Besides Canada, what country produces the best hockey players?

[Guest Hank=FutureCaptain]

I had to go with Sweden as well. Just so much Swedish depth around the league. Other than Canada, it has to be Sweden.

[Saran 1]

Canadian-born means not Heatley. He was born in Germany. And even if you do add him, Canada is still way behind.

And as far as your defensemen...Regehr is the only one you listed who is anywhere NEAR Ohlund. Blake and Jovo have always been hideous in their own end, and are now only mediocre offensively. The fact that Ohlund had comparable offensive numbers to Jovo and Blake, and Ohlund is an elite DEFENSIVE defenseman, speaks volumes about how much better he is than them. Weber might be an elite player down the road, but he's nowhere near that level yet. Bouwmeester is decent, but again, he's no Ohlund. Ohlund is one of the ten best defensemen in the NHL. None of the guys you listed are.

ohlund is no where near as good as ur saying he is.

[redwingslady87 130]

sweden, no question about it.

[eva unit zero 271]

ohlund is no where near as good as ur saying he is.

He was as of the end of last season. This season has been sort of a down year for him.

[Earthhuman 8]

ohlund is no where near as good as ur saying he is.

That's generally how people feel about him...

I say Kronvall is the second best swedish defenseman in the league at this point.

[Jocke 53]

Sweden. The 8 highest ranked European 2009 draft prospects are Swedish

Edited April 22, 2009 by Jocke

[puertoricanWingsfan 5]

How about Puerto Rico? Anyone? No? ...ok....

[clutchngrab 12]

I think if you are arguing per capita it has to be the Czechs. Amazing talent with such a small pool. After that, Sweden, then Russia. In general the euros understand teaching hockey skills first and systems 2nd unlike their North American blowhard counterparts.

[under_par_00 45]

I think Slovakia could made a claim for the best players per capita. With a population of only 5 million, and players like Hossa, Chara, Gaborik, Demitra, Meszaros, and Kopecky (haha).

Sweden and the Czech Republic have roughly the same population at 10 million. I think Sweden has more talented players. Tough call though.

[Rocket Queen 30 1]

Sweden has less than a third of the population of Canada. I would argue that per capita, Sweden produces the best player INCLUDING Canada.

Think about it.

Top tier Canadian-born players:

F: Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Sakic, Savard, Briere, Iginla, Spezza, Brind'Amour, Marleau

D: Niedermayer, Pronger, Phaneuf

G: Brodeur, Luongo

Top-tier Swedish-born players:

F: Alfredsson, Sundin, Zetterberg, Forsberg

D: Lidstrom, Ohlund

G: Lundqvist

That's 16 Canadians, and 7 Swedes, compared with over 30m Canadians and under 10m Swedes. That means you would get around 25 top-tier Swedes if Sweden were as large as Canada, or alternatively, if Canada were as small as Sweden, you would only see maybe 4 or 5 top-tier players. For further comparison, consider that the population of Quebec is only slightly smaller than that of Sweden, and five of the players I listed above were born in Quebec (Lecavalier, St. Louis, Briere, Brodeur, Luongo) that further illustrates the point.

Canada has about one top talent per 2m people. English Canada is closer to 2.3m, while Quebec is closer to 1 per 1.5m people. Sweden's ratio is closer to 1.3m people per top talent.

What exactly makes Thornton a "top tier" player? Furthermore, Savard, Briere and Marleau? I'll conceded Marleau but not Savard and Briere is a maybe.

Edited May 13, 2009 by Rocket Queen 30