Nationalities of NHL Hockey Players

The percentage of NHL players who are Canadian has fallen by large amounts.
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Level 82
Nov 5, 2018
Wow. 96% in 1968.
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Level 78
Nov 6, 2018
Wonder if the drop in Russians following its surge in the mid 90s was caused by other nationalities catching up or efforts by the government and KHL to keep its players home.
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Level 68
Jan 27, 2022
It is if anything politics shifting. If you notice there are no Russians until the 90s, they were kept behind the iron curtain, they played for CSKA Moscow, which was the Soviet Army's team. It started with Alexander Moginly defecting, at the world juniors, and happened more, and legally, as the cold war "thawed" leading to stars like the "Russian 5" in Detroit.

When Russia emerged from the ashes of the USSR they soon started to fight to keep their players at home. The KHL wasn't officially formed until 2008, but the changes started before then. For the top tier Russian players they still play and make millions in the NHL, but for the "average Joe" player it's not worth it usually to play in the NHL and deal with the hassle of a new country and language. It's quite common to see KHL players try the NHL, but go back after 1 year.

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Level 65
Apr 1, 2020
Hah canadians seem to be over hockey ;) I wonder what has risen instead
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Level 72
May 22, 2021
Basketball is growing really fast in Canada, especially in Toronto and its suburbs. The NBA does a USA vs. World game during All-star week, and the World team is basically just full of Canadians
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Level 68
Jan 27, 2022
This is absolutely not true lol. That game is the rising stars game, which is players in their first year (or maybe 2). In terms of NBA the rest of the world is ruled by Europe and Africa. The last 2 MVPs were won by european players (Giannis Antetokounmpo Greek/Nigerian, Nikola Jokic Serbian) and a very strong MVP candidate this year is Joel Embiid (Cameroon).

Canada has Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and not much else except maybe Jamal Murray in terms of star power. Theres been some top prospects over the years who didn't hit on their potential (Wiggins, Bennet, maybe Barrett) but Canda is far from a power house.

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Level ∞
Jun 28, 2021
It's not that Canadians are losing interest in hockey, it's that other countries are playing more.
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Level 50
May 29, 2022
Agreed. Canada has a relatively small population and it wouldn't make sense for them to have that much percentage of NHL players.
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Level 50
May 29, 2022
Along with the fact that the us is building more rinks which allows Americans to become interested/good at hockey.
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Level 62
Dec 27, 2021
The fall of the Soviet Union freed many eastern European and former Soviet athletes to leave their homelands for North America and the NHL