Per
this link and
this one, there are less registrated hockey players in the world than there are registrated soccer players in France, which is 4th on the list, wayy behind Germany. This is just for registrated players, it's just easier to play soccer (or Basketball) than ice-hockey because of the arena and equipment needed
The talent pool is too small in hockey and the sport isn't accessible for the lesser well-off. Because of this I'd say there's too much consanguinity in the sport. The amount of NHL players who are sons of past NHL players is just massive and an indication the sport isn't attainable enough for outsiders. A kid in the situation of Lebron James (raised in a one-parent family to a 16 years old) would not have existed in hockey. Same for a Ronaldinho, a Messi,a Drogba, a Pogba...
The formation of hockey players, in Canada at least, isn't that great to generate GOATs. In soccer, professional scouts watch young players when they're still kids playing in freely accessible soccer fields in the poorer neighborhoods. If they see a prodigy, they contact the parents and offer a free training (or a contract) for the kid. He will then proceed to later play for the club who trained him. Transfer money for the player if he breaks out justifies the local scouting the smaller teams do. This expands the pool of talent dramatically
The draft system, which I'm not arguing against as it has its merits, prevents this from happening. Why would a NHL team, which would be by 50 miles the best entity to train a young player into the best player possible, would spend a cent for this endeavour if said player will most likely play against them? This means the formation of young players is left to the parents and is prohibitive at high level. Later, the players will play for CHL teams and will spend 10 times more time in a bus going to games than actually playing them
If Leafs or Habs scouts roamed the local pee-wee and bantam leagues and could sign the rights of the players, we would probably have seen another Gretzky and another Lemieux
The current system allows a fantastic amount of parity in the NHL, but at the cost of a colossal loss of talent
Here's my hot take: during the time hockey has seen one Gretzkylike talent, soccer probably had 30. The difference in pools of players is just that big