Sweden - 10.1 % of NHL players representing 9.3 % of NHL games played.
What does that say?
Sweden is disproportionately sending players to the NHL that are fighting out marginal roles (12th/13th forward, sent down and called back up from the AHL). This makes sense as there is a transfer agreement between SHL and NHL, and the money as a 13th forward/7th defensemen or even a 2-way AHL player is often favorable to what they could get in the SHL. So Swedes are more likely to be "in the system" and will grind it out, for years beyond their ELC and waiver-exempt years and stick around even without certain NHL prospects. From there, being "around" gives opportunity and gives some players a chance to break out into bigger roles in their prime years, etc. Americans and Canadians are of course even much more likely than Swedes for this (someone like Carter Verhaeghe going from 3rd round bust playing in the ECHL to 42 goal scorer in the NHL is the most extreme sort of example) as some Swedes will go home.
For Russia, no transfer agreement between NHL and KHL, so they are not even in the same ecosystem. A player without an assured role is more likely to head back over to the KHL where they can make more money than a 13th forward or 2-way contract. A KHL contract is going to be competitive with bottom NHL spots and more favorable to AHL money, and then the cultural differences (Swedes speak very good english, Russians seldom do) make it pretty obvious for a Russian to go back to the KHL. From there, they hit their prime in Russia, the NHL team holds their rights indefinitely but is likely moved on to developing a new wave of prospects rather than trying to chase a KHL player (that they haven't seen for some time) back into the NHL to marginally improve their roster.
It's not particularly complicated. Russia and Sweden had pretty similar results at the U20 level (both on the podium a lot but snake bitten as far as Gold Medals go in recent years). The high-end theoretical rosters are pretty comparable. There is not some huge gap between Swedish Hockey and Russian Hockey, there are just other factors at play to explain why there would be more Swedes in the NHL.
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