Hundreds or even thousands of Canadians in European hockey

[-TSS- 271]

There are hudreds or even thousands of American basketball-players in Europe who are just not good enough for the NBA but they are good enough to play in the various European leagues and may be big stars in them.

Similarly, there are a lot of canadian hockey-players all over Europe playing in the various leagues and as for some strange reason the rules for representation of different national teams seem to be somewhat liberal there are Canadians playing for many countries even such as Kazakstan or Belorussia.

Is it common in your country to think that if you are not good enough for the NHL you will move to Europe and become a Belorussian or a Kazakh?

 

[JamesHackerMP 75]

I wouldn't move to Belarus or Kazakhstan if they paid me a million a year.

[Iznogoud 12]

It has been like that for decades.  If a Canadian has European ancestry then he is considered a European in some nations.  In addition, each European team is allowed to recruit a certain  number of foreign players.