Nationalities in the NHL (Statistics)

Sureves · 08-24-2011, 10:41 AM

I think we are all aware that the most common nationalities in the NHL are Canadian and American. We are also aware that for some reason, there seems to be a lot of Russian, Swedish, and Finnish talent roaming about in the NHL.

But in terms of population size, what is the composition of the NHL in terms of these nationalities?

I performed an analysis of players birthdays and their likelihood of making the NHL (all else equal of course) in another thread, and had all of the nationality data already gathered, so I figured I'd post the results for those interested.

My procedure was again to take all of the individual team rosters from their websites (although admittedly some of those players never actually get to play) and investigate the distribution of said nationalities. The results are as follows:

Canadian players represent 54.49% of the NHL.
American players represent 22.71% of the NHL.

This seems to be in line with the numbers I would have guessed, however, these are much much lower than I thought:

Swedish players represent only 6.43% of the NHL.
Russian players represent only 2.55% of the NHL.
Finnish players represent only 3.41% of the NHL.

These numbers are much lower than I would have guessed considering the strength of their Olympic teams (obviously the players they DO have in the NHL are damn good).

Further I was surprised to learn that:

Czech players represent 4.26% of the NHL, much higher than I would have guessed (speaking comparatively from the results of the above 3 European nationalities).

__________________________________________________ _____________

What about the nationality distribution between teams?

Canadian

The most Canadian team is San Jose whose team is a whopping 72.50% Canadian. That is a whopping 33% more Canadian than the average team.

The least Canadian team is New Jersey whose team is only 30% Canadian. This is significant 45% lower than the average team.

American

The most American team is your Buffalo Sabres at 44.74%. That means Buffalo has almost twice as many Americans as the average NHL team.

The least American is the yankee hating Philadelphia Flyers at a meager 11.11%. This represents 51% less Americans than the average squad.

North American

This one's crazy. Get this: Los Angeles team is 95.45% North American, 23% higher than the average team.

The least North American team is Team Sweden -er I mean the Detroit Red Wings whose team houses only 50% North Americans (35.23% less than the average).

Final Thoughts

I know I'm probably already pushing the envelope with the average HFboard attention span

so here are a couple quick ones:

Team Sweden: Detroit Red Wings - 29.17% (353% higher than the league average)

Team Russia: New Jersey - 10.00% (290% higher than average)

Team Finland: Carolina - 12.50% (267% higher than league average)

Hope you guys enjoyed these facts, I found a lot of them pretty interesting. Here is the chart in case you wanna check out other teams:

Note: For some reason, on the Philly website they wrote US for JVR instead of USA as his birthplace which I didn't catch til now. This means Philly should have one more American, sorry! Just ran a sanity check though and everything else is in good order.

markisonfire · 08-24-2011, 10:51 AM

Good thread. Kings have an abnormally high number of Americans as well, although I guess Buffalo has more. The only non North American players on the Kings are Kopitar and Loktionov, although next season, Kopitar might be the only one. Crazy, huh?

Wasted Talent · 08-24-2011, 10:59 AM

The only thing that surprised me is that there are more Finnish players than Russian players. But I guess it's because of KHL. Also one of the things that can explain success of the four mentioned European nationalities in international tournaments might be because they have plenty of good players in KHL aswell.

Jonimaus · 08-24-2011, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wasted Talent

The only thing that surprised me is that there are more Finnish players than Russian players. But I guess it's because of KHL. Also one of the things that can explain success of the four mentioned European nationalities in international tournaments might be because they have plenty of good players in KHL aswell.

This is true. Sweden also has some talented players that are not good enough/too old to start a career in NHL, but are not bad players at all. Jörgen Jönsson comes to mind, who played very briefly in NHL, but he has 2 Olympic golds.

As for Sweden, hockey is not a popular sport for kids to play, combine that with a low population, and it's pretty clear we will never be able to compete with Canada which has hockey as their national sport, while Football/Soccer is the major sport (by a huge margin) in most of the European countries.

MrJonas · 08-24-2011, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sureves

These numbers are much lower than I would have guessed considering the strength of their Olympic teams (obviously the players they DO have in the NHL are damn good

Obviously the U.S. wouldn't be second in player percentage if the league wasn't located anywhere in particular. Most 1st liners in at least the SEL and the KHL could crack most current NHL lineups (if they were up for 4th line duty so to speak).

CampingintheSnow · 08-24-2011, 11:04 AM

Interesting statistics.

Big McLargehuge · 08-24-2011, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wasted Talent

The only thing that surprised me is that there are more Finnish players than Russian players. But I guess it's because of KHL. Also one of the things that can explain success of the four mentioned European nationalities in international tournaments might be because they have plenty of good players in KHL aswell.

There's a few Finns that carve their niche in the NHL in the bottom six...whereas that doesn't really happen with the Russians. The Russians in the NHL tend to be of the top six variety, with the defenders being top four guys. Exceptions exist, but a Russian who'd be a third liner in the NHL can multiply his income by playing back home...so it's hard to blame the guys that do that.

I think the reason the Czech number is higher than expected is that a lot of Czech junior players come over to play CHL hockey. Speaking solely about players in the Penguins system we only have two, one in the NHL and one in the system. Zbynek Michalek played his junior hockey in Shawinigan and Uher plays his in Spokane (if we want to open this to Slovakia...Boris Valabik played at Kitchener).

SJSharks2010 · 08-24-2011, 11:15 AM

The Sharks are team Canada 2.0, we also had the most canadians make the olympic team as well. I love it.

Ollie Weeks · 08-24-2011, 11:21 AM

Team Slovenia: Los Angeles Kings. It hadn't occurred to me Kopitar was the only European player left on the squad.

Canadian Guy · 08-24-2011, 11:23 AM

So the Sharks have the most Canadians but they choke all the time?!

Jeresy has the most Russians but people complain about Russians lack of will and defensive abilities?!

*world implosion*

MB Stars · 08-24-2011, 11:23 AM

Vancouver was Canada's team in last years playoffs, yet Bruins had 7.5% percent more Canadians on their team.

I find that funny

ilovetheflyers8 · 08-24-2011, 11:25 AM

Thanks for doing this!

SJSharks2010 · 08-24-2011, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Guy

So the Sharks have the most Canadians but they choke all the time?!

Jeresy has the most Russians but people complain about Russians lack of will and defensive abilities?!

*world implosion*

They haven't missed the playoffs since 2003 and have two straight WCF appearances. Your team likely hasn't come close to that. I just felt I'd point that out.

Rabid Ranger · 08-24-2011, 11:30 AM

Nice job on the data. Interesting given that USA Hockey's stated goal is to have the number of Americans in the NHL at 30% within a fairly short period of time.

**FinHockey** · 08-24-2011, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SJSharks2010

They haven't missed the playoffs since 2003 and have two straight WCF appearances. Your team likely hasn't come close to that. I just felt I'd point that out.

Even though it had nothing to do with what he said.

khlman · 08-24-2011, 01:46 PM

The NHL is very much a North American league.

Just like the KHL is very much a Russian league or Elitserien a Swedish league.

It's not nearly as global as some may believe.

Xavier Ouellet · 08-24-2011, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarsFanInCanada

Vancouver was Canada's team in last years playoffs, yet Bruins had 7.5% percent more Canadians on their team.

I find that funny

Last time I checked Canada's team did play in Vancouver, but that was in 2010.

skibum · 08-24-2011, 01:51 PM

Don't forget about Lithuania - Dainius Zubrus, represent!

PALE PWNR · 08-24-2011, 02:59 PM

Some other interesting numbers from nhlnumbers.com

http://nhlnumbers.com/nationalities/2012

Uncle Howie · 08-24-2011, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thrashman

The NHL is very much a North American league.

Just like the KHL is very much a Russian league or Elitserien a Swedish league.

It's not nearly as global as some may believe.

Perhaps, but the best players are in North America.

As mentioned before a 4th line grinder whether he is Swedish/Finnish/Russian/ect... if the pay is nearly equal in the NHL versus the KHL/SEL/Elitserien... I am sure many would choose to play closer to home for the same or slightly less pay, rather than uproot to North America for marginal pay increase.

I would be curious to see the amount of Canadians/Americans in the SEL/KHL ect...

StrongIslanders90 · 08-24-2011, 05:31 PM

damn the Isles have no sweedish russians or finnish players.....our prospect pool has that though

Sybil227 · 08-24-2011, 05:35 PM

Those numbers for the Kings will likely change this season, as Voynov and Loktionov are expected to start working themselves into the lineup.
Neither will likely be a regular - but they should both get some playing time.

noobman · 08-24-2011, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonimaus

As for Sweden, hockey is not a popular sport for kids to play, combine that with a low population, and it's pretty clear we will never be able to compete with Canada which has hockey as their national sport, while Football/Soccer is the major sport (by a huge margin) in most of the European countries.

That comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I would have figured that hockey would be the top winter sport, while football (soccer) would be the top summer sport.

Xavier Ouellet · 08-24-2011, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonimaus

This is true. Sweden also has some talented players that are not good enough/too old to start a career in NHL, but are not bad players at all. Jörgen Jönsson comes to mind, who played very briefly in NHL, but he has 2 Olympic golds.

As for Sweden, hockey is not a popular sport for kids to play, combine that with a low population, and it's pretty clear we will never be able to compete with Canada which has hockey as their national sport, while Football/Soccer is the major sport (by a huge margin) in most of the European countries.

**Mr.Prez** · 08-24-2011, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarsFanInCanada

Vancouver was Canada's team in last years playoffs, yet Bruins had 7.5% percent more Canadians on their team.

I find that funny

I think everyone here in Canada outside of BC was cheering for the Bruins... I certainly was