Canadians but no euros on USNTDP rosters, why?

[Ovechkin962]

@Pavel Buchnevich you're my source for all things USA hockey, so please answer me on this.

We see every year a few Canadians raised players on the NTDP roster, guys like William Moore, E.J. Emery, Thomas Bordeleau, Dayne Beuker this year.

Why don't we see the same thing with US born europeans?

Vladimir Dravecký at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Vladimir Dravecký, 2007-12-19 Manchester, NH, USA Slovakia. Most recently in the Slovakia with HC Kosice. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Luka Radivojevic at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Luka Radivojevic, 2007-01-03 Edina, MN, USA Slovakia. Most recently in the SHL with Örebro HK. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

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[Antiillafire]

I am not sure what the NTDP program requirements are for what it takes to qualify (amount of time living in USA, number of years playing in USA, etc) but most of these guys were born in the USA but played youth hockey and juniors in Europe. Matthew Knies wasn’t apart of the NTDP program but his parents immigrated to USA and he was born there. If he had moved back to Slovakia when he was a kid and played in Slovak youth hockey he would likely represent Slovakia, not the USA.

These Canadians grow up in the USA, have connections to America much more than the euros. However there is still some like Wahlstrom, he stayed in the UsA however. If he had moved back and grew up in Swedish hockey program would he have still represented USA and been part of NTDP? If Radivojevic stayed in the USA, I’m sure he would be playing for the NTDP program right now.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I think Mattias Samuelson is a dual national.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I am not sure what the NTDP program requirements are for what it takes to qualify (amount of time living in USA, number of years playing in USA, etc)

Anyone that would be eligible to play for USA in IIHF.

 

[2014nyr]

i don't think there's anything to it beyond pure numbers and geography. just based on where canada is in relation to the us you're almost certain to have a significantly larger annual pool of players who meet the ntdp eligibility requirements and therefore higher statistical probability of one or more who are talented enough to draw their interest that then reciprocate. i have no doubt on a long enough timeline there'd be a european equivalent - it just boils down to the numbers. the probability of being a dual with a euro country at the ntdp talent level who chooses to join is simply much lower than that probability for a canadian dual.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Taking the example of those two Slovak players, they both can play for Slovakia or can play for Slovakia soon, so I think they probably would prefer to represent Slovakia as both their fathers played hockey for the Slovak National Team.

That's a little different than a lot of the players you mention that play at the NTDP that can also play for Canada. There's a good chance they don't have the same types of nationalistic ties that some of the Europeans do. USA and Canada are so similar in many ways that USA and Finland aren't hypothetically. That leads to there being an easier transition between a kid from BC playing at the NTDP than one from Turku.

But there are a lot of players with European heritage. Wahlstrom, Samuelsson (2X), Pivonka, Bednarik, Pastujov. I think why that's a little different than what you see with the players who could also play for Canada is that it's pretty much universal that the players with European heritage are going to live in the USA. You don't see a lot of players at the NTDP who grew up in Europe. Geographically, that makes sense. Europe is far away compared to Canada. It's easier for some families of these players to go back and forth or be of one nationality and choose to live in the neighboring country. A lot more unlikely you'll see some random Minnesota family where the children play hockey move to Yaroslavl.

 

[LeonTheKing]

@Pavel Buchnevich you're my source for all things USA hockey, so please answer me on this.

We see every year a few Canadians raised players on the NTDP roster, guys like William Moore, E.J. Emery, Thomas Bordeleau, Dayne Beuker this year.

Why don't we see the same thing with US born europeans?

Vladimir Dravecký at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Vladimir Dravecký, 2007-12-19 Manchester, NH, USA Slovakia. Most recently in the Slovakia with HC Kosice. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Luka Radivojevic at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Luka Radivojevic, 2007-01-03 Edina, MN, USA Slovakia. Most recently in the SHL with Örebro HK. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Marek Hejduk at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Marek Hejduk, 2004-01-03 Parker, CO, USA USA. Most recently in the NCAA with Harvard Univ.. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com