Leagues That Lead To Play In NHL

If you look at statistics of draft prospects who get picked to play NHL, it is very apparent that the vast majority of players who get to picked, come from major junior hockey in Canada – the CHL. In fact the average entry for the past three years, CHL has provided 48.7% of the players in the NHL draft.

Leagues that Lead To Play NHL

Here are three years worth of NHL draft statistics showing who got picked to play NHL from the draft years 2010 through 2012.

See below that roughly 60% of the players drafted into the NHL consistently came from four main feeder leagues. It would seem that if you want a better chance to play NHL, you’d shoot for either the OHL, WHL, USHL, or QMJHL first, where you can develop until you’re 20 or 21 years old.

NHL Draft From Three Consecutive Years

There were 211 NHL draftees in 2012.
32 from WHL = 15.2%
24 from USHL = 11.4%
19 from QMJHL = 9%
48 from OHL = 22.7%
That’s 47% from CHL that could go on to play NHL.

2011 players in the NHL draft = 210
33 from WHL = 15.7%
25 from USHL = 11.9%
22 from QMJHL = 10.5%
46 from OHL = 21.9%
That’s 48.1% from CHL who are likely to have an NHL career.

2010 draftees = 210
43 from WHL = 20.5%
20 from USHL = 9.5%
22 from QMJHL = 10.5%
42 from OHL = 20%
That’s 51% from CHL that we may see on NHL ice.

Play In NHL

It seems that history repeats itself, doesn’t it? If you wanna play NHL, you should want to play CHL first, and OHL specifically!

Just sayin’.