Quote:
Originally Posted by RyZ
Although born a Dutchman, I believe he has lived in Canada since he was 8-9 and identifies as Canadian and has played for Canada internationally. He's basically Canadian.
It's kind of like how some places list Dany Heatly as German although he lives in, identifies as and has played for Canada.
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It's a little different because Dany Heatley's father was an expat Canadian working in Germany. He (Dany) was a Canadian at birth despite being born in Germany (and came back before he was 3).
In the case of Sprong, from what I read, the main reason why the family moved to Canada was to get him into serious hockey. They used to bring him over for summer training before then.
It's not surprising that he would want to represent Canada. I am sure he feels Canadian at this point, but I would still consider him a product of Holland since that is where he started to play and where his talent was first recognized and discovered (apparently his teams used to beat other teams by 20-30 goals). Canada is the more prestigious country to play for in hockey and the way the lower tier tournaments work, the NHL schedule would likely not allow him to participate much for Netherlands internationally.