There was a time, way, way back in the beginning, that the NHL wasn't just a Canadian-dominated league — it was an Ontario-led one. Seventy per cent of the games in the first 11 years of professional hockey were played by players from the province, with Quebec coming a distant second in terms of regional representation.

Ontario fell off as more and more prairie boys entered the league leading up to and during the First World War, but even as late as 1979, the NHL was made up of 42 per cent of players born in Canada's largest province.

This season, Ontario makes up an all-time low of just 19.5 per cent of NHL players' birthplaces, while Quebec fell behind Alberta beginning in 2004. Quebec-born players peaked at 26.6 per cent in 1962; this season they make up only 7.8% of the NHL.

Together, Ontario and Quebec still make up more of the NHL than the United States or all European countries combined. The provinces have a total population of roughly 20 million people.