Worldwide Sports News

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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Matthew Tkachuk will not be facing any supplemental discipline following Game 3 between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Late in the third period of Tampa’s 5-1 win, Tkachuk was given a five-minute major for interference after an open ice hit on the Lightning’s Jake Guentzel.

With less than five minutes remaining in the game, Tkachuk was done for the night.

B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) on XMatthew Tkachuk has been given a 5-minute major for this hit on Jake Guentzel before Tampa's ENG

The hit came one game after Tampa forward Brandon Hagel was given a five-minute major, also for interference, on a hit on Florida Captain Sasha Barkov.

Hagel was subsequently suspended for one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety.

Barkov left the game and did not return, but he was able to play for Florida in Game 3.

Overall, the physical intensity in the series has been gradually increasing.

It came as no surprise to see Tkachuk go for the hit on Guentzel, and it will be interesting to see how both teams handle themselves as the series continues forward.

According to NHL inside David Pagnotta, the difference between the hits – that Guentzel had played the puck and Tkachuk made no head contact – were contributing factors to the league’s decision not to hold a disciplinary hearing for Tkachuk.

So far in the series, Tkachuk has racked up three goals and an assist. 

Game 4 between the Panthers and Lightning is set for Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

Hagel will be back from his suspension and both teams should be at full strength for what should be an amazing game between two powerhouse squads.

The puck drops in Sunrise at 7 p.m.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs had an opportunity to close out their first-round series against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night. Instead, a lack of discipline was a key factor that cost them in a 4-3 overtime loss.

Toronto handed Ottawa four power-play opportunities compared to just two of their own. While both teams scored once on the man advantage, the Leafs squandered a golden opportunity in overtime with a four-minute power play.

'That's An Easy Decision For Me': Maple Leafs Miss 4-Minute Overtime Power Play, Squander Chance to Sweep SenatorsKANATA, Ont. — The Toronto Maple Leafs were afforded a golden opportunity to complete a four-game sweep of the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. 

However, the first momentum swing came early, following a costly penalty by Max Domi. Midway through the first period, during a faceoff against Shane Pinto, Domi used the butt end of his stick to hit Pinto in the face. The puck had not yet been dropped, and as Pinto leaned in anticipating it, Domi let his emotions get the best of him, retaliating by clipping him in frustration.

Max Domi receives the first penalty of Game 4 at the face-off dot with Shane Pinto pic.twitter.com/EvS1SV4F9H

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 26, 2025

The 30-year-old was assessed a roughing penalty at 7:59 of the first period. Less than two minutes later, Tim Stutzle capitalized on the power play, recording his first career playoff goal and giving Ottawa a 1-0 lead. It marked the second consecutive game in which the Senators opened the scoring on the man advantage — a not-so-good trend for the Leafs.

Tim Stutzle scores on the power play pic.twitter.com/evz1qGRqbA

— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 26, 2025

Following the Game 4 loss, Leafs head coach Craig Berube voiced his displeasure when asked about the Domi penalty during his Sunday media availability.

“Yeah, it's not a good penalty. He knows that,” Berube said. “His emotions got a little too high there and involved. And, yeah, that's one of the penalties that he knows he can't take and our team doesn't want to take.”

The bench boss had emphasized discipline before Game 4, acknowledging that staying out of post-whistle scrums and maintaining composure were critical elements to playoff success – as he’s harped on all series long.

“It's just understanding that the scrums and all that – don't react to it,” Berube said pre-game on Saturday. “Play hard between the whistles. I get there's desperation plays sometimes and take penalties, and that's going to happen in the game. But it's the other stuff you want to be really good at, having composure and initiating as much as you can. You've got to stay out of it as best you can. I don't have an answer for it. I mean, it's just the understanding of it,” said Berube before Game 4.

When push came to shove, the Maple Leafs couldn't overcome their early mistakes. Though they battled back down 2-0 and 3-2 in the game, the Leafs dropped Game 4 in overtime by a 4-3 score. The Domi penalty could have easily been avoided had he controlled his emotions, helping the Leafs earn a victory and advance to the second round. Instead, it allowed Ottawa to grab momentum and put Toronto on its heels early as the first domino to fall.

'Just Keep Going': How The Maple Leafs Will Combat The Seed Of Doubt In Game 5 Against SenatorsAs the Toronto Maple Leafs walked into the dressing room following their 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators, they could have thought either of two ways: it was only one loss, or their sky was beginning to fall.

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, mistakes need to be limited to have any version of success. The penalty was a mistake and not a good infraction to take early in the first period on the road in a series-clinching game. It’s an area the club will need to clean up moving forward, beginning in Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Stay updated with the most interesting Maple Leafs stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.

By Jared Clinton, Features Writer

At one time, it seemed impossible. Later, it became implausible. And then, slowly and steadily, it transformed from existing somewhere within the realm of possibility to simply a matter of time. None of that, though, makes it any less surreal that Alex Ovechkin has blasted his way past Wayne Gretzky to assume the mantle as the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring king.

When Gretzky hung up his skates in 1999, he did so in the midst of an ultra-defensive era. Scoring had plummeted. It made sense, then, that his career goal total was categorized among his individual feats that would go unmatched. But Ovechkin’s arrival and lamplighting prowess begat whispers about a challenge to Gretzky’s throne. Those whispers grew in strength as ‘The Great Eight’ rose from precocious rookie sensation to perennial Rocket Richard Trophy favorite. Now, Ovechkin has cemented himself as the greatest goal-scorer the game has ever seen.

Click here if you agree that Nathan MacKinnon is the best player in the NHL right now.

Top 💯: https://t.co/smKk3NQdgQpic.twitter.com/qw9yHoNCLI

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) April 20, 2025

With Ovechkin overtaking one of the marks formerly considered untouchable – and in doing so proving that most records really are made to be broken – the mind starts to wander. Is it only a matter of time before other significant individual achievements fall? Which feats appear secure but are perhaps precariously held? And are there any records that remain unbreakable?

Clock is Ticking

Gretzky held the goal-scoring crown for 31 years, but that’s still shorter than Doug Jarvis’ tenure as the NHL’s ironman. Jarvis held the title for nearly 35 years, from October 1987 to January 2022, when Keith Yandle played in his 965th consecutive game. Yandle’s time as ironman, however, was short-lived. Within nine months, he was passed by Phil Kessel, who pushed the mark to 1,064 games. But the durability of this era’s players makes it seem likely that Kessel won’t hold the top spot for all that long. Nine of the 14 players to play in 600-plus consecutive games have done so in the past 11 years, including Brent Burns, the active leader at 925 consecutive games played and counting.

Staying healthy will also be important in the pursuit of the single-season power-play goal record. Tim Kerr holds the mark, having potted an astounding 34 PP goals in 1985-86, but the NHL is currently in a special-teams resurgence. This season was the fourth in a row in which NHL power plays operated at an average of 20.5 percent or higher. The last stretch of four such seasons spanned from 1986-87 to 1989-1990. And the current power-play excellence has given rise to some Kerr challengers. Leon Draisaitl notched 32 PP goals in 2022-23. Sam Reinhart posted 27 last season. If scoring with the man advantage continues to boom, Kerr’s record stands to fall.

If the Stars Align

Given that league-wide scoring is holding at levels commensurate with the first post-lockout campaign and that five of the highest-scoring individual scoring seasons of the past 20 years have come since 2022-23, there is a case to be made that we’re in an era of big-time production. Gretzky’s single-season scoring record – 215 points in 1985-86 – isn’t in danger, but could a rearguard set a new record for single-season points by a defenseman?

For more than 50 years, Bobby Orr has held the record, with his 139-point season in 1970-71 sitting atop the list. But the current generation of blueliners is redefining what it means to produce from the back end. To wit, we are only two years removed from Erik Karlsson’s 101-point season, which saw him become the first defenseman since Brian Leetch in 1991-92 to reach the 100-point plateau. That makes Karlsson one of four defensemen to register 90 points in the post-lockout era, all of whom have done so in the past four seasons.

We’re also only beginning to see Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes enter their primes. This season, Makar hit 90 points for the second straight year. Hughes battled injury but scored at nearly a 95-point pace. And the players they’re inspiring could hound after Orr’s mark down the line. Lane Hutson became the first rookie defenseman since Nicklas Lidstrom in 1991-92 to score 60 points in a season. The defensemen who emerge in the coming years could build on the foundations laid by Makar and Hughes.

But even in an era of increased scoring, a battery of goaltending records could fall at a moment’s notice. Chief among those is the longest shutout streak.

While the record is six straight shutouts, held by Alec Connell, it’s worth noting that that run came during the 1927-28 season – when the forward pass was permitted in only the defensive and neutral zones. Thus, some acknowledge Brian Boucher’s five straight shutouts in 2003-04 as the modern achievement. And while no one since Boucher has posted four consecutive shutouts, there are seven instances in the past decade in which a goaltender has pieced together a three-shutout run, most recently Andrei Vasilevskiy and Semyon Varlamov in 2020-21.

A shutout streak could pair well, too, with the record for single-season saves. Gump Worsley is in the top spot with a 2,376-save season, but it’s not unrealistic for a present-day keeper to mount a challenge. Worsley accumulated his total over 70 games, which is greater than but not far from the workloads that netminders play these days. Twice in the post-lockout NHL has Worsley been threatened – by Roberto Luongo in 2005-06 (2,275 saves in 75 games) and Cam Ward in 2010-11 (2,191 saves in 74 games). More recently, Frederik Andersen posted 2,029 saves in 66 games during the 2017-18 season.

And how about the single-season win total? In 2015-16, Braden Holtby tied Martin Brodeur’s then-nine-year-old record of 48 wins – and Holtby did so despite playing in 12 fewer games than Brodeur. Further fuelling speculation the mark could fall? Connor Hellebuyck won 47 of his 63 games this season. It proves that a workhorse keeper on a title contender can mount a chase.

It would take something truly special, though, for anyone to chase down Brodeur for the top spot on the all-time wins list. Given his consistency and sturdiness, Hellebuyck might have the best chance – he’s at 322 victories. However, he’d have to average nearly 40 wins per season for another decade. The same can be said for Vasilevskiy, who – with the pending retirement of Marc-Andre Fleury and his career 575 wins – is third among active keepers. Vasilevskiy would have to maintain a similar 40-win clip until he called it a career to reach the record. The conditions would have to be perfect for Hellebuyck, Vasilevskiy or any up-and-comer to surpass Brodeur.

The Untouchables

Which brings us to those that will stand the test of time.

While The Great One may have lost one of his most notable records, he still has a stranglehold on a great many of the NHL’s single-season and career bests – as well as one of the most formidable in league history: 50 goals in 39 games. The closest modern challengers have been Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid, who have recorded 33 goals in 39 games.

Perhaps more than his goal-scoring feats, though, Gretzky’s work as a set-up man makes for the most unattainable marks. For instance, Gretzky is atop the all-time assists ledger (1,963) by more than 700, and he’s 900 ahead of any active player. Combine that with his goal total and it’s unfathomable that anyone in this lifetime or the next will be able to match Gretzky’s 2,857 career points. That’s the equivalent of 19 consecutive 150-point campaigns. Only once since the turn of the millennium – McDavid in 2022-23 – has a player posted even one 150-point season.

And while Gretzky’s career point total is among the NHL’s most unmatchable, that record still pales in comparison to what is arguably the most awe-inspiring record in the sport: Glenn Hall’s mark for most consecutive complete games by a goaltender.

From Oct. 6, 1955, through to Nov. 4, 1962, Hall played every possible minute in the blue paint, 502 consecutive games. Forget the single-season games-played mark (Grant Fuhr’s 79 games) or the all-time total (Brodeur’s 1,266 contests) it’s Hall’s streak that is a truly breathtaking feat. What we know about the physical toll of the goaltending position on the body makes it not unlikely, not implausible, but absolutely, unequivocally impossible anyone will ever pry that record from Hall.

This article appeared in our 2025 Top-100 NHLers issue. This issue focuses on the 100 best players currently in the NHL, with the Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon sitting atop the list. We also include features on Alex Ovechkin finally beating Wayne Gretzky's goal-scoring record, and former CFL running back Andrew Harris' switch to semi-professional hockey. In addition, we provide a PWHL playoff preview as the regular season nears its end.

You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/Free today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.