from Martin Merk of IIHF.com,

Two years ago the number of European players in the National Hockey League dropped its lowest level in 13 years. Since then however, the numbers have rebounded in a big way as 236 Europeans – 24 per cent of all NHL players – competed in the league.

Two years ago it was 196 Europeans who played at least one game during the NHL regular season. That’s a two-year growth of over 20 per cent.

From the nine nations represented with three or more players, only two (Czech Republic, Germany) saw a drop in player numbers.

Sweden had the biggest growth in absolute numbers and remains Europe’s top producer of NHL talent with 79 players, which means that every third European player in the NHL is Swedish.

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