One side issue here, that has always been a concern for me, is US born players. Canadian markets are less attractive to (many) players, for a variety of reasons, it is a simple fact that we have to deal with. Part of dealing with that is assessing flight risk. And I have always been of the opinion that US born players are very often a big risk. Are there exceptions? Of course. But it is a variable that needs to be considered.
Obviously, nationality is not the only factor in determining whether a player will want to play in Canada, but it is definitely one of them. I used to think that Russians were at the top of the list, but over the last few years, I think that has changed and is now Americans. I would rank it as follows:
USA
Russia
Slovac countries
Finland
Sweden
Canada
I think it is simply a part of the American culture to be more focused on numero uno - it's all about Me Inc. Again, everyone is an individual, and there are a lot of exceptions, but if I were GMing a Canadian team, I would be minimizing my exposure to American players.
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