How Many Canadians Does It Take to Make One NHL Player?

by Quisp on Feb 27, 2010 4:00 PM PST in Too Much Free Time

Thomas Malthus, who argued that famine and disease would prevent expansion of the Surrey League of Bowls by limiting the elite bowler population at [(pop)/(pop density)^2]/(teams per parish).

Because there are no games today (I know, I know, the Bronze Medal game, but come on), I am passing the time by taking a nation's population and dividing it by its number of current NHL players. [numbers are from Inside the Rink's breakdown of NHL players by nationality, and Google population searches -- all numbers are 2008]

And, yes, I know this is stupid.

Canada: 83,487:1
Finland: 156,258:1
Czech Republic: 196,752:1
Sweden: 204,444:1
Slovakia: 318,001:1
Brunei: 396,692:1
Denmark: 1,832,333:1
Switzerland: 1,907,651:1
U.S.: 1,985,781:1
Slovenia: 2,039,400:1
Latvia: 2,266,013:1
Belarus: 3,226,666:1
Norway: 4,700,000:1
Russia: 5,251,851:1
Germany: 10,267,505:1
S. Korea: 48,607,000:1

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Quisp
I’m starting to worry about you. Hang in there man, the Kings will be back soon!

by JZarris on Feb 27, 2010 5:00 PM PST reply actions

What if you threw in the KHL?

It astounds me that the ratio for Russia is so low. But it’s roughly comparable to the other former Soviet republics on the list (Latvia, Belarus). So it’s not much of a leap to think that the KHLis drawing many (if not most) of the professional-caliber players from that part of the world.

Who the heck is from Brunei?

by DougX on Feb 27, 2010 6:14 PM PST reply actions