Percentage of Canadian NHL players drops to 45%

[Albatros]

Interesting to see the Canadian numbers get up to around 40 % when they were at 33 % a few years ago. Who knows if that's a trend reversal or noise.

Covid.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Covid.

How would COVID mean more Canadians drafted relative to Americans? Did they still run more junior hockey during that time? Didn't the OHL miss a whole season?

 

[Jets4Life]

I don't think so, the numbers are stabilizing and the Draft numbers are pretty reflective of that.

2022 was 39.6 % Canadian, 21.3 % American
2021 was 39.9 % Canadian, 20.2 % American
2020 was 33.8 % Canadian, 23.1 % American.
2019 was 32.3 % Canadian, 25.8 % American
2018 was 33.6 % Canadian, 24.0 % American

Interesting to see the Canadian numbers get up to around 40 % when they were at 33 % a few years ago. Who knows if that's a trend reversal or noise. Either way, I think the U.S. numbers are at or very close to the high watermark. The downstream effects of the Sunbelt Expansion and explosion of minor hockey in "non-traditional" areas accordingly has had that wave of players grow up and hit their prime ages (you can generally count on the average NHL age to remain around 27). So those sorts of numbers are pretty likely to continue in my opinion.

To see ANOTHER explosion, you'd likely need to see the growth of high-level minor hockey in areas that are not serviced by an NHL franchise (like how Crosby can come from Nova Scotia, the Staal brothers can come from Thunder Bay, that sort of thing), which basically would mean those located well outside of major metro areas. Like how Football players in the U.S. can come from basically anywhere because everywhere has High School Football. But that seems incredibly unlikely due to the massive infrastructure and costs that go into creating such a thing and close to non-existent demand.

Link?

That really seems hard to believe, considering the percentage of NHL players that were born in Canada, has been declining for 50 years.

Edit:


"Of the 225 players chosen, 87 were from Canada (38.7 per cent) and 50 from the United States (22.2 per cent). The remaining 88 were from Europe (39.1 per cent), which represents a slight dip from last year when 88 of 223 were European (39.5 per cent). Sweden and Russia led the way with 25 selections each."

source: IIHF - 2022 NHL Draft wraps up.

So there is a statistical discrepancy between our respective numbers. Strange..

 

[WarriorofTime]

Link?

That really seems hard to believe, considering the percentage of NHL players that were born in Canada, has been declining for 50 years.

Edit:


"Of the 225 players chosen, 87 were from Canada (38.7 per cent) and 50 from the United States (22.2 per cent). The remaining 88 were from Europe (39.1 per cent), which represents a slight dip from last year when 88 of 223 were European (39.5 per cent). Sweden and Russia led the way with 25 selections each."

source: IIHF - 2022 NHL Draft wraps up.

It was on the Wikipedia for each of the respective drafts. I did not independently verify.

 

[Jets4Life]

It was on the Wikipedia for each of the respective drafts. I did not independently verify.

Here is an article I came across, ending in 2019:

"In 2009 we saw 102 Canadian players drafted, which was 48.8% of the 210 draft picks.
2019 produced 64 Canadian players drafted, for a total of 29.4% of the 217 draft picks.

That is a significant drop.

The United States, who had the second most players drafted during the same time span, remained virtually the same with 26.1% in 2009 and 26.7% in 2019.
Between 2009-2019 Canada has produced 43.8% of the drafted players (932 of 2,127), while the USA had produced 29.4% (629 of 2,127)."

source: Can Canada Reverse The Trend of Producing Fewer NHL Players?

 

[WarriorofTime]

Here is an article I came across, ending in 2019:

"In 2009 we saw 102 Canadian players drafted, which was 48.8% of the 210 draft picks.
2019 produced 64 Canadian players drafted, for a total of 29.4% of the 217 draft picks.

That is a significant drop.

The United States, who had the second most players drafted during the same time span, remained virtually the same with 26.1% in 2009 and 26.7% in 2019.
Between 2009-2019 Canada has produced 43.8% of the drafted players (932 of 2,127), while the USA had produced 29.4% (629 of 2,127)."

source: Can Canada Reverse The Trend of Producing Fewer NHL Players?

yeah i'm saying those numbers are stabilizing

 

[Albatros]

How would COVID mean more Canadians drafted relative to Americans? Did they still run more junior hockey during that time? Didn't the OHL miss a whole season?

In general because of the pandemic teams had fewer data about players than they would normally have, you would still know who the international top picks were but after that Canadians would be easier for many teams to rate than other players. So I'd argue that after the first round we saw a stronger Canadian bias than before and only in the later rounds would teams be willing to take chances with others.

 

[DannyGallivan]

It's really impressive how the US has this many NHL and professional players worldwide when you consider hockey in America is a niche sport. Hockey is below football, baseball, basketball, and soccer in popularity. Golf, tennis, and race car driving get better ratings. For the most part the cold states produce the majority of talent.
Hockey has no impact on most urban cities and doesn't have much of any influence on the minority communities.
It's an expensive sport and many states don't even have ice rinks used for organized leagues. Most American kids don't even know how to ice skate.

The U S is a great place to live for anybody who is upper middle class or better. They truly can pick and choose their sports, so I am not surprised that a country of 300 million are the second best nation in hockey. But you are all missing the real story…

Hockey has been around for over 130 years. Canada has been the top country in the sport for just as long - who cares if they “only” supply 42 percent of the league. It’s still by far an amazing streak. A truly international game MUST have great players from all over the world, or what kind of sport is it t?

 

[WarriorofTime]

Now that each team has played exactly 1 Playoff game, thought it'd be interesting to see what the Game 1 lineups as a whole looked like

Total
129 Canada (42.3 %)
86 USA (28.2 %)
27 Sweden (8.9 %)
20 Finland (6.6 %)
17 Russia (5.6 %)
11 Czech Republic (3.6 %)
5 Switzerland (1.6 %)
2 Slovakia (0.7 %)
2 Germany (0.7 %)
2 Denmark (0.7 %)
1 Netherlands (0.3 %)
1 Slovenia (0.3 %)
1 Norway (0.3 %)
1 France (0.3 %)

By Position

Forwards:
79 Canada (41.1 %)
52 USA (27.1 %)
17 Sweden (8.9 %)
14 Finland (7.3 %)
9 Russia (4.7 %)
9 Czech Republic (4.7 %)
4 Switzerland (2.1 %)
2 Denmark (1.0 %)
1 Slovakia (0.5 %)
1 Germany (0.5 %)
1 Slovenia (0.5 %)
1 Norway (0.5 %)
1 France (0.5 %)
1 Netherlands (0.5 %)

Defensemen:
48 Canada (50.0 %)
30 United States (31.3 %)
8 Sweden (8.3 %)
4 Finland (4.2 %)
3 Russia (3.1 %)
1 Czech Republic (1.0 %)
1 Slovakia (1.0 %)
1 Switzerland (1.0)

Goaltenders:
5 Russia (29.4 %)
4 United States (23.5 %)
2 Sweden (11.8 %)
2 Finland (11.8 %)
2 Canada (11.8 %)
1 Germany (5.9 %)
1 Czech Republic (5.9 %)

 

[Czechboy]

Now that each team has played exactly 1 Playoff game, thought it'd be interesting to see what the Game 1 lineups as a whole looked like

Total
129 Canada (42.3 %)
86 USA (28.2 %)
27 Sweden (8.9 %)
20 Finland (6.6 %)
17 Russia (5.6 %)
11 Czech Republic (3.6 %)
5 Switzerland (1.6 %)
2 Slovakia (0.7 %)
2 Germany (0.7 %)
2 Denmark (0.7 %)
1 Netherlands (0.3 %)
1 Slovenia (0.3 %)
1 Norway (0.3 %)
1 France (0.3 %)

By Position

Forwards:
79 Canada (41.1 %)
52 USA (27.1 %)
17 Sweden (8.9 %)
14 Finland (7.3 %)
9 Russia (4.7 %)
9 Czech Republic (4.7 %)
4 Switzerland (2.1 %)
2 Denmark (1.0 %)
1 Slovakia (0.5 %)
1 Germany (0.5 %)
1 Slovenia (0.5 %)
1 Norway (0.5 %)
1 France (0.5 %)
1 Netherlands (0.5 %)

Defensemen:
48 Canada (50.0 %)
30 United States (31.3 %)
8 Sweden (8.3 %)
4 Finland (4.2 %)
3 Russia (3.1 %)
1 Czech Republic (1.0 %)
1 Slovakia (1.0 %)
1 Switzerland (1.0)

Goaltenders:
5 Russia (29.4 %)
4 United States (23.5 %)
2 Sweden (11.8 %)
2 Finland (11.8 %)
2 Canada (11.8 %)
1 Germany (5.9 %)
1 Czech Republic (5.9 %)

Canada at 11.8 for goalies is not surprising but shockingly low.
Czechs at 1% of D is not surprising but downright pathetic!

Czechs and Russian forwards tied is actually nice.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Canada at 11.8 for goalies is not surprising but shockingly low.
Czechs at 1% of D is not surprising but downright pathetic!

Czechs and Russian forwards tied is actually nice.

Yeah, Russia appeared to have a lot of Forwards that didn't make the Playoffs (or injured like A. Svechnikov) as they had 5.6 % of regular season games played by Forwards, Czech Forwards are disproportionately represented in the Playoffs as they were at 3.2 % of regular season games played by Forwards.

Czech Defensemen were only at 1.8 % of Regular Season Games Played by Defensemen (interestingly, 2.7 % of total players as they had 9 total players but 5 of them accumulated 22, 16, 4, 2, 2 GP on the season, figure guys like Jiricek and Svozil will be playing a lot before long). Only 1 Czech DMan in Game 1 of the Playoffs, Radko Gudas for Florida.

 

[morehockeystats]

The future of the inflow of Russian players into the NHL has one big asterisk...

 

[Czechboy]

Yeah, Russia appeared to have a lot of Forwards that didn't make the Playoffs (or injured like A. Svechnikov) as they had 5.6 % of regular season games played by Forwards, Czech Forwards are disproportionately represented in the Playoffs as they were at 3.2 % of regular season games played by Forwards.

Czech Defensemen were only at 1.8 % of Regular Season Games Played by Defensemen (interestingly, 2.7 % of total players as they had 9 total players but 5 of them accumulated 22, 16, 4, 2, 2 GP on the season, figure guys like Jiricek and Svozil will be playing a lot before long). Only 1 Czech DMan in Game 1 of the Playoffs, Radko Gudas for Florida.

Czech D is just not very good right now. We had 9 play this season but most are warm bodies. Zboril may get a game in with injuries. Same with Hajek. But they are basically 'warm bodies' in the NHL. It's bleak!