By Jack Sponagle, The Hockey News Intern
The typical NHL player tends to hail from one of five or six
countries. Canadians have long made up the majority of the talent in the
league, with Americans, Russians, Swedes and Finns also filling out NHL teams’
rosters.
But every so often we
see players who were born in countries that rarely come up when discussing the
birthplaces of NHL stars.
Robyn Regehr, the
Calgary Flames defenseman who played 1,089 NHL games, was born in Recife, in
the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Regehr’s parents were Mennonite
missionaries, which also explains why his younger brother, Richie, who got into
20 NHL games, was born in Bandung, Indonesia.
Both brothers
represented Canada internationally, but neither were born in the world’s
dominant hockey nation.
With the 2025 IIHF
World Championship on the horizon, here are 20 NHL players who were born in and
sometimes even represented nations that don’t typically produce world-class
hockey players.
Jordan Spence – Manly,
Australia
The Los Angeles Kings
defenseman was born to a Canadian father and Japanese mother in the Australian state of New South Wales. He lived in Osaka, Japan, until his family
relocated to Prince Edward Island when he was 13.
Nathan Walker –
Cardiff, Wales
The St. Louis Blues
winger was born in Cardiff, but his family moved to Australia when he was just
two years old. He was the first Australian to make it to the NHL when he broke
in with Washington in 2017-18.
Yutaka Fukufuji –
Kushiro, Japan
He may have only played
in four NHL games as a goaltender with the Los Angeles Kings in 2006-07, and he
failed to register a win, but Fukufuji can hang his hat on being the first
Japanese player to appear in an NHL game.
Ryan O’Marra – Tokyo,
Japan
O’Marra is the other
NHLer who can claim the Land of the Rising Sun as his birthplace. Born in
Tokyo to Irish-Canadian parents, O'Marra saw 33 NHL games with the Edmonton
Oilers and Anaheim Ducks from 2009 to 2012.
Borna Rendulic –
Zagreb, Croatia
The first Croatian-born
and -trained player in the NHL, Rendulic is better known for his performances
in Finnish and Russian leagues. The Zagreb-born Rendulic played 14 games with
the Colorado Avalanche between 2014-15 and 2015-16, registering a goal and two points.
He also got into a single game with the Vancouver Canucks in 2016-17.
Luca Sbisa – Ozieri,
Italy
Ozieri is a small
municipality on the Italian island of Sardinia, and it’s reputed to have one
of the oldest-known cultures in Italy. It is also the birthplace of Sbisa, who
played in 549 NHL games for seven different NHL teams between 2008 and 2021. Sbisa
represented Switzerland internationally.
Graeme Townshend –
Kingston, Jamaica
Townshend called
Jamaica’s capital of Kingston his home until his family moved to Toronto when
he was three. Townshend played for the Bruins, Islanders and Senators in the
early 1990s. He was the first Jamaican-born player to make it to the NHL.
Andre Deveaux –
Freeport, Bahamas
Deveaux played for the
Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers in a 31-game NHL career from 2008
to 2012. He was born in Freeport, the second-largest city in the Bahamas.
Deveaux played 13 years of pro hockey in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, as well as in Russia,
Sweden, Czechia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
Sean Day – Leuven,
Belgium
A defenseman, Day
became the fourth player to be granted exceptional status to play in the OHL a
year early. Long before that, though, he was born in Belgium to Canadian
parents, and the first time Day skated was at a mall in Singapore. Day played two
games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021-22.
Leo Komarov – Narva,
Estonia
Komarov was born to a
Russian-Finnish family in the Estonian city of Narva. Komarov represented
Finland internationally and played in the NHl for nine seasons for the Maple Leafs and Islanders. He’s the first and, so far, only Estonian-born NHLer.
Willi Plett – Asuncion,
Paraguay
Plett was an
intimidating winger who played 834 NHL games in the 1970s and 1980s, putting up
222 goals, 437 points and 2,570 penalty minutes. Plett’s family were Russian
Mennonites who fled to South America during the Second World War. The 1977
Calder Trophy winner was born in Asuncion, Paraguay, before settling in
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Mike Greenlay –
Vitoria, Brazil
Robyn Regehr isn’t the
only NHLer born in Brazil, as goalie Greenlay, who was born in Vitoria, played
two games for the Oilers in 1989-90.
Levente Szuper –
Budapest, Hungary
Szuper also had a short
NHL career – so short, in fact, that he never actually played in a game. The
Budapest native served as a backup goalie for nine games with Calgary in
2002-03, becoming the first and, so far, only Hungarian player to dress in an NHL game.
Alexandar Georgiev –
Ruse, Bulgaria
San Jose Sharks goalie
Alexandar Georgiev is the first Bulgarian player in NHL history. Born in Ruse, the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria, the former Rangers and Avs netminder was raised in Russia.
Jim Paek and Richard
Park – Seoul, South Korea
The first of two pairs
on this list, both Paek and Park were born in the South Korean capital of
Seoul. Paek became the first Korean-born NHLer and the first player of Korean
descent to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after his contributions in
the playoffs with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992.
Park never won hockey’s
most coveted prize, but he ended up playing 738 NHL games for the Penguins,
Mighty Ducks, Flyers, Islanders, Wild and Canucks.
Darius Kasparaitis and
Dainius Zubrus – Elektrenai, Lithuania
The second shared
birthplace is Elektrenai, Lithuania, which produced both Kasparaitis and
Zubrus.
Kasparaitis, a veteran of 863 NHL games in the
1990s and 2000s, was known for his aggressive and hard-hitting gameplay, which
saw him accumulate 1,379 PIM in his career.
Zubrus has the most NHL
experience on this list, with 1,293 NHL games across his 19-year big-league
tenure, primarily with the New Jersey Devils, although his most productive seasons came with Washington in 2005-06 and 2006-07.
Claude Vilgrain – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Vilgrain became the
first Haitian to play in the NHL when he joined the Vancouver Canucks during
the 1987-88 season. He played in 89 games in his NHL career.
Arthur Kaliyev –
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Kaliyev became the
first NHL player born in Uzbekistan when he made his debut in 2021 with Los
Angeles. Now with the Rangers, Kaliyev moved to Staten Island, N.Y., when he
was two, and later to Michigan when he was 13. Kaliyev represents the USA
internationally.
Akim Aliu – Okene,
Nigeria
Aliu played seven NHL
games with Calgary in 2011-12 and 2012-13. He was born in Nigeria and then
raised in Ukraine until his family left due to the political climate caused by
the fall of the Soviet Union. His family moved to Toronto when he was seven.
Owen Nolan – Belfast,
Northern Ireland
The Belfast-born Nolan
was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 draft by the Quebec Nordiques. He played
1,200 NHL games, scoring 422 goals and 885 points. Nolan represented Canada
internationally, winning a gold medal at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
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