Can you play Pro Hockey in Europe?
Just seen so many Emails and messages, and will try to give everyone an idea of what teams are looking for in Europe.
Tier 3 Players – USPHL – EHL – NA3HL or Junior B leagues in Canada, your chances of playing for money in Europe are basically zero unless you are from Europe or have a passport in Germany or Switzerland, etc. Without a passport, it doesn’t matter if you had 200 points playing in the USPHL, for example.
Tier 2 Junior Players – Most Canadian leagues – NAHL – NCDC, your chances of playing and making money in Europe are very, very low unless, once again, you have a passport or are not considered an import player. Even with a passport, if you can make $1500.00 a month, it would be a miracle.
Tier 1 Junior Players – CHL in Canada and USHL; you could perhaps play in a lower league in Sweden, Finland, Norway, the UK, Austria, Germany, etc., but once again, maybe make $ 2,000.00 per month.
USPORTS – NCAA D1 – Graduating players with about half a point or more per game will have a chance to play in the UK and start making around 500 – 600 pounds net per week.
ECHL – Top ECHL players could start to make around 30,000 Euros per year, and as high as maybe 40,000 Euros per year.
AHL – Players that are close to half a point to a point a game can play in Germany DEL1 – Sweden SHL – Finland Liiga – Czech – Switzerland – KHL, and could make anywhere from 80,000 Euro to 750,000 USD per year.
Of course, there are some expectations for these rules, but as you can see, you really need to be an ECHL or AHL player to advance to a top-end team in Europe.
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams
Assuming you mean hockey players, there is not one clean official master number published across all European leagues, but the best live tracking source is Elite Prospects’ “Players in Europe / Asia” database for each nationality. As of the current 2025–26 season, Elite Prospects has dedicated live lists for both Canadian players abroad and USA players abroad in Europe/Asia.
So the practical answer is:
There are thousands of North American hockey players playing in Europe/Asia, with Canadians making up the larger share and Americans also heavily represented. Elite Prospects’ current pages confirm both pools are large and active, but the web view available here does not expose one simple grand-total line for all North Americans combined.
A couple of useful data points:
- Elite Prospects’ Canada page is a full “All Canada Players in Europe / Asia” tracker for current active players abroad.
- Elite Prospects’ USA page does the same for American players abroad in 2025–26.
- At the top-end pro level, North Americans remain very common in Europe; for example, the current KHL player pool includes 106 North American players this season.
If you want, I can do the next step and give you a more useful breakdown such as:
Canadians vs Americans in Europe, or how many are in each major league like the KHL, SHL, Liiga, NL, DEL, ICEHL, and HockeyAllsvenskan.