The NHL finds talent from an abundance of sources. If you are someone with any kind of hockey skill out there, they will find you. In terms of where they pull you from, they seem to have their favourite places. The CHL, which comprises the WHL, OHL and the QMJHL, has the most NHL picks by far all-time. They are a hot spot for talented players to go and develop their skills and eventually have the chance to be selected in the NHL Draft.
While the CHL has long been the popular place for top talent to play in, there are other places that players can come from too. The NCAA is another spot that seems to be growing in popularity, as junior stars and NHL prospects are making their way there more and more. CHL standouts Malcolm Spence and Cole Reschny are two big examples of players who have made commitments for next season.
However, going wider than North America, there seems to be a trend worldwide that is quietly on the rise.
Going back as far as the 2000 NHL Draft, there is some interesting data to take away. The CHL has had 2378 players picked since then, while the NCAA has had 316. Looking at those numbers, it should be considered the amount of NCAA players that are drafted out of high school or play for college programs after being drafted. Regardless, there is a bigger issue at hand here.
Despite the nearly 2700 players chosen out of the two major North American hockey avenues, we are seeing a bit of a regression in the amount of players picked per year from these leagues.
When I looked at the data from 2000-2024, there were a couple major things that stood out. Firstly, the amount of players picked year by year that play in the CHL and NCAA have swung down. From 2000 to 2010, we saw the number of picks range from 94 all the way up to 120 (with the exception of 2006, where there were only 78 players picked). Meanwhile from 2011 up until the most recent 2024 draft, that range of CHL to NHL picks is only 70-101. And the last year with triple-digit picks was 2013. The same can be said for the NCAA’s picks over the years as the last time they even hit double digits in a draft was 2016 (13).
The other big piece of data that was noticeable was the gap between CHL/NCAA picks as the years went on. In the early 2000’s and even the 2010’s, it was very easy to find runs of four or five picks in a row from the same North American league. Whereas closer to present day, the picks seemed to be more diverse and spread out across more leagues in the world. More leagues from places like Sweden and Russia are becoming more competitive and generating more talent that is being noticed by professional teams and their scouts.
For so long, it has been the US and Canada as hockey’s superpowers, but the rest of the world is tired of lying down. The amount of international talent being infused into the league grows each year little by little and international play continues to get more competitive each year. Take something like the world juniors for example; Canada has struggled to medal lately at a tournament they are typically very successful at. Times are changing in junior hockey, and the change is worldwide.
It will be very interesting to see how the upcoming NHL Draft supports the data I collected and whether the trend of incoming international talent continues or if North America reverses the trend.
All data courtesy of: https://records.nhl.com/draft/draft-picks?year=2024
by Jackson Scherger
Jackson Scherger is a journalism student at MacEwan University in Edmonton. Originally from Macklin, Sask., Jackson looks to continue to gain experience in sports journalism as he pursues a career in this field.