I just got on Tankathon and look at the 2022 Mock Drafts of both the NHL & NBA. I was surprised to see the major impact that the international players have made on the NHL. Out of the 32 first round selections here was the breakdown of the mocked players from their respective countries:
Canada - 9
USA - 9
Slovakia - 3
Russia - 3
Finland - 2
Sweden - 2
Czech - 2
Austria - 1
Switz - 1
Contrast that with the NBA. Their mock of the 30 First Round Picks went as follows:
USA (College, G League, etc.) - 28
International - 2
Thought these breakdowns were surprising and was interesting
And you don't need to be 6 foot 6 or taller to play hockey at a high level. There are not a lot of 5-foot-10 guys playing pro basketball anywhere.
Almost all athletes here in Denmark play soccer and team handball. Then we have some playing hockey, basketball and football (and other sports).
Ice Hockey has had a lot of pro clubs for many years and good coaches. Basketball is getting better. We just had our first Dane in the NBA (Gabriel Lundberg for the Suns), and a guy called Christian Drejer was drafted by the Nets via Florida.
But my theory is that most gifted athletes over here want to play soccer or team handball. (or swimming, badminton and some smaller sports), so a lot of kids don't find football or basketball until they are maybe 13-15 years old.
That said things are looking better basketball wise. We have a lot of talent and in the next 8-10 years we will have more players in the NBA (still very few). Football is just starting. We have an American coach at my boarding school, bu we only have 5-6 competitive youth clubs/teams in the whole country. We have only had Morten Andersen and Hjalte Froholdt in the NFL.
There is definitely a much bigger international presence these days compared to the 90s and earlier. So it’s surprising to see the draft demographics still look like that.