While over 70% of players in the NHL call North America home (43% Canada, 28% USA), the 2020-21 season saw at least one player from 18 different countries set foot on the ice. However, this hasn’t always been the case. Though formed in 1917, the league didn’t see its first overseas skaters until the mid to late 1960s. Ulf Sterner would be the NHL’s first European-trained import.
His hockey career in Sweden started in 1956 at age 15, and he would play until 1978, but in 1964, he made a stop over in North America to attend a second training camp (he declined a try-out offer the prior season) with the New York Rangers, who signed him to a contract and started him off in the minors.