22nd February 2010, 3:43 AM
Fittisize Wrote:Lots, 22.2% of NHL players are American, and only Canada has more players (52.3%). Plus 24 of the teams, including 4 of the Original 6 = plenty of Americanization of hockey.
That's kind of my point, actually. We have a league in which 80% of the teams are in the United States, but only 22% of the players are actually American.
If the NFL or the NBA imported most of its talent from abroad, it would kill a considerable amount of interest. As it stands, both leagues draw primarily from a huge college program, and many NFL/NBA stars were already famous and established talent before they turned pro. Unfortunately for American hockey, such a system is untenable in the United States, short of an acute Ice Age.
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