Not necessarily a huge decline but rather the fact that hockey in the the states is much stronger and that Europeans are a standard in the market, which was not the case in 93.
Quebec players in 1993 total 103 players.
http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/province/nhl-players-born-in-quebec-1992-93-stats.html
Quebec active players right now total 61.
http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/province/active-nhl-players-born-in-quebec-career-stats.html
Sure kids now often opt to play soccer or football rather than hockey or baseball in the past. But I think most of it can be blamed on the fact that hockey is much more global than it use to be, we don't have the golden standard worldwide for trainers and hockey systems and since height and size are now placed above skill for 3rd and 4th liners a lot of our kids simply can't compete with the competition from all over the rest of the world.
But still we get to see rookies like Huberdeau, Drouin still make the cut above and give us a little pride. I'm not worried for our future since I blame some of the downfall on the Nordiques leaving and the canadiens enduring a 20 yrs drought, but since the Nordiques revival is only a matter of time and that the canadiens are well on their way to become a powerhouse in this league, I'm quite hopeful that hockey will have a much bigger impact on the future's youth.
I'm worried though about the fact that our public education system places little to no value on sports identity and the values it gives to our kids ( pride, sportsmanship, accepting defeat, being able to overcome challenges ) simply because of all the bad press sports and particularly hockey has received in the past decade. I remember going to a public school with facilities such as an indoor pool, an arena, a soccer field... Yet we didn't have school teams and if there were some at any moment, no one was aware of them. So if kids want to play sports they've got to find a way to do it outside of the public education system or go to into a private school.
The people that manage our public education system are usually women and/or intellectuals, so it's no wonder that sports end up being sidelined as a mere way for kids to just stay in shape and most of the activities related to sports education are now practiced accordingly such as playing dodgeball, doing sit-ups and push-ups, jogging and running with the awkward soccer, volleyball, badminton, freestyle basketball games oh and not to forget the once or twice a year ball hockey game where 80% of the kids can't even hold their stick right. Simply put, competition has been somewhat demonized to the extreme, since competing means there's a loser than it's better not to compete so no one is sad nor does anyone feels an unjustified sense of pride.
The problem with that is that the people managing our schools don't realize that in sports there's is a lot of value in losing and then working to get better, the same can be said for all the other school activities since school's function on short-term results rather than on potential, long-term engagements and psychology. But the fact remains that when it comes to sports our leaders think that since sports results are mainly driven with concepts such as genetics, intimidation and pride vs shame that kids should retain their competitive spirit in class rather than in the gym. What they don't realize is that the next generation will not be more just or rightful but that what will happen is that kids will now be judged and intimidated for their intellectual and social abilities rather than for their athletic capabilities.
It's not that I think that intellectual skills should be placed 2nd in the education's system list of priorities but I think that in the end our society will suffer as much if we don't find ways to keep sports in the mainframe of public education and to counter the negative side-effects of sports vs intellectual education, finding ways to retain the most positive effects of competing and overcoming defeat/accepting defeat, see what areas an individual needs to improve and simply understand that negativity isn't a by product of bad spirit but rather the awareness of someone's lack of practice in an area to work on. By understanding this one can get better at overcoming negativity simply by realizing this particular concept...
The same can be said for all intellectual school domains, but since that in class you don't outright compete against your classmates sports can really have the positive effect of knowing that what makes success in life is not because people have innate abilities but rather how much they work into getting better and with the right mindset anyone can overcome losing. It really helps to know that in life there are no losers and winners just people that know that when you lose you need to understand what went wrong instead of just feeling bad about it vs people who just didn't have the right education to put that concept in their game.
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