Canadians make up less than 50% of NHL players for the first time

The percentage of NHL players that are from Canada has fallen below 50% for the first time, according to data collected by QuantHockey.com.

In the first weeks of the 2015-16 season, just 48.6% of NHL players were from Canada. The number of Canadians peaked during the 1956-57 season, when 98.6% of all players were from north of the border.

Meanwhile, the number of American NHLers is at 23.9%, a number that has been relatively unchanged for the last six seasons. However, Americans represent the group that has grown the most over the last 20 years, up 5.9% from 18.0% in 1995-96 and up 21.4% from 1970-71 when just 2.5% of the players were from the United States.

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