1976 (except for Canada and USA players outside NHL)
After looking at the stats from the Canada Cups, along with other things (including useful links provided in this thread), I think the following might be somewhat true for 1976.
Rank | Team | Pla in NHL | Comments
1 | Canada | 423 |
2 | Czechs | 1 | Seemed not far from Canada
3 | Sweden | 3 | In the years to come, more and more Swedes went over to play in the NHL - often succesfully (e.g. Islanders).
4 | USSR | 0 | Didn't have their best team, due to some internal conflicts among the leading staff. Missing Charlamov, Petrov, Michailov(?) (please add)
5 | USA | 35 | A bit below the above four teams. 35 NHL:ers equals about 2 teams. I guess the best half went to play in the CC. ?
6 | Finland | 1 | Featured a team of non-NHL:ers, finishing last. They lost 3-6 (23-24 in shots) vs USA, but had managed to win over Sweden (usually their prime goal of tournaments).
NHL consisted of 18 teams. In 1/18:s, I suppose player distibution was somewhat like:
Country | Share | Comment
Canada | 16.5 |
USA | 1 |
Rest | 0.5 | Including star Borje Salming. More stars?
How could we expand the NHL without decreasing its skill level?
What could be inserted regarding the non-NHL:ers?
Country | NHL teams | Comment
USSR | 3-4 ? | Easily players filling two NHL teams. If splitting the players 50/50 reagarding skill onto these two teams, I suppose both teams would be competitive and each having players belong to the absolute top of best NHL players. Perhaps 1-2 some more players too? Another way of looking at it would be to say 3-4 USSR league teams could compete at least fairly well in the NHL.
Czech | 2-3 ? | Easily filling one NHL team. Perhaps even two?
Sweden | 1 | Probably filling one NHL team.
Finland, Germany... | <0.5? | Some players here and there.
We could, without decreasing the overall standard, thus add more teams to the NHL:
2 good Russian, 1 very good Czech, 1 Swedish, 3-4 with more Czechs, Finns, Germans and more Russians. Total 7-8 teams
We thus have say an 18+7(8) = 25(26) teams league, with the same standard as the 18 team NHL.
How many would have made it into a 18 team NHL featuring best players in the World?
Probably 2-3 full teams of Russians, 2 full teams of Czechs, 1.5 team of Scandinavians and Germans. Total 6 teams, meaning that same amount of North Americans would have to leave the NHL.
Left we have like:
Country | Top-10 | top 100 | upper half (not %) | roster spot (not %) | Examples
Canada in NHL | 4-6 | 53 | many | many
USA in NHL | 0(?) | 2? | 8(?) | 20(?) |
Rest in NHL | 0(?) | 3? | 5(?) | 10(?) | Salming et al
USSR outside NHL | 2-3 | 18 | 50 | 70 | Vasiliev, Maltsev, Zhluktov, Bilyaletdinov, + missing stars (Charlamov, Petrov, Michailov?), plus others
Czech
outside NHL| 2 | 13 | 40 | 60 | Novy, Hlinka, Martinec,
Stastny
brothers, Holecec,
Dzurilla
Rest outside NHL | 0-1 | 11 | 30 | 40 | Islander Swedes, Mats Waltin
Canada outside NHL | ? | ? | ? | ? | Help
USA outside NHL| ? | ? | ? | ? | Help
Am I too kind (or unkind) regarding some country?
Basically then (showing number of new players):
Year | Top 10 | Top 100 | Top half | Roster
1976 | 3-5 | 40-45 | 35-45%? | 35-45%?
As can be seen, I assume that the depth of Canada/North America is greater than the depth in Europe. Perhaps wrong?