by | Dec 26, 2024 | 11 comments
With Team USA set to defend their IIHF World Junior Championship title, it is a good time to check in on the nationality demographics in the NHL. About a year ago, I shared a similar analysis; this time, I am updating the data and adding some additional insights.
The percentage of US-born players in the NHL is essentially flat compared to last season’s 29.2 percent, standing at 29.1 percent of the league. The percentage of Canadian players has dropped by half a percent, down to 41.1 percent of the league, which is the lowest of all time. While these figures may shift slightly due to injuries, call-ups, and other factors as the season progresses, the trends have been consistent for a while.
Another trend in the NHL is the diminishing number of Canadian goalies in the league. When isolating goalies, the reduction as a percentage is even more pronounced than among skaters.
Here is a look at the pure volume of players by nationality during the 2024-25 season to date:
To delve deeper, I analyzed the nationalities of NHL players by birth year to see if any upcoming trends are emerging. For example, I compared the age distribution of US players in the NHL to their Canadian counterparts with the same birth year. Note that not all birth years are represented; I excluded birth years with fewer than 20 players in the league.
Consistent with last season’s analysis, this season’s NHL player data by birth year revealed no significant trends. The percentage of Canadian players by birth year fluctuates between 25 and 54 percent, while the percentage of US players ranges between 28 and 40 percent across birth years. The 18 percent of players in the “other” category for the 2004 birth year represents just five players, three of whom are Slovakian (Juraj Slafkovsky, Samuel Honzek, and Simon Nemec).
As mentioned earlier, the number of US-born players in the NHL has been trending upward for a while. I also examined the birth states of US-born NHL players. Here is a look at the number of states represented by at least one NHL player during the season. This highlights how widely hockey has expanded geographically within the United States.
Note that the data shows a reduction in states season-over-season from 37 to 35. The number of states represented can only grow throughout the season, so it is possible and likely that the number of birth states represented during the 2024-25 season will return to 37.
I’ve long attributed the growing interest in hockey among Americans to three main events: 1) the Miracle on Ice in the 1980 Olympics, 2) Wayne Gretzky’s trade to the LA Kings, and 3) NHL expansion. While the first two are difficult to quantify definitively, the impact of NHL expansion aligns closely with growth in USA Hockey memberships by state over the years.
To illustrate this transformation, I compared maps of NHL players’ birth states from the 1990-91 season to the current 2024-25 season. The evidence of “southern expansion” becomes strikingly clear in this comparison.
As a fun bonus, here is a look at the nationality breakdown by current NHL team. For example, the Seattle Kraken roster is 61 percent Canadian and only 13 percent American. The team with the highest percentage of American players this season is the New York Rangers, at an impressive 50 percent.
If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions for further exploration, leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you!
Thank you John for doing this. Happy Holidays to you, members here and your family. No matter the score or the standings, being a Kraken fan makes us family HAPPY NEW YEAR
In the four amateur drafts, in the first three rounds (the players most likely to play NHL games), the Kraken have taken exactly 1 American (unless you want to count the ghost named Ben MacDonald). Of the 20 players they have selected in those rounds, there have been 12 Canadians, 4 Finns, 1 Dane, 1 Czech, Beniers, and the ghost. None of the 5 4R picks have been Americans either.
Does anyone believe that Canadian Ron Francis has a preference?
I’d be interested in seeing a similar breakdown of NHL coaches (head/assistant/goalie). With the European percentage of players hovering around 30%, I’d be willing to bet the amount of European coaches in the NHL is below 5%. With the success of European teams coached by Europeans at various international tournaments (IIHF/Olympics) why hasn’t that translated to interest by NHL teams? Is it the ice sheet (200×100 vice 200×85), language, culture, lack of networking/development opportunities, or maybe all of the above?
So interesting!!!
Also interesting that CDN has top number of players but the fewest teams. They really need to add another one up north.
Any reason Washington isn’t included in the team nationality chart?
Mackenzie Blackwood just signed for 5 x $5.25. I wonder what Joey could have gotten if he’d just waited a bit?
Great article, thank you. As a British Kraken fan this reminded me of a rare connection between the NHL and the UK… the 1x Australian Nathan Walker (STL) is the only current NHL player born in the UK. In total 53 UK-born players have ever taken part in the NHL, but like Walker they were all trained elsewhere.
Where is Washington on the team stat?
all non-Canadians citizens hockey players should be returned back to their hone country because they are taking the job of Canadians
Hello, commendable research and display of information! However I cannot see the Washington Capitals nationality figures, was this omitted by chance or deliberately?
Johnny in Ottawa
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