Homogeneous Ducks

One trend about Brian Burke’s Ducks that hasn’t really been discussed (but is becoming quite noticeable) is the Canadazation of our lineup.

Back in our 2003 SCF run, the Ducks played a multinational lineup featuring 11 players from 7 countries outside Canada:

• Belarus—Salei
• Czech Rep.—Sykora
• Latvia—Ozolinsh
• Russia—Chistov, Vishnevski
• Sweden—Pahlsson, Kjellberg, Havelid
• Switzerland—Gerber
• United States—Carney, Sauer

Compare that with today’s projected lineup, which features 5 players from 3 countries outside Canada:

• Finland—Selanne
• Russia—Chistov, Vishnevski, Bryzgalov
• Sweden—Pahlsson

(This doesn’t really even take into account guys like Fedorov or Prospal, who have joined and left our team since 2003).

Now I’m not sure how much of this new distribution really is part of Burke’s master plan (his Vancouver team had some Swedish flair to it) or just a reflection of who was available, but off the top of my head, will there be another NHL team this year with such a Canada-heavy workforce?

And is there such a thing as being ‘too Canadian’ in this import-rich NHL?