from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

For the first time in the 98-year history of the NHL, Canadians do not make up the majority of the league’s players.

With an all-time high of players born outside of North America, Canadian-born players made up just 49.7 per cent of the 624 players to appear in a game in the first two weeks of the 2015-16 season.

Canadians comprised 51.8 per cent of NHL rosters last season and 53.4 per cent in 2013-14, an average that held relatively stable since 1999-2000 (54.8 per cent).

Hockey has always been Canada’s game. As recently as 1990, approximately 75 per cent of the NHL was born in Canada, a number that was significantly higher in earlier years.

The decline has perhaps been inevitable, with Canada’s relatively small population (35.5 million) compared to the NHL’s larger American footprint with 23 teams. There are more United States-based franchises now, thanks to expansion, than there were teams in the entire league in 1992.

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