Nationalities of NHL Hockey Players

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Last updated: Monday June 28th, 2021

The percentage of NHL players who are Canadian has fallen by large amounts.

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Year	Canadian	American	Swedish	Russian
1968	96	1.9	0.3	0
1978	85.1	9.8	3.2	0
1988	75.6	15.3	3.1	0.1
1998	57.1	16.3	5	7.7
2008	53.5	22	5.6	3.5
2018	43.8	25.2	10.2	4.9
2021	42.7	27.9	9.7	5.1

Level 83

Nov 5, 2018

Wow. 96% in 1968.

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.

Level 67

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.

Level 65

Apr 1, 2020

Hah canadians seem to be over hockey ;) I wonder what has risen instead

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

Level 67

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.

Level ∞

Jun 28, 2021

It's not that Canadians are losing interest in hockey, it's that other countries are playing more.

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.

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.

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