Which NHL roster has had the fewest Canadians?

The Panther

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Curious about this. It must be a team in recent years, no?

I'm looking at the Hockey-Reference (not official, of course) roster-list for this year's Washington Capitals, and only 7 of 22 players (32%) are Canadian.

Have there been NHL rosters -- regular season, at any time, playoffs, whenever -- with fewer Canadian players or a lower 'roster-percentage' of Canadians?

************

Conversely, I'm wondering what was the most recent all-Canadian roster (I'm thinking Philly maybe had an all-Canadian team around 1979-80 or something?).
 

Staniowski

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Curious about this. It must be a team in recent years, no?

I'm looking at the Hockey-Reference (not official, of course) roster-list for this year's Washington Capitals, and only 7 of 22 players (32%) are Canadian.

Have there been NHL rosters -- regular season, at any time, playoffs, whenever -- with fewer Canadian players or a lower 'roster-percentage' of Canadians?

************

Conversely, I'm wondering what was the most recent all-Canadian roster (I'm thinking Philly maybe had an all-Canadian team around 1979-80 or something?).

I don't have a definitive answer to your question, but I always remembered all the non-Canadians on the '95 Devils in the playoffs. I think 8 Americans, plus Holik, Zelepukin, Albelin, and Brylin.

I think the '80 Islanders were the first Cup winners to have Europeans - Persson and Kallur.
 

Staniowski

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Actually, of the players in the playoffs - for the '95 Devils - 11 Americans, 9 Canadians, 2 Russians, 1 Czech, 1 Swede. So, higher percentage (of Canadians) than the Caps, but still very significant contingent of non-Canadians.
 
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vadim sharifijanov

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2004 flyers, after the trade deadline.

desjardins out for the year and they traded away chris therien so their d was all-european: kim johnsson, marcus ragnarsson, vlad malakhov, matthias timander, rookie joni pitkanen, rookie dennis seidenberg getting a few games, deadline pickup danny markov. sami kapanen played a bit at d too when they were short.

up front, an entire line of americans (leclair, roenick, amonte), and three slovakians who may or may not have played together (radovan somik, handzus, and branko radivojevic). add the russian zhamnov, the american brashear, and the finnish kapanen and you’re left with just primeau, recchi, gagne, and rookie patrick sharp, who didn’t play all the games.

the other canadian was backup sean burke. american robert esche was the starter.
 

brachyrynchos

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The 2005-06 Rangers had 12 Canadian players play during the regular season, 4 of those players play 7 games combined. In the playoffs 8 Canadians suited up. Rangers like the college kids, and that season with Jagr it was a Czech party, there were 7 of them.
On the opposite end, somewhat, the '01-02 Red Wings only had 2 US born players, Chelios and Brown.
 

Killion

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McLaughlin was quite a character. Fired coaches left and right. Some interesting stories surrounding him.

... :laugh: oh ya, as eccentric as they come... one of the most colorful owners the Leagues ever seen, any sport for that matter. Used to drive Conn Smythe right round the twist. Constantly feuding. Youd have thought they'd have gotten along sharing the same military backgrounds, both Majors, that Smythe wouldve had more patience, indulged McLaughlin somewhat but no, no way. Thought McLaughlin was truly Certifiable... and it amuses me to no end imagining Conn's apoplexies over the latest outrageous creations emanating from The House of Frederic' season to season.... even more so that McLaughlin got the better of Big Jim Norris in winning the NHL rights to Chicago... McLaughlins wife, Irene Castle, pictured in that article.... she designed the Black Hawks logo, color scheme. Clearly had an eye for fashion, Chicago arguably having the nicest logo's & color schemes of all time... at minimum tied with Montreal.... But ya, McLaughlins dream, goal to have iced an entirely All American squad and in fact almost did on at least a few occasions. Noble ideal but I'm afraid ahead of its time. Today, really anytime over the past 40yrs you could easily have (could) iced an entirely US born All American Team, in fact two clubs no problem, been beyond competitive.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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2004 flyers, after the trade deadline.

desjardins out for the year and they traded away chris therien so their d was all-european: kim johnsson, marcus ragnarsson, vlad malakhov, matthias timander, rookie joni pitkanen, rookie dennis seidenberg getting a few games, deadline pickup danny markov. sami kapanen played a bit at d too when they were short.

up front, an entire line of americans (leclair, roenick, amonte), and three slovakians who may or may not have played together (radovan somik, handzus, and branko radivojevic). add the russian zhamnov, the american brashear, and the finnish kapanen and you’re left with just primeau, recchi, gagne, and rookie patrick sharp, who didn’t play all the games.

the other canadian was backup sean burke. american robert esche was the starter.

i did a little digging and the story of this team's non-canadianness is deeper.

checking center claude lapointe checked himself into the substance abuse program two months into the season. after two months in the program, he returned to the lineup but ended up relapsing after the first game of the playoffs, ending his career. -1 canadian

after a long audition, youngster eric chouinard wasn't ready (he would never be) and was sent down to the AHL. he was soon traded to minnesota for a draft pick. -1 canadian / tally: -2

their first major transaction actually added a canadian. down two centers, they traded prospects and picks to add mike comrie, who was -- you guessed it -- holding out. +1 canadian / tally: -1

the big thing is their best defenseman, and arguably their best player, eric desjardins, was out for the playoffs. desjardins broke his arm in january and missed three months, then came back right before the playoffs but apparently broke it again playing catch with his son. -1 canadian / tally: -2

the original desjardins injury, combined with an injury to marcus ragnarsson, pushed the flyers to get deeper on d. they traded the young, promising justin williams, who was stuck behind mark recchi, sami kapanen, and tony amonte at RW, to carolina for danny markov. they also sent a draft pick to the islanders for matthias timander. -1 canadian / tally: -3

with primeau and roenick both out with longterm head injuries, bobby clarke picked another center, alex zhamnov, who had proven chemistry with tony amonte from chicago. they had to give up young defenseman jim vandermeer in a package that also included prospect colin fraser and the pick that became bryan bickell. -1 canadian / tally: -4

starting goalie jeff hackett mysteriously stops being able to play goalie, or even stand up straight, like charles barkley in space jam. it turns out he has vertigo and he retires from the game. they trade comrie, whom hitchcock predictably hated, to phoenix to pick up sean burke, as well as a third big slovakian in branko radivojvic, and prospect ben eager, who was a couple of years away. +1, -2 canadians / tally: -5

they added a third russian at the deadline, vlad malakhov. due partially to salary concerns and partially to give veteran soldiers nearing the end of their careers an opportunity to play on playoff teams, they then shipped out eric weinrich and the longest-serving flyer, chris therien. (weinrich is american, but the all-european defense corp they had in the playoffs is a bizarre thing, so i wanted to point it out.) -1 canadian / tally: -6

the lines were all over the place, partially due to injuries and kapanen having to play defense, partially because this was a really versatile team, but the final roster, after lapointe departed after game one of the playoffs:

leclair (LW, usa), gagne (LW, can), handzus (C/LW, svk), zhamnov (C/LW, rus), brashear (LW, usa), somik (LW, svk), primeau (C, can), roenick (C, usa), sharp (C, can), recchi (RW, can), kapanen (RW/D, fin), amonte (RW, usa), radivojevic (RW, svk), johnsson (D, swe), malakhov (D, rus), markov (D, rus), ragnarsson (D, swe), timander (D, swe), pitkanen (D, fin), seidenberg (D, deu), esche (G, usa), burke (G, can).

seidenberg only got into the lineup for three games, dressed as the 7th defenseman in case another d went down or kapanen was having trouble.

ironically, nik antropov of all people talked about exploiting the flyers' defense physically because it was too european. that series was, of course, a bloodbath.

and speaking of the team being really euro but capably bloodthirsty, let us not forget about the bloodbath against ottawa during the regular season to avenge havlat sticking recchi in the face.

i suppose i should also mention canadian goon todd fedoruk here, who got into one single playoff game against the leafs and didn't fight anyone (though he did get a boarding penalty). he also finished a team worst -2 in less than seven minutes of the 4-1 loss. he didn't play in the ottawa game either, so i guess the flyers didn't need him to be the big and bad.

and a random sidenote: a lot of guys on that team went on to win multiple cups with the kings and blackhawks. justin williams, simon gagne, patrick sharp, colin fraser (won cups on both teams), bryan bickell. other than gagne, they all were unceremoniously dumped. and right before the '03-'04 season started, philly also drafted two more guys who would win multiple cups with the kings: jeff carter and mike richards.

EDIT: oh and i forgot that handzus also played on both the kings and the blackhawks (twice), winning a cup with the blackhawks in 2013. weird.
 
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Terry Yake

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in contrast, the 07 ducks roster was overwhelmingly canadian

the only non-canadians were:
selanne-finland
bryzgalov-russia
pahlsson-sweden
marchant-usa
parros-usa
 

Staniowski

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'99 Pens - of the 27 players who played the most games during the season, only 10 were Canadians.

Of their top 8 scorers, zero Canadians.
 

Big Phil

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Here is a starting point for you. The 1975 Flyers are the last Cup winning team to have an all-Canadian roster (that were known for Kate Smith's "God Bless America" ironically). The 1993 Habs are the last Cup winning team with only North Americans on it. The Hawks and Bruins are two recent Cup winners with a lot of Canadians. The 2009 Pens were loaded with North Americans and the recent 2016 and 2017 Cup winners have as many Americans as Canadians. 8 Canadians on this years Pens team by the looks of it.
 
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Staniowski

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Here is a starting point for you. The 1975 Flyers are the last Cup winning team to have an all-Canadian roster (that were known for Kate Smith's "God Bless America" ironically). The 1993 Habs are the last Cup winning team with only North Americans on it. The Hawks and Bruins are two recent Cup winners with a lot of Canadians. The 2009 Pens were loaded with North Americans and the recent 2016 and 2017 Cup winners have as many Americans as Canadians. 8 Canadians on this years Pens team by the looks of it.

Oleg Petrov did play one playoff game in'93. I'm not sure if that gets his name on the Cup, but still, he was part of their Cup win - though admittedly a very small part.
 

LeafsNation75

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Technically this wasn't an NHL roster of players, however it was only a few years ago when the entire New York Islanders coaching staff was made up of only Americans. Since than they have added Kelly Buchberger, Luke Richardson and Fred Brathwaite who happen to be Canadian.
 

VanIslander

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Fun story here about Major Frederic McLaughlins efforts to ice an All American Black Hawks roster...

www.puckstruck.com/2017/07/04/mclaughlins-all-americans-making-the-chicago-black-hawks-great-again/
I was gonna mention the 1938 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Indeed:
Eight of Chicago’s 18 players that season were Americans, men named Doc and Virgil and Cully, who had learned their hockey in Minnesota towns called Aurora, Minneapolis and White Bear Lake.
American netminder Mike Karakas backstopped them to a playoff berth. In the Stanley Cup Finals, with the series tied 1-1 in games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was Americans who were the difference in the scoring as Americans Carl Voss and Doc Romnes scored in a 2-1 victory and then clinched the cup in the next game with American Cully Dahlstrom scoring the first goal and Carl Voss the game and series winning goal in a 4-1 final.

American cup-clinching final game scoring heroes Voss and Dahlstrom are the two in the middle (left to right):



(Of course, Canadian HHOF defenseman Earl Seibert played about 55 minutes a game for Chicago that postseason and his coach attributes their success to him.)
 
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Killion

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I was gonna mention the 1938 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Indeed:

American netminder Mike Karakas backstopped them to a playoff berth. In the Stanley Cup Finals, with the series tied 1-1 in games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was Americans who were the difference in the scoring as Americans Carl Voss and Doc Romnes scored in a 2-1 victory and then clinched the cup in the next game with American Cully Dahlstrom scoring the first goal and Carl Voss the game and series winning goal in a 4-1 final.

American cup-clinching final game scoring heroes Voss and Dahlstrom are the two in the middle (left to right):



(Of course, Canadian HHOF defenseman Earl Seibert played about 55 minutes a game for Chicago that postseason and his coach attributes their success to him.)

.... :laugh: had ta squint to read that last line there..... Those uniforms & the crest, really jump atcha huh?.... That club also had the first Russian born player in the NHL, Johnny Gottselig, Chicago's leading scorer through the Playoffs. He was born in Odessa however yes, his family did emigrate to Canada when he was very young but still, lays claim to 1st Russian Born Player in the NHL.....

Some bio's list him as being born in Calgary as he himself getting fed up with the delays when crossing the US/Canada Border in listing Russia as his place of birth switched it to Calgary. This was of course prior to the Cold War in the 30's but being of Russian origin, raised some interest from Border Security. Post playing career, went on to Coach in Chicago & with Philip Wrigley, owner of the Cubs, helped found the Womens Pro Baseball League in the early 40's & Managed one of the 4 teams.... inspiration for the 1992 movie A League of their Own starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks & Madonna.
 

Big Phil

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Oleg Petrov did play one playoff game in'93. I'm not sure if that gets his name on the Cup, but still, he was part of their Cup win - though admittedly a very small part.

If I remember correctly, to get your name on the Cup you need at least a third of the NHL regular season or at least one playoff game in the Cup final. So, no I guess?
 

Thenameless

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Curious about this. It must be a team in recent years, no?

I'm looking at the Hockey-Reference (not official, of course) roster-list for this year's Washington Capitals, and only 7 of 22 players (32%) are Canadian.

Ah, I see. Now I know why the Capitals don't go anywhere in the playoffs (my inner Don Cherry speaking).
 

Staniowski

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NHL1.png



Is the U.S. going to surpass Canada?

Look at Sweden....almost 10%.

What's really nice to see, is the quality players coming from "other" countries...Kopitar, Josi, Draisaitl, Ehlers, Hischier, etc.
 
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The Panther

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The Devils have only three right now. Hall, Zajac and Severson.
Wow, good call. I think we have a winner...

Also, according to Hockey Reference (not always correct), there are 15 Americans on the active roster. I wonder if that isn't a record, too..

They should change to 'New Jersey Americans'.
 

Staniowski

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Does anyone know why the number of Swedish players seemed to decrease in the mid-80s and then increase again in the mid-90s?

I'd have to look more closely, but I do know that several of the top Swedish forwards of the '80s - Naslund, Loob, Nilsson, Gustafsson, etc. - returned to Europe around the end of the decade.

The next generation of Swedes, who entered the NHL in the first half of the '90s - Sundin, Forsberg, Lidstrom, Renberg, Sundstrom, Nylander, Naslund etc. - was very strong.

Should look at the exact Swedes playing at those times.
 

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