Purpose
The purpose with this essay is to identify the differences between professional Swedish male
hockey players from the 2017/2018 season which have played in the NHL, SHL and HA. The
compression consists of looking at the differences in participation concerning TV-pucken,
youth- and junior national-teams and studies at RIG. Furthermore, it refers to explore if there
is any sign of Relative Age Effect (RAE) among the participants.
Methods
In this essay a statistical investigation has been done. The information has been collected from
different websites with open registers. Eliteprospects and SCB is the biggest sources of
information for the investigation.
Results
By a quantitative investigation concerning participation in TV-pucken, youth-and junior
national-teams and studies at RIG results has been produced. From that it´s visible that the
NHL is the league which have the most participants in the examined contexts based on
percentage. Furthermore, the SHL have a bigger percentage which have participated in the
examined contexts then HA, with exception for TV-pucken where the results where similar.
The issue concerning RAE shows indications of it in SHL and HA, but not in the NHL when
looking at the selected group. Also, performed where Chi-2 tests that where compared to a
significance level of 0.05 which means a critical value of 7,82 or 3,64 depending on if two or
four variables parted in the calculation. Out of fifteen tests, eight of them showed out to be
statistically significant.
Conclusion
By the results which have been brought out its visible that there are statistical significant
differences between the examined leagues. To be able the reach professional level there is a
clear advantage to participate in the examined contexts, especially if a possibility to play in
the NHL will appear. Also, it shows signs of RAE in the SHL and HA, though a study on a
larger group of individuals performing different sport would give the possibility to generalize
the group of professional athletes.