Canadian NHL Players 2026-27: All 323, by Province and by Club

There are 323 Canadian NHL players on the 32 opening rosters for 2026-27, out of 777 in total. That is 41.6 per cent of the league, and it is still comfortably the largest group, but it is a long way from the nine in ten of forty years ago.

We pulled every roster on 30 September and counted. Here is where the league actually comes from, and the answer contains at least three numbers that sound wrong until you check them: one province out-produces Sweden and Russia put together, a town of thirty thousand in Yukon has two players in the league, and the club with the most Canadians on its roster is not in Canada.

NHL players by country

Canada and the United States together account for just under seven in ten. The Swedish number is the one that has grown most. At 78 it is now larger than Russia and Finland combined.

Forty years ago Canadian NHL players made up close to nine in ten. The share has been falling ever since, and it has not stopped.

Ontario alone out-produces most hockey nations

Split the Canadian NHL players by province and one number stands out.

Ontario has 139 players in the NHL. Sweden and Russia have 133 between them. One province out-produces the two biggest European hockey nations put together.

It is not close against the next tier either. Finland, Czechia and Slovakia add up to 61, fewer than half of Ontario’s total.

Quebec’s 47 is the second-largest single source in Canada and would rank fourth as a country, ahead of Finland.

Two NHL players from Whitehorse

Yukon has two players in the NHL this season and both are from Whitehorse, a city of roughly thirty thousand people.

One of them went first overall in the 2026 draft. McKenna signed a three-year entry-level deal with Toronto in July. Cozens put up 59 points in Ottawa last season. For a territory with fewer people than a mid-sized Ontario town, two Canadian NHL players is a remarkable return. Our look at what to expect from McKenna is on our Gavin McKenna stats page.

How Canadian are the Canadian teams?

Less than you might assume, and they vary enormously.

Montréal are the most Canadian team in the league by share. Vancouver are the least Canadian of the seven by a distance. Six in a roster of 25. That is fewer Canadian NHL players than Seattle, Colorado, St. Louis, Buffalo, Columbus and San Jose each carry.

Seattle have more Canadians than any Canadian club

The single strangest number in the whole set.

Seattle carry more Canadian NHL players than Toronto, Montréal, Edmonton or anyone else. Geography helps. The Kraken are a three-hour drive from Vancouver and draw from the same junior systems as the western Canadian clubs.

At the other end sit Minnesota. Three Canadians, the fewest in the league, from a state that produces more American NHL players than any other, which is either a recruiting philosophy or a coincidence depending on how much you want to read into a single roster.

Canada still supplies the goaltenders

Of the 323 Canadians in the league, 194 are forwards, 107 are defencemen and 22 are goaltenders. That goaltending share, a shade over a third of all NHL netminders, is the one position where the Canadian hold has slipped least.

A note on the numbers

These are opening-roster counts taken on 30 September 2026, straight from the league’s own feed. Rosters move constantly through call-ups, injuries and waivers, so the number of Canadian NHL players shifts by a handful either way through the season. Roster sizes differ between clubs for the same reason. That is why the share column matters more than the raw count.

Where each club sits on the ice rather than on the passport is on our NHL power rankings, and the seven Canadian clubs’ playoff positions are on our NHL playoff standings page.

Roster data from the NHL, taken on 30 September 2026. Counts change through the season as players are recalled, traded or placed on injured reserve.