Pretty sure North American analysts say the same thing. In regards to your registration numbers, I would say including all the talent around the world in the NHL is from a larger pool than the 60s and 70s, still a fair bit more than 80s, and 90s I'm not too sure, probably roughly the same. Do any of your studies include how many more players from other countries are in the league today? I know Czechs and Russians are less today, plus the KHL takes some talent away, but there are more from Finland, Sweden still produces lots of quality talent, as well as the US and Canada like you mentioned. I think there are more players today from other European countries though. Even the worst teams in the NHL today clearly have a lot of talent, there are just so many more players from around the world today and it's odd to try to state the 60s and 70s was on par with today for overall talent, half the teams in the 70s were jokes after expansion, and the WHA was even worse for the most part.