When, if, will any country’s roster be generally considered above Canada’s?

[Gold Standard]

It won't be in 2026. Team looks absolutely stacked with a plethora of elite Fs. D-men and Goalies (at long last) still some development to do, however.

The U.S. is not far behind.

Those are the two teams that will duke it out for the next quarter century.

 

[Czechboy]

It won't be in 2026. Team looks absolutely stacked with a plethora of elite Fs. D-men and Goalies (at long last) still some development to do, however.

The U.S. is not far behind.

Those are the two teams that will duke it out for the next quarter century.

They are definitely not going anywhere To my eye, Canada is getting stronger every year. However, Finns, Swedes and Russians should be very good the next quarter century too. I consider the Russian program to be on the rise. The Finn program is at it's peak and 2026 should be just as good (maybe lacking a goalie) and Sweden is consisntently good at absolutely everything.

I see it more as 'next up' against Canada. They'll enter every big tourney as favs and constantly have a challenger but I don't think it'll always be the US. And I love the US program and everything they do. I just don't see that huge a margin between the next 4.

 

[Hanji]

The US overtaking Canada will be predicated on the NHL's future strategic plan considering the country will undergo a monumental cultural shift. In 30 years non-whites will make up a huge portion of the middle class. Shit, whites will be the minority by then.

If the NHL is content on keeping the status quo demograpic - I don't see us overtaking Canada.
If the NHL finds a way to make inroads to new demographics with disposable incomes - It's game over for Canada.

That said, to achieve the latter the NHL needs to evolve culturally alongside the population. Thus far it hasn't. In many ways the league is the mirror image of NASCAR.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I don't think it will happen, but if it does I think the Finns are a more likely suspect than the Americans.​

 

[Lartsaman]

I don't think it will happen, but if it does I think the Finns are a more likely suspect than the Americans.​

If it comes to hockey crazyness, finns are indeed the second in the world, maybe even 1st. But with our population, we´ll never truly challenge Canada. And our population changes and football is gaining more popularity among the young people, especially with immigrant background. Our national league is also a big joke nowadays. We are well behind other top european leagues.

 

[Deas]

If it comes to hockey crazyness, finns are indeed the second in the world, maybe even 1st. But with our population, we´ll never truly challenge Canada. And our population changes and football is gaining more popularity among the young people, especially with immigrant background. Our national league is also a big joke nowadays. We are well behind other top european leagues.

Yeah I love the past years' rise of Finland too, but thinking they're the country to challenge is exaggerating. At the moment Finland has one high-level NHL defenseman. One. I rank them 5th on paper ahead of the Olympics, after Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden.

 

[Czechboy]

Yeah I love the past years' rise of Finland too, but thinking they're the country to challenge is exaggerating. At the moment Finland has one high-level NHL defenseman. One. I rank them 5th on paper ahead of the Olympics, after Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden.

I think those 4 nations are all very equal going in with Canada having a slight edge because, um, they are Canada. So I'd say you are in a 4 way tie for 2nd.

I also think Finland's upcoming team is going to be insanely good.

 

[Deas]

I think those 4 nations are all very equal going in with Canada having a slight edge because, um, they are Canada. So I'd say you are in a 4 way tie for 2nd.

I also think Finland's upcoming team is going to be insanely good.

I think it's three-way tie for 2nd place, and then Finland in 5th place, due to the status of the current defense. But definitely agree with you about Finland going forward. Another 4 years of forward-development, their current forward stars still being very good, and all those young defensemen having developed. Team Finland 2026 could be really scary, a notch or two better than now in 2022.

 

[Big Phil]

Not that 1st round draft picks are a perfect indicator of what is to come, but this is how it looked the last few years:

2020:
Canada 19/31
USA 2/31

2021:
Canada 15/32
USA 8/32

That is most of the last two drafts in the 1st round. It has been very heavy on the North American side. In 2022 it is expected to be a heavy European flavour from what they predict. Shane Wright will likely go 1st overall, but there will be a lot of Europeans right after that.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Pretty broad question but just to narrow it down to sporting events. They seem to be doing not too bad at most Olympic sports. Just a comparison with other Countries from the Northern Hemisphere.

2020 Summer Olympics
Place	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
11	Canada	7	6	11	24
20	Norway	4	2	2	8
23	Sweden	3	6	0	9
25	Denmark	3	4	4	11
85	Finland	0	0	2	2
2018 Winter Olympics
1	Norway	14	14	11	39
3	Canada	11	8	10	29
10	Sweden	7	6	1	14
16	Finland	1	1	4	6
''''	Denmark	0	0	0	0
2016 Summer Olympics
20	Canada	4	3	15	22
28	Denmark	2	6	7	15
29	Sweden	2	6	3	11
74	Norway	0	0	4	4
78	Finland	0	0	1	1
2014 Winter Olympics
3	Norway	11	5	10	26
4	Canada	10	10	5	25
9	Sweden	2	7	6	15
19	Finland	1	3	1	5
''''	Denmark	0	0	0	0
2012 Summer Olympics
27	Canada	2	6	10	18
30	Denmark	2	4	3	9
34	Norway	2	1	1	4
37	Sweden	1	4	3	8
61	Finland	0	2	1	3
2010 Winter Olympics
1	Canada	14	7	5	26
4	Norway	9	8	6	23
8	Sweden	5	2	4	11
24	Finland	0	1	4	5
'''	Denmark	0	0	0	0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Not that impressive when you look at the populations. Canadian population is 38m, all the others added together about 25m.

 

[Miro4Norris]

Finland's will be, in 2022 after the Olympic gold

 

[Peiskos]

Never.

 

[KTE]

Never. Soviets were close in the 70´s and 80´s because of their 260 million inhabitants + long traditions & high popularity & ideal climate for ice sports + iron curtain + totalitarian system forcing top players to spend 11 months 24/7 year after year on training camps under top-level coaches. Difficult to see anyone else getting that close anymore. Ice hockey is number one sports only in Canada and Finland, and talent pool is 8xbigger in Canada.

 

[Phil McKraken]

Team USA may be after 10 years from now if interest in hockey will grow in USA & more young kids start to play hockey in States.

USA has a lot of young talent, but I think their best chance in a long time is now actually. In another 4 years Kane, Gaudreau, Oshie, Guentzel, Carlson and Jones will probably have declined significantly.

People seem to think once a country has a boom of talent, it's the start of some linear improvement that will just keep going. We've seen time and time again this isn't the case, with every country that's not Canada. In USA's case, see the late 90s when everyone thought they would supplant Canada.

 

[Phil McKraken]

.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

USA has a lot of young talent, but I think their best chance in a long time is now actually. In another 4 years Kane, Gaudreau, Oshie, Guentzel, Carlson and Jones will probably have declined significantly.

People seem to think once a country has a boom of talent, it's the start of some linear improvement that will just keep going. We've seen time and time again this isn't the case, with every country that's not Canada. In USA's case, see the late 90s when everyone thought they would supplant Canada.

Aside from Kane, all those players are very replaceable.

 

[Phil McKraken]

Aside from Kane, all those players are very replaceable.

How do you figure?

Gaudreau - Currently leads all Americans in points.
Carlson - 2nd highest scoring American D and 12th in Norris voting last season.
Guentzel - 3rd among Americans in points last season.
Jones - 14th in Norris voting the season before last.

 

[Mathieukferland]

How do you figure?

Gaudreau - Currently leads all Americans in points.
Carlson - 2nd highest scoring American D and 12th in Norris voting last season.
Guentzel - 3rd among Americans in points last season.
Jones - 14th in Norris voting the season before last.

I think Seth Jones is very replaceable, his brother borders on being more defensively reliable than him

 

[Voight]

As long as the CHL remains the best development league in the world and mostly populated by Canadians, I can’t see this changing

Especially given that the next two #1 picks are going to more than likely be Canadian. There is a continued trend of producing top talent.

Some of these are going back several years and some are on a different tier (talent wise) than others. I'm sure American posters will also point out that some of these kids only made the team on name recognition alone.

Jake Sanderson - son of Geoff Sanderson
Josh Norris - son of Dwayne Norris
Tage and Tyce Thompson - sons of Brent Thompson
Thomas Bordeleau - son of Sebastien Bordeleau
Brendan Brisson - son of Patrice Brisson (didn't play NTDP)
Tyler Madden - son of John Madden (didn't play NTDP)
Kiefer Bellows - son of Brian Bellows
Cayden Primeau - son of Keith Primeau
Red Savage - son of Brian Savage
Ryan MacInnis - son of Al MacInnis
Stefan Matteau - son of Stephane Matteau
Jack DeBoer - son of Pete DeBoer
Logan and Caden Brown - sons of Jeff Brown
Kaden Muir - son of Bryan Muir
Gabriel Perreault - son of Yanic Perreault
Ryan St. Louis - son of Martin St. Louis

And reaching way back for these:

Ryan and Chris Bourque - sons of Ray Bourque
Colin Wilson - son of Carey Wilson
Connor Murphy - son of Gord Murphy
Nick Foligno - son of Mike Foligno
Zach Parise - son of JP Parise
Philp McRae - son of Basil McRae
John Ramage - son of Rob Ramage

And from European countries:

Oliver Wahlström - son of Joakim Wahlström who played lower level hockey in Sweden and NCAA
Marek Hejduk - son of Milan Hejduk
Jacob Pivonka - son of Michael Pivonka
Henrik and Adam Samuelsson - sons of Ulf Samuelsson
Mattias Samuelsson - son of Kjell Samuelsson

I believe Cole Caufield, Rutger McGroarty, Dylan Duke and Cutter Gauthier's (born in Sweden) fathers are all Canadian as well. They played professional hockey in the USA but didn't make the NHL.

However, often the elite guys with Canadian parents want to play for Team Canada. Jakob Chychurn being a good example.

Not to be rude but its usually the guys who maybe aren't as good as their Canadian peers who decide to play for the US, knowing it'll be easier for them to make the team.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

How do you figure?

Gaudreau - Currently leads all Americans in points.
Carlson - 2nd highest scoring American D and 12th in Norris voting last season.
Guentzel - 3rd among Americans in points last season.
Jones - 14th in Norris voting the season before last.

The only hall of famer. There’s a comparable player for every other player in other eras.