ultimate goal,”
As co-host of the tryout camps, Red Star has assembled a 12-member expert panel, led by head coach Mike Keenan, NHL legend Phil Esposito and scout Robert Carpenter, to assess the draftees and consult on the national program development.
“China deserves to be one of the powerhouses in hockey and that’s why we are here — to help achieve that goal,” said Keenan, the only coach in the world who has won the Stanley Cup (NHL) and Gagarin Cup (KHL).
“The first thing you have to do is to identify people that can play, who can grow bigger and better in our program.
“We also want to introduce that culture of hockey to people in China to involve the youngsters. It means developing programs very quickly to teach people how to win in a sport that we’ve been teaching and coaching for decades.”
After recent domestic tryouts, 24 men and 40 women have been selected for the initial national teams program, which will be expanded after the tryouts in Canada.
High-profile homegrown stars such as Beijing-born defenseman Song Andong, who became the first Chinese drafted into the NHL by the New York Islanders in 2015, and Red Star’s Ying Rudi, the first Chinese player in the KHL, have already been assured spots on Team China.
After the Canadian tryouts, the men’s national team will be sent to the Czech Republic and Finland while the women’s squad will be dispatched to the United States for intensive training over the summer before joining Russia’s Supreme Hockey League and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League for game conditioning in the fall.
“The new concept of running the national program as a club allows us to play these groups of players in league competitions between international events, which will help them mature in regular league competitions,” said Wang Qiangjun, vice-head of the ice hockey department of the winter sports center.