What Percent of the NHL Is Canadian? NHL Players by Country

The NHL has a lot of Canadian players, so naturally Canada remains the hockey capital of the world, but it isn’t the only country sending players to the league. A lot has changed over the last few decades, so let’s take a look at the statistics in this article.

Over the years, hockey has become one of the most popular sports. However, every country has different favorites when it comes to sports, which means the make-up of the professionals at the top of their leagues can heavily lean towards one country. Despite this fact, players in the National Hockey League (NHL) still come from all around the world, which makes looking at the statistics quite interesting. 

What is the NHL?

The National Hockey League, or NHL for short, is the premier North American competitive hockey league. Players from all around the world strive to become a part of this league to have a chance at winning the coveted Stanley Cup. 

A common mistake for those new to hockey is mixing up the NHL with the AHL. While the former is the premier major professional league, the AHL, or American Hockey League, is the premier minor professional league, which is responsible for launching many players into the NHL. 

What countries have the most current NHL players?

While the National Hockey League is headquarters in New York City within the United States, Canada is represented by the most players in the league by a wide margin, but that margin has been gradually decreasing. As seen in the graph below, Canada had 533 active/inactive players in the 2000-’01 season, according to the NHL. This is includes forwards, defensemen, and goalies. This number has fallen to 391 players for the 2024′-25 season (as of Feb. 28, 2025). 

Meanwhile, the United States, who has the second most NHL players, has increased from 151 players to 281 players over the same time period. Although, the U.S. has also seen a decrease in players in recent years. However, it’s worth noting that’s largely due to a general decrease in total players in the NHL.

Total NHL players have declined from 1,123 in 2021-’22 to 956 in 2024′-25, which is near where total player count was at 25 years ago. This decline comes despite new expansion teams in recent years, such as the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken. It’s possible teams are running slimmer rosters to maintain more talented players without exceeding the annual salary cap, which is expected to increase of the next three years. This could mean inactive players have dropped to the AHL or completely out of the league, possibly skewing or lowering the total count. 

The Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, and the Vegas Golden Knights are tied with the most Canadian players in the league at 17, for the 2024-’25 season. 

What percentage of NHL players are Canada vs USA?

The exact number may vary depending on how many players stay active. As of the posting date of this article, NHL data shows there are 956 total players in the NHL from across different countries worldwide.

That means of all the NHL players, Canada makes up 41% of the total, which hasn’t changed much in recent years, but this is a 14% decrease from 25 years ago. Over the same time period, U.S. players have gone from 16% of the NHL, to over 29%. This number has also held relatively stationary over the last 4 to 5 years. That means the remaining 29-30% come from outside of Canada and the U.S. Of this remaining amount, Europe and Russia comprise almost all of it, as discussed next. 

What percentage of the NHL is European?

To determine the percentage of the NHL that is European, it’s first crucial to remove the number of Canadian and United States players from the total amount. Once this is done, 284 players are remaining as of the 2024-’25 season.

On a percentage basis, this means that around 30% of players in the National Hockey League are European or Russian. Occasionally, there is single player that may come from Mexico, South America, or even Australia or Asia. However, this still remains very uncommon for the sport as entry barriers such as climate (to warm to play outside) and cost to play often limits the global range of hockey.

Ironically though, there are slightly more players in the NHL from Europe and Russia combined than from the United States, despite most of the teams and the league’s headquarters being in the U.S. 

As seen below, Sweden currently leads Europe with the most players, making them third overall with Russia providing the fourth most overall players. Many complained Russia should have been in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament as they are just as good as the four teams that were included, if not better. They’re not wrong. The IIHF has Russia ranked second in the world. 

And while Finland did not look their strongest in the 4 Nations Face Off tournament, they are the reigning Olympic champs after winning in 2022 in Beijing. 

After Czechia (sixth overall), Switzerland is the next European country with the most NHL players with 10. They are followed by Slovakia (7), Germany (6), Latvia (4), and Norway (2).

Which hockey teams have the most and least American players?

As mentioned, 281 players are credited as being from the United States across all NHL teams, as of the 2024′-25 season. Going further, the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings have the greatest number of Americans on their team at 13. Interestingly enough, they’re both Original 6 teams.

In contrast, the Vegas Knights, Seattle Kraken, and Florida Panthers have the least number of Americans on their teams. Other teams, like the Edmonton Oilers or Tampa Bay Lightning, tend to have a more even ratio. However, the nationality mix among teams has, and will continue to change drastically each season as the sport evolves and grows across more countries. 

Why do most hockey players come from the U.S. and Canada? 

Most hockey players in the National Hockey League come from Canada and the United States, with the former being the source of the most players. The reason for this stems from the origin of the game itself.

While this origin is murky at some points, Canada is credited for ice hockey’s invention sometime in the 1800s. Specifically, the Halifax and Montreal regions of the country are where it is believed the game first developed.

As the sport grew in popularity within the country, it eventually spread to the rest of North America. It became equally popular in some parts of the United States. This led to the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917 in Montreal as the successor to the National Hockey Association.

From there, cities within the United States began to apply for franchises in the league, which served as the foundation for modern teams such as the New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, and more. 

Shifting demographics: Where hockey players are beginning to come from today

As mentioned, Canada is the leading producer of hockey players because the sport was founded in the country and because they are responsible for founding the National Hockey League. As a result, the sport has greatly become engrained in their culture. However, just because countries such as France, Austria, or the Netherlands aren’t topping the NHL draft in terms of players doesn’t mean they don’t offer any. 

Additionally, Russia has been supplying an increasing number of Russian players to teams in the league and were once the country to beat, especially in 1970’s. Players like Aleksander Barkov, who is a notorious player that is both Russian and Finnish, is showing that the Russians offer up amazing competition in the league as well.

Regardless of whether a team boasts more American players, Russian players, Canadian players, or any other nationality, the NHL creates a stage for hockey players to make a name for themselves.

Many of the greats, including Wayne Gretzky, played years in the league in the hopes of winning the coveted Stanley Cup. No matter the breakdown of a team’s players, it’s never about the country they are from, but rather the skills and effort they bring to every game they play for their team. 

One of the most significant aspects of sports is that they can bring people together from all over the world even if they may not have other common interests. Whether a person is from Switzerland, Denmark, Latvia, the United States, Canada, Norway, Czechia, or some other country from around the world, anyone can be a champion in the NHL. Start refining your skills today if you dream of eventually joining the league and competing against the best of the best.

And if that’s not enough international hockey excitement for you then here’s some highlights from 4 Nations Face-Off Championship game between Canada and USA. Regardless of what country you were rooting for, this tournament displayed some the highest talent and athleticism the sport has ever seen.