I'm half Dutch and half Canadian, and split my year among The Netherlands, Denmark/Sweden, Germany, Canada and USA. I became a Blues' fan at The 1967 Expansion draft, when they drafted my favourite goalie, Glenn Hall. But, they REALLY became my favourite team when our Winnipeg family friend/neighbour, Ab McDonald joined The Blues in 1968. I've read The PD online since 2000, and was on The Old Official NHL Blues' Forum from 2001 to its end, Blues Talk forum since 2003, and this forum since 2007, plus Reddit. I read TSN.com, NHL.com, and St. Louis Blues.com. I watch and or have watched several different streaming services, and CBC, CTV, Sportsnet, Centre Ice when visiting my sister in Winnipeg 2-3 months(usually mid Nov.-Jan.), Center Ice/NHL Network, NBCSN when visiting my other sister in Los Angeles, NASN in The Netherlands and Munich, Germany.
I've always been curious about how and why non-North Americans became fans of NHL teams, and how Canadians became fans of US NHL teams. I became a fan of The Chicago Blackhawks back in 1951, when Winnipeg had no NHL team (even before its WHL team), because we had family there, and visited there often. Then our friend joined The Blues.
Most of the Canadian people I've met who became fans of a US team, did so because they had a friend, relative or local Junior favourite player join that team's organisation. Friends in Sweden and Denmark became fans of NHL teams because a countryman favourite Junior or pro player joined that team, OR they liked the uniform from playing online or physical simulation games with NHL teams. Friends in The Netherlands and Germany became Blues fans from playing games. Then, I have this Finnish friend, who lives in Espoo, whose local team is called "The Blues", so he likes The St. Louis Blues, too. So, I hope all the non- North Americans on this thread, who haven't already done so, will tell us how they became St. Louis Blues fans.