Players with nationalities you didnt expect based on their name

[Iapyi]

If you followed the chain of quotes I was speaking about their heritage and not their nationality, as I had pointed out that Zibanejad had Iranian roots. Max Domi's family is of Albanian descent. Much like Kadri's is Labanese, yet he is Canadian.

Okay.

Does Canada have a heritage?

 

[BOS358]

I'll add Douglas Murray from Sweden aka crankshaft.

Murray was the first one I thought of once I saw the title of this thread.

Patrick Galbraith is another one (his father is Canadian, later moved to and settled in Denmark)

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Ryan O'Marra the best Japanese player?

Paul Tetsuhiko Kariya

 

[Paradise Circus]

Niklas Bäckström is Finnish

 

[MoeTheHobo]

I thought Mcdavid was Scottish

 

[Strawberry Fields]

As others have written, there's obviously tons of American and Canadian players with non-anglo (or French) surnames. The thing is, they usually have more typically English first names like Joe Sakic, Steve Staios, Scott Niedermeyer, Tie Domi, Keith Tkachuck, Devan Dubnyk, Kyle Palmieri, Joe Pavelski, Zach Warenski etc. Growing up in western Canada, those kinds of names (my own included!) were incredibly common. I'd never assume those players were actually Poles, Croats, Ukrainians, Germans, Italians, etc.

It's when both names sound European that I'm sometimes thrown off. Milan Lucic for instance was one. Or Wojtek Wolski. One which surprised me more recently was Marco Rossi (Ottawa 67s / Minnesota Wild pick). The name is obviously super Italian - but I actually just assumed he was either North American (think Fernando Pisani) or maybe Swiss. I definitely wasn't expecting Austrian.

There's also the much rarer inverse where the player has a more typically European first name and an Anglo surname, like Anders Lee, Joakim Ryan (whose mom is Swedish), etc.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Sebastian Aho.

Either one.

 

[txpd]

Peter Bondra

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

Okay.

Does Canada have a heritage?

Did something i say offend you?

Of course Canada has a heritage. Does that mean you can't acknowledge the backgrounds of the immigrants that helped to forge the country?

 

[sr edler]

But Kevin Lankinen is from Finland

Kevin Stenlund then, Columbus. My point stands. I'm not making things up. Name became almost a phenomenon after Home Alone in the early 90s. Was more or less non-existent prior to that in the Nordic countries.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

His dad is Syrian.

Oh I know.

 

[Streetsamurai]

What? I'm french canadian and I've never seen someone with the last name "Lang".

Well i should.be more specific. Lot of french New Brunswicker with that last name

 

[Puck Dogg]

Jacob Trouba sounded like Czech to me but he's American.

 

[Iapyi]

Did something i say offend you?

Of course Canada has a heritage. Does that mean you can't acknowledge the backgrounds of the immigrants that helped to forge the country?

No not at all. My Canada heritage question was by no means meant in that way. Seriously it was just a question that I ask people quite regularly in a way to get others to think about it. Sorry if it came across in an offensive manner one way or the other.

 

[amnesiac]

Robert Lang never stood out as a czech name. Especially since there's a ton of lang that are french canadian

well, thats just not true at all.

 

[Realgud]

Well i should.be more specific. Lot of french New Brunswicker with that last name

Oh really? Didn't know that.

 

[FinnJet]

I never understood how is Niskanen not a Finn.

Ekblad I routinely think of as a Swede.

Or Virtanen. The most common family name in Finland

 

[Stephen]

You'd think a guy named Josh Ho-Sang sporting hyphenated Chinese surnames would be more... Chinese.

 

[IdontSpitOnTheIce]

Raphael Diaz from Switzerland. I was like ok maybe we’re gonna start seeing latino players.

 

[Drunkenfish]

Anders Bjork from USA.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

This thread begins and ends with Douglas Murray

 

[MisterY]

Gretzky was canadian. Who would have guess?

 

[Kristopher Letang]

Both Oduya and Kylington grew up in Stockholm with one African and one Swedish parent. A 10 year old Oliver Kylington got an autograph from Oduya and apparently sees him as his mentor, thanking him after his first NHL goal and so on.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Recipe Unlimited]

Every ai generated player on my nhl 21 gm mode team

 

[jetsforever]

The one that always gets me for some reason is Guentzel, who's from ...Nebraska, USA.