When did the decline of hockey in canada happen?

[sawchuk1971]

When did it occur?

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[joestevens29]

In terms of what?

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Carey Price knee injury 2014

 

[Ignatius]

After Sochi Olympics

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

1967 expansion.

 

[Mr Positive]

Imo the golden age of the NBA in the 90s and early 2000s. Exciting stuff while the NHL went into the dead puck era. A lot of young people turned to basketball

 

[Pablo El Perro]

When they got rid of wood sticks. Priced too many kids from Saskatoon out of the game.

 

[TropicOfNoReturn]

It's purely economic. Major tournaments and changes in the hockey landscape had no effect.

 

[LevelingSolo]

None of the above

 

[Akrapovince]

I call it the inclination of every other country.

Say what you want, Bettman grew the sport.

 

[NyQuil]

It actually grew after 1998 IMO.

 

[the valiant effort]

- Economics obviously
- Urban demographic shifts
- Declining entertainment value with the attempted phase-out of CTE
- General aura of corniness in hockey media that used to be restricted to Saturday nights but now blasts 24/7

 

[BraveCanadian]

I don’t think there is any one moment but the early to mid 90s was likely the peak and it has been downhill for the most part since.

The closest option is the 96 WC where it is a bit obvious based on the age of some players on the roster that something was up.

There are long term issues like an aging less homogeneous population, rising costs and exclusivity, declining birth rates etc.

 

[loadie]

When it became too expensive for an average family to afford

 

[gritdash60]

It didnt?

 

[Albatros]

 

[Coffee]

When Carey Price went down

 

[JianYang]

I don't know about a certain decline. But the roster today does not look as great as the one in 2014 particularly on defense and especially in goal.

Perhaps a blip on the radar rather than a permanent decline?

 

[Oilslick941611]

When did it occur?

What decline?

It’s more of a rising tide of other nations getting better.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Other countries are getting better and it's obscenely expensive to play. But they still produce the most NHLers by a good margin

 

[John Mandalorian]

- Economics obviously
- Urban demographic shifts
- Declining entertainment value with the attempted phase-out of CTE
- General aura of corniness in hockey media that used to be restricted to Saturday nights but now blasts 24/7

”General aura of corniness” should be a slogan on license plates...the question is, which province?

 

[WayTooCold]

Never happened. The NHL is majority Canadian players. The KHL Canadians are the 2nd biggest group. Hockey is our game.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Never happened. The NHL is majority Canadian players. The KHL Canadians are the 2nd biggest group. Hockey is our game.

NHL hasn't been majority Canadians in years. This year it's 41%. It was 50% in 2015-16, and 76 % in 1990-91. Don't be insecure it just means the game is growing.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

It's 2 fold because it got so expensive but also other countries are playing and the Internet gives the game global exposure.

Just 20 years ago kids outside of NA could only read about nhl players for the most part now you have youtube highlights of every star. I can't remember which player but I remember one Swedish player (I think it was Forsberg) saying he had never seen a wayne gretzky highlight or anything and the first time he ever saw him play was when he got to the NHL and played against him. Imagine kids in sweden never seeing McDavid until they made the nhl, you could never attempt to emulate what doesn't exist to you.

It's not that different from usa and basketball where they absolutely demolished everyone but now the games are close. Much like canada, they still win most best on best tournaments but they aren't steamrolling everyone anymore.

Too add to that, other sports are becoming more popular in Canada for the same reasons. Kids in Canada can watch and follow any sport - when I was a kid none of my friends followed soccer but it's very big now, basketball is also much bigger. This is partly due to the exposure and partly due to Canadas increasing diversity. It was only a matter of time before football (soccer) grew in popularity as it is far and away #1 in the vast majority of countries. These sports are also cheaper too. Just a bunch of different things all happening at once that are leading to a lower percentage of kids playing hockey.