Statistical comparison of the European top leagues

In this study we compare eight European top leagues: KHL, Elitserien, SM-Liiga, DEL, NLA, EBEL and Czech and Slovak Extraliga. Elitserien is the Swedish top league, SM-Liiga the Finnish, DEL the German and NLA the Swiss. KHL is mainly Russian but also includes teams from Belarus, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Slovakia. EBEL is also an international league with six teams from Austria, two from Slovenia, one from Hungary, one from Croatia and one from Czech Republic.

Our study shows that most goals are scored in EBEL while fewest goals are scored in Elitserien. Elitserien still has the highest attendance numbers.

In our lists we only name the best or worst team of each league. Not two or more teams from the same league. We also chose not to list the Slovak junior national team that played only 10 games in Extraliga.

Goals/game
EBEL 6.15
DEL 5.61
Extraliga (SVK) 5.55
NLA 5.47
Extraliga (CZE) 5.39
KHL 5.29
SM-Liiga 5.16
Elitserien 5.06


Teams with most goals scored/game
SKA St. Petersburg, KHL 3.90
Linz, EBEL 3.89
Zug, NLA 3.66
Slovan Br., Extraliga (SVK) 3.58
Adler Mannheim, DEL 3.38
Ässät, SM-Liiga 3.34
Pardubice, Extraliga (CZE) 3.32
HV 71, Elitserien 3.03


Teams with most goals against/game
Nitra, Extraliga (SVK) 3.71
Jesenice, EBEL 3.71
Spartak Moskva, KHL 3.68
SCL Tigers, NLA 3.45
Iserlohn, DEL 3.40
Mlada Boleslav, Extraliga (CZE) 3.35
HPK, SM-Liiga 3.17
Timrå, Elitserien 2.97


Teams with fewest goals scored/game
Metallurg Novokuznetsk, KHL 1.80
Linköping, Elitserien 1.87
Lakers, NLA 1.94
Tappara, SM-Liiga 2.03
Zlin, Extraliga (CZE) 2.10
Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers, DEL 2.12
Jesenice, EBEL 2.18
Ban. Bystrika, Extraliga (SVK) 2.26


Teams with fewest goals against/game
KalPa, SM-Liiga 1.84
Avangard Omsk, KHL 1.97
Luleå, Elitserien 2.06
Sparta Praha, Extraliga (CZE) 2.10
Kloten, NLA 2.24
Slovan Br., Extraliga (SVK) 2.29
Wolfsburg, DEL 2.41
Medvescak, EBEL 2.64


League leaders - % of points won
Linz, EBEL 80.4%
KalPa, SM-Liiga 74.0%
SKA St. Petersburg, KHL 72.0%
Skalica, Extraliga (SVK) 71.0%
Adler Mannheim, DEL 66.7%
Mountfield, Extraliga (CZE) 65.6%
Zug, NLA 65.6%
Skellefteå, Elitserien 61.3%


Last placed teams - % of points won
Timrå, Elitserien 36.7%
SaiPa, SM-Liiga 34.4%
Jesenice, EBEL 33.9%
Mlada Boleslav, Extraliga (CZE) 32.3%
Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers, DEL 30.7%
Lakers, NLA 27.3%
Nitra, Extraliga (SVK) 26.9%
Automobilist, KHL 22.2%


Difference between best and worst team
KHL 49.8%
EBEL 46.5%
Extraliga (SVK) 44.1%
SM-Liiga 39.6%
NLA 38.3%
DEL 36.0%
Extraliga (CZE) 33.3%
Elitserien 24.6%


Spectators/game
Elitserien 6355
NLA 6275
KHL 5946
DEL 5549
SM-Liiga 5021
Extraliga (CZE) 4617
EBEL 3295
Extraliga (SVK) 2506


Teams with most spectators/game
Bern, NLA 15750
Eisbären Berlin, DEL 14072
Dinamo Minsk, KHL 13606
Frölunda, Elitserien 10670
Jokerit, SM-Liiga, 9696
Pardubice, Extraliga (CZE) 8415
Medvescak, EBEL 6598
Slovan Br., Extraliga (SVK) 5698


Teams with fewest spectators/game
Mountfield, Extraliga (SVK) 1397
Jesenice, EBEL 1739
Wolfsburg, DEL 2169
Spartak Moskva, KHL 2375
Kladno, Extraliga (CZE) 2719
SaiPa, SM-Liiga 3273
Lakers, NLA 4001
Timrå, Elitserien 4636


Penalty minutes/game
EBEL 39.5
Extraliga (SVK) 31.8
DEL 30.5
Extraliga (CZE) 30.2
NLA 26.8
SM-Liiga 26.7
KHL 26.6
Elitserien 20.8


Teams with most penalty minutes/game
Vityaz, KHL 31.06
VSV, EBEL 26.54
HIFK, SM-Liiga 24.32
Straubing Tigers, DEL 21.00
Nitra, Extraliga (SVK) 19.77
Mlada Boleslav, Extraliga (CZE) 19.74
Zug, NLA 18.00
Färjestad, Elitserien 15.57


Teams with fewest penalty minutes/game
Luleå, Elitserien 5.94
Sibir Novosibirsk, KHL 8.77
Tappara, SM-Liiga 9.90
Bern, NLA 10.09
Kladno, Extraliga (CZE) 10.52
Wolfsburg, DEL 10.67
Trencin, Extraliga (SVK) 11.52
SAPA Fehervar, EBEL 12.36


% of games that go to overtime
Elitserien 27.9%
DEL 26.7%
Extraliga (CZE) 23.0%
NLA 20.9%
KHL 20.1%
SM-Liiga 18.6%
EBEL 18.2%
Extraliga (SVK) 13.8%


Number of players used/team
NLA 31.4
Extraliga (CZE) 30.9
SM-Liiga 30.4
Extraliga (SVK) 30.3
Elitserien 30.1
EBEL 30.0
KHL 29.8
DEL 24.4


Top scorers

Player	Club	League	GP	G	A	TP
Zigmund Palffy	Skalica	EL (SVK)	28	18	35	53
Damien Brunner	Zug	NLA	32	18	27	45
Vadim Shipachyov	Severstal	KHL	31	14	26	40
Tomas Zaborsky	Ässät	SM-Liiga	32	26	13	39
Mike Ouellette	Linz	EBEL	28	14	25	39
Jiri Burger	Vitkovice	EL (CZE)	30	12	22	34
Nicklas Danielsson	Modo	Elitserien	30	13	16	29
Daniel Pietta	Krefeld	DEL	26	12	17	29

Top scoring defensemen

Player	Club	League	GP	G	A	TP
Micki DuPont	Kloten	NLA	33	4	28	32
Kevin Dallman	Barys	KHL	32	8	23	31
Kevin Mitchell	VSV	EBEL	28	6	23	29
Richard Regehr	Eisbären	DEL	25	6	18	24
Ondrej Smach	Skalica	EL (SVK)	28	6	14	20
Ryan Gunderson	Brynäs	Elitserien	31	6	14	20
Sami Vatanen	JYP	SM-Liiga	32	6	14	20
Lukas Zib	Trinec	EL (CZE)	31	4	15	19

Top scoring U20 player

Player	Club	League	GP	G	A	TP
Mikael Granlund	HIFK	SM-Liiga	30	16	22	38
Evgeny Kuznetsov	Traktor	KHL	32	12	12	24
Johan Larsson	Brynäs	Elitserien	31	7	16	23
Tomas Hertl	Slavia	EL (CZE)	23	9	6	15
Joel Vermin	Bern	NLA	21	7	5	12
Marko Dano	Trencin	EL (SVK)	25	3	5	8
Gal Koren	Medvescak	EBEL	22	1	2	3
Bernhard Keil	Straubing	DEL	23	1	2	3

+/- leaders

Player	Club	League	+/-
Zigmund Palffy	Skalica	EL (SVK)	+40
Curtis Murphy	Linz	EBEL	+32
Tony Mårtensson	SKA	KHL	+29
Tomas Zaborsky	Ässät	SM-Liiga	+22
Julien Sprunger	Fribourg	NLA	+20
Jerome Flaake	Hamburg	DEL	+17
Nicklas Danielsson	Modo	Elitserien	+17
Alex Foster	Sparta	EL (CZE)	+16
Jan Kolar	Pardubice	EL (CZE)	+16

 

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