For a long period of time, the only realistic route to the NHL was major junior hockey (due respect to former players such as Red Berenson, who starred at the University of Michigan before donning the winged wheel in Detroit). While major junior hockey continues to be the main gateway to the big league, it no longer ranks as the only viable path which can be taken to get there. Here’s a brief analysis of major junior alumni in the NHL, as well as their NCAA counterparts.
The start of the current season saw 339 major junior alumni on active rosters of NHL teams – 175 from the OHL, 95 QMJHLers, and 69 WHLers (almost double if you include inactive players).This equates to just under 50% of all active players. By way of comparison, as of 2019 33% of all NHL players were NCAA alumni, almost two-thirds of whom played in the United States Hockey League prior to embarking on their college careers. The college programs leading the way in this department after the 2005 lockout are Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, although Boston University alumni held the top spot for most playoff performers in 2020.
Hope you found this interesting, and enjoy the rest of the playoffs! Please see the following links for more on this subject:
chl.ca/article/339-chl-alumni-on-2019-20-opening-night-nhl-rosters.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/icehockey-men/article/2020-07-31/colleges-most-players-2020-nhl-playoffs