Oh, Canada.
Not only did zero Canadian teams make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1970, the 2015-16 season had 490 Canadian players in the NHL, making up 49.2 percent of the league, which accounted for the the lowest total in the NHL’s 98-year history.
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From the onset of the NHL in 1917 through the 1970s, Canada dominated the NHL in terms of representation, accounting for over 90 percent of the league’s players. Since then, that number has steadily dropped as the league evolved from an almost exclusively Canadian player base to a highly diverse league with nationalities from all over the world.
Although Canada is still the most dominant force in hockey, winning gold at the recent world championships and Olympics, nations like Sweden, Russia, the US, and Finland—winners of this year’s world junior championships—are on the rise. In fact, Sweden set a record this season by having 87 players (8.8 percent) in the league, the largest number of players from a European nation in NHL history. The percentage of American players has also risen considerably over the last decade, rising from 15-25 percent in just over ten years.
The growth in non-Canadian talent will be on full display in the NHL’s upcoming draft. American-born center Auston Matthews is expected to be selected first overall, followed by Finnish wingers Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi. It will mark the first time no Canadian-born player goes in the top three since 2000, when Rick DiPietro (US), Dany Heatley (Germany) and Marian Gaborik (Slovakia) made up the top three picks.
Better luck next year.
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