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Border Wars: NHL 2012-13 Points Per Game By Country

Which countries or origin were the most productive in 2012-13?

By Derek Zona
Slovenia is dominant
Slovenia is dominant
Harry How

Some interesting goal numbers* from the 2012-13 NHL Season:

# Birthplace G/G
1 Austria 0.40
2 Russia 0.20
3 Slovenia 0.20
4 Norway 0.20
5 Slovakia 0.19
6 Czech Republic 0.18
7 France 0.17
8 Canada 0.15
9 Kazakhstan 0.15
10 Finland 0.15
11 Sweden 0.14
12 Denmark 0.13
13 Belarus 0.13
14 Germany 0.13
15 Switzerland 0.12
16 United States 0.12
17 Lithuania 0.09
18 Ukraine 0.09
19 Latvia 0.04
  • Austria is clearly cheating - sending only Thomas Vanek and Michael Grabner to the NHL. The NHL needs a few Austrian facepunchers to balance this out.
  • The Ukraine is weak.

Trimming the list to the most-represented countries in the NHL...

# Birthplace G/G
2 Russia 0.20
5 Slovakia 0.19
6 Czech Republic 0.18
8 Canada 0.15
10 Finland 0.15
11 Sweden 0.14
16 United States 0.12

  • The United States needs to develop more forwards, less defensemen.

Moving on to assists:

# Birthplace A/G
1 Slovenia 0.65
2 Russia 0.37
3 Switzerland 0.33
4 Norway 0.33
5 Denmark 0.33
6 Lithuania 0.32
7 Sweden 0.31
8 Kazakhstan 0.30
9 Austria 0.30
10 Czech Republic 0.29
11 Finland 0.27
12 Slovakia 0.26
13 Canada 0.25
14 Germany 0.23
15 United States 0.22
16 Belarus 0.20
17 France 0.17
18 Ukraine 0.16
19 Latvia 0.12

  • Anze Kopitar is an excellent representative if you've only got one in the NHL.
  • Michael Grabner needs to pass more if he's going to help Austria's numbers.
  • The Ukraine is weak.

Trimming the list again:

# Birthplace A/G
2 Russia 0.37
7 Sweden 0.31
10 Czech Republic 0.29
11 Finland 0.27
12 Slovakia 0.26
13 Canada 0.25
15 United States 0.22
  • Canada and the U.S. spend too much time punching faces to pass.

Put the goals and assists together:

# Birthplace P/G
1 Slovenia 0.86
2 Austria 0.69
3 Russia 0.57
4 Norway 0.53
5 Czech Republic 0.47
6 Denmark 0.46
7 Switzerland 0.46
8 Sweden 0.45
9 Kazakhstan 0.45
10 Slovakia 0.45
11 Finland 0.41
12 Lithuania 0.41
13 Canada 0.40
14 Germany 0.36
15 United States 0.34
16 France 0.33
17 Belarus 0.33
18 Ukraine 0.25
19 Latvia 0.16
  • Anze Kopitar - 1, World - 0
  • The Grabner - Vanek duo helps to put Austria in second.
  • Norway had just 15 games from Mats Zuccarello last season.
  • The hopes of Latvia rest in the hands of Zemgus Girgensons
  • The Ukraine is weak.

Trimming the results:

# Birthplace P/G
3 Russia 0.57
5 Czech Republic 0.47
8 Sweden 0.45
10 Slovakia 0.45
11 Finland 0.41
13 Canada 0.40
15 United States 0.34
  • When all of the bottom-end and replacement-level players in the league originate from the home continent, it's going to skew the final distribution.

*Data culled from HockeyDB