Interactive map: Canada’s World Juniors teams through the years

Canada's Connor McMichael (17) celebrates his goal with teammates against Russia during first period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship action in Edmonton on Monday, January 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Since 1974, Canada’s best teenaged male hockey players have come from all 10 provinces and three territories to represent their country on junior hockey's biggest international stage. 

Through the years, Team Canada players have come from 372 cities, towns and communities: from as familiar as Toronto, Montreal or Edmonton, to as small as Barry’s Bay, Ont., Thetford Mines, Que. or Yellow Grass, Sask.

• 7 Albertans make the cut to represent Canada at World Juniors
• Meet the 4 Oil Kings looking to crack Team Canada's World Juniors lineup
• United States spoils Canada's party to close COVID-19 affected World Juniors

The below interactive tracks the hometowns for all Team Canada players since the World Juniors was first held nearly a half-century ago.  

Pause the timeline to zoom in, and hover over cities to view player details. If the map is not displaying correctly, click the link below to see it in a new window.

[click here to open graphic in a new window]

Hometowns were compiled from official rosters and are used instead of places of birth to better capture the community where a player developed his skills. 

In the few cases where a player has multiple hometowns listed, best efforts have been made to identify the one a given player is most associated with. 

Three players with hometowns listed outside of Canada are excluded from the analysis.

As expected, Canada’s historically most populous city has produced the most players with 41 Team Canada alumni calling Toronto home. 

That number actually understates the number of players from the Toronto area considering the city’s changing municipal boundaries and number of players from neighbouring suburbs like Mississauga and Oakville are added. 

A similar dynamic exists for other “cities of cities,” particularly Montreal and Vancouver.

Calgary has been home to the next highest number of players, though Edmonton closes that gap if players from suburbs Sherwood Park and St. Albert are added to its total. 

Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina have also all historically punched above their weight in producing World Juniors talent. 

See more in the data race below that tracks the hometowns of every player to have been on a Canadian World Juniors roster. Click the legend to filter by province.

[click here to open graphic in a new window]

With apologies to defencemen and goaltenders, goals are what ultimately win hockey tournaments. So, where have Team Canada’s top point-getters come from through the years?  

[click here to open graphic in a new window]

The above data race tracks Team Canada’s point leaders throughout the World Juniors by hometown province. Filter results by clicking on the legend to sort top scorers by individual province(s).

And, here’s a look at how this year’s Team Canada roster breaks down by home province. Data from this year’s players has also been added to the above map and data races.