Small cities and villages wit many NHL players
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jigglysquishy
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Flin Flon is just the craziest. It's way up north in the bush. Completely isolated. 400 km away from the nearest community over 5000 people. 550 km away from the nearest real airport. It's the last road north. I mean that literally. You cannot drive north of Flin Flon because roads don't exist .
Northern Saskatchewan in general is just empty. 35,000 people in an area the size of Italy or the US state of Arizona.
That it even got one NHLer is remarkable. That it got multiple is absolutely insane.
Northern Saskatchewan in general is just empty. 35,000 people in an area the size of Italy or the US state of Arizona.
That it even got one NHLer is remarkable. That it got multiple is absolutely insane.
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overpass
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The gold mining town of Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario. It's population peaked around 20,000 around 1940 when gold mining was at its peak, and has steadily declined since then to it's current population of 8000.
Kirkland Lake produced many NHL players in the 50s and 60s, including Ted Lindsay, Ralph Backstrom, Dick Duff, Gus Mortson, Larry and Wayne Hillman, Bob, Bill, and Barclay Plager, Floyd Curry, Mike Walton, Mickey and Dick Redmond, Tom Webster, and Willie Marshall. It was called the town that made the NHL.
Mining magnate Harry Oakes built an indoor arena in Kirkland Lake in 1928, said to be the best rink north of Toronto at the time. When Kirkland Lake's golden generation was growing up, there were enough minor hockey players in town for four teams per age group, which allowed a lot of opportunity for games and competition. Today, Kirkland Lake can only support one team, which has to travel hundreds of kilometres to play opponents.
icehockey.fandom.com
Kirkland Lake produced many NHL players in the 50s and 60s, including Ted Lindsay, Ralph Backstrom, Dick Duff, Gus Mortson, Larry and Wayne Hillman, Bob, Bill, and Barclay Plager, Floyd Curry, Mike Walton, Mickey and Dick Redmond, Tom Webster, and Willie Marshall. It was called the town that made the NHL.
Mining magnate Harry Oakes built an indoor arena in Kirkland Lake in 1928, said to be the best rink north of Toronto at the time. When Kirkland Lake's golden generation was growing up, there were enough minor hockey players in town for four teams per age group, which allowed a lot of opportunity for games and competition. Today, Kirkland Lake can only support one team, which has to travel hundreds of kilometres to play opponents.
Kirkland Lake
Kirkland Lake is a town of about 8000 people in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is under the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Kirkland Lake Blue Devils (1930s-1950s) (Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, 2011-2012) renamed Gold Miners Kirkland Lake Gold Miners (Northern Ontario Junior...
icehockey.fandom.com
MadLuke
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- Jan 18, 2011
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Desjardins-Turgeon (Pierre)-Matteau were all born around the same time in Rouyn, a city that had Houle-Laperriere-Sylvain turgeon before.
About 18k people in 1969, it had quite the kids could walk to the arena and play hockey for $20 environment.
According to wiki, notable (some are missing):
Dave Keon, Jacques Laperrière, Réjean Houle, Pierre Turgeon, Sylvain Turgeon, Éric Desjardins, Dale Tallon, Stéphane Matteau, Jacques Cloutier, Christian Bordeleau, Jean-Pierre Bordeleau, Paulin Bordeleau, André Racicot, Hubert Martin, Gordie McRay, Jacques Cossette, Jean Lemieux, Roland Cloutier, Marc-André Cliche, Wayne Connely, Maurice St-Jacques, Rogatien Vachon, Serge Savard, K.Douglas, Ted Ouimet, Steve Sutherland.
About 18k people in 1969, it had quite the kids could walk to the arena and play hockey for $20 environment.
According to wiki, notable (some are missing):
Dave Keon, Jacques Laperrière, Réjean Houle, Pierre Turgeon, Sylvain Turgeon, Éric Desjardins, Dale Tallon, Stéphane Matteau, Jacques Cloutier, Christian Bordeleau, Jean-Pierre Bordeleau, Paulin Bordeleau, André Racicot, Hubert Martin, Gordie McRay, Jacques Cossette, Jean Lemieux, Roland Cloutier, Marc-André Cliche, Wayne Connely, Maurice St-Jacques, Rogatien Vachon, Serge Savard, K.Douglas, Ted Ouimet, Steve Sutherland.
The Panther
Registered User
An obvious one would be Örnsköldsvik, Sweden (population: 33,000).
Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, Victor Hedman, Niklas Sundström, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Anders Hedberg, Andreas Salomonsson, Magnus Wernblom, Mattias Timander, Tobias Enström, Victor Olofsson, Stefan Öhman, Nils Johansson, and Per Svartvadet.
In addition, Thomas Gradin and Anders Kallur lived there while playing for Modo.
Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, Victor Hedman, Niklas Sundström, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Anders Hedberg, Andreas Salomonsson, Magnus Wernblom, Mattias Timander, Tobias Enström, Victor Olofsson, Stefan Öhman, Nils Johansson, and Per Svartvadet.
In addition, Thomas Gradin and Anders Kallur lived there while playing for Modo.
VanIslander
20 years of All-Time Drafts on HfBoards
I was gonna google the name of that crazy-*** town in Sweden with so many greats. There is no equal, per capita.
Amazingly,
L.A. and Paris each have more people than the entire population of Sweden. Yet a small Swedish town has a lot of hockey greats? Hashtag winter culture grooms kids.
(Maybe us Canadians have too many distractions. Heck, other than organized hockey teams i only three times recall playing pond hockey, unorganized team fun - played tons of two on two street hockey; but rarely on skates other than in minor hockey leagues.)
Amazingly,
L.A. and Paris each have more people than the entire population of Sweden. Yet a small Swedish town has a lot of hockey greats? Hashtag winter culture grooms kids.
(Maybe us Canadians have too many distractions. Heck, other than organized hockey teams i only three times recall playing pond hockey, unorganized team fun - played tons of two on two street hockey; but rarely on skates other than in minor hockey leagues.)
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MadLuke
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And could be an oversimplication, but is there a single specially good 21 or less years old season from those swedish small city list of greats ?
Forsberg probably could have, but in general they seem to all took a little bit of time, playing other sports instead of hockey special camp during the summer, stay in a general league instead of a AAA letter systems.
Less nhl ready at 18, but have more room to growth
Forsberg probably could have, but in general they seem to all took a little bit of time, playing other sports instead of hockey special camp during the summer, stay in a general league instead of a AAA letter systems.
Less nhl ready at 18, but have more room to growth
That's the entire Örnsköldsvik municipality (larger than Delaware or PEI) based on very broad associations though, many are not really from the town of Örnsköldsvik.
Dissonance Jr
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- Oct 6, 2017
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Kindersley, SK is another remote town with only ~4,500 people but it’s produced 10 NHL players including Bob Bourne, Derek Dorsett, Curtis Glencross, Dave Lewis and Greg Paslawski.
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And of course Viking, AB only has 986 people and has produced a whopping 8 NHLers, though that’s cheating a bit since 7 of them are Sutters (the other is Carson Soucy, although I don’t think he grew up there).
**
And of course Viking, AB only has 986 people and has produced a whopping 8 NHLers, though that’s cheating a bit since 7 of them are Sutters (the other is Carson Soucy, although I don’t think he grew up there).
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jigglysquishy
Registered User
I played in Kindersley a couple of times. There's two rinks. In a town of 4500. The whole arena is really high quality too.
