Canadian hockey player estimates level of Kyrgyz players

Canadian hockey player Ken Dryden estimated the level of young Kyrgyz players.

He arrived in the Kyrgyz Republic with the assistance of the Embassy of Canada at the invitation of the «National Hockey Academy" and watched the training of its students.

«I’ve been traveling for two weeks and spent a lot of energy. But, arriving in this arena and seeing how the children play, I recovered strength," Ken Dryden said. «Many great players once started from the same thing.»

He noted that once the basis of the National Hockey League was made by Canadians. And now they are 50 percent. The rest are not only from Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States, the Czech Republic and other countries that have a long tradition of hockey, but also those with few players. For example, from Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Austria… Good hockey players can appear everywhere. «If you continue to develop hockey, you will succeed," Ken Dryden instructed our federation, coaches and players.

In 1970–1979, Dryden played in the NHL for the club Montreal Canadiens. The team won the Stanley Cup six times, five times recognized as the best goalkeeper of the NHL. Participated in the famous super series of the USSR — Canada, about which he wrote the book. Later he went into politics.