Counting WHL Alumni in the NHL

A few weeks ago I came across a debate among some WHL fans about which WHL club had been most successful at putting its players into the NHL. I thought this was something worth exploring, but quickly had to abandon the idea of doing any kind of an all-time count because it was simply too much work to go back 40+ years.

So, I settled for determining which WHL franchises had the most alumni playing in the NHL right now. I've taken the current NHL rosters (as they are found on NHL.com) and calculated which WHL club, if any, each NHLer played for. Here are the results - some of them surprising, some not.

# of alumni in the NHL by WHL franchise:

Red Deer: 17
Portland: 15
Kelowna, Moose Jaw: 14
Medicine Hat: 13
Calgary: 12
Prince George, Saskatoon: 11
Brandon: 10
Kamloops, Vancouver: 9
Spokane, Tri-City: 7
Lethbridge, Regina, Swift Current: 6
Prince Albert: 5
Kootenay, Seattle: 4
Everett: 2
Edmonton, Victoria: 1

And the team-by-team listing of the actual players, with their current NHL club:

Red Deer (17): Colby Armstrong (Toronto), Arron Asham (Pittsburgh), Martin Erat (Nashville), Colin Fraser (Los Angeles), Boyd Gordon (Phoenix), Martin Hanzal (Phoenix), Blair Jones (Tampa Bay), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Derek Meech (Winnipeg), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton), Dion Phaneuf (Toronto), James Reimer (Toronto), Brandon Sutter (Carolina), Jim Vandermeer (San Jose), Kris Versteeg (Florida), Cam Ward (Carolina), Jeff Woywitka (NY Rangers)

Portland (15): Braydon Coburn (Philadelphia), Brandon Dubinsky (NY Rangers), Andrew Ference (Boston), Paul Gaustad (Buffalo), Jannik Hansen (Vancouver), Marian Hossa (Chicago), Ryan Johansen (Columbus), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Frazer McLaren (San Jose), Cody McLeod (Colorado), Brenden Morrow (Dallas), Scott Nichol (St. Louis), Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders), Michael Sauer (NY Rangers), Luca Sbisa (Anaheim)

Kelowna (14): Mikael Backlund (Calgary), Jamie Benn (Dallas), Blake Comeau (Calgary), Alexander Edler (Vancouver), Vernon Fiddler (Dallas), Josh Gorges (Montreal), Scott Hannan (Calgary), Duncan Keith (Chicago), Chuck Kobasew (Colorado), Travis Moen (Montreal), Tyler Myers (Buffalo), Luke Schenn (Toronto), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Shea Weber (Nashville)

Moose Jaw (14): Johnny Boychuk (Boston), Kyle Brodziak (Minnesota), Troy Brouwer (Washington), Brett Carson (Calgary), Keaton Ellerby (Florida), Deryk Engelland (Pittsburgh), Tomas Fleischmann (Florida), Travis Hamonic (NY Islanders), Blair Jones (Tampa Bay), Pavel Kubina (Tampa Bay), Brooks Laich (Washington), Frazer McLaren (San Jose), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Ryan Smyth (Edmonton)

Medicine Hat (13): Cam Barker (Edmonton), Jay Bouwmeester (Calgary), Jason Chimera (Washington), Derek Dorsett (Columbus), Tyler Ennis (Buffalo), Vernon Fiddler (Dallas), Darren Helm (Detroit), Joffrey Lupul (Toronto), Clarke MacArthur (Toronto), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Kris Russell (St. Louis), Michael Sauer (NY Rangers), David Schlemko (Phoenix)

Calgary (12): Karl Alzner (Washington), Johnny Boychuk (Boston), Brett Carson (Calgary), Justin Falk (Minnesota), T.J. Galiardi (Colorado), Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim), Darcy Hordichuk (Edmonton), Andrew Ladd (Winnipeg), Jeff Schultz (Washington), Jerred Smithson (Nashville), Brad Stuart (Detroit), Ryan White (Montreal)

Prince George (11): Blair Betts (Philadelphia), Eric Brewer (Tampa Bay), Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg), Zdeno Chara (Boston), Brett Connolly (Tampa Bay), Dan Hamhuis (Vancouver), Trent Hunter (Los Angeles), Chris Mason (Winnipeg), Devin Setoguchi (Minnesota), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Dana Tyrell (Tampa Bay)

Saskatoon (11): Stefan Elliott (Colorado), Martin Erat (Nashville), Colton Gillies (Minnesota), Mike Green (Washington), Darcy Hordichuk (Edmonton), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Warren Peters (Minnesota), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Cory Sarich (Calgary), Brayden Schenn (Philadelphia), Devin Setoguchi (Minnesota)

Brandon (10): Keith Aulie (Toronto), Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg), Jason Chimera (Washington), Erik Christensen (NY Rangers), Eric Fehr (Winnipeg), Travis Hamonic (NY Islanders), Josh Harding (Minnesota), Ryan Reaves (St. Louis), Brayden Schenn (Philadelphia), Jordin Tootoo (Nashville)

Kamloops (9): Erik Christensen (NY Rangers), Shane Doan (Phoenix), Devan Dubnyk (Edmonton), Keaton Ellerby (Florida), Jarome Iginla (Calgary), Colton Orr (Toronto), Robyn Regehr (Buffalo), Scottie Upshall (Florida), Kris Versteeg (Florida)

Vancouver (9): Jonathon Blum (Nashville), Mark Fistric (Dallas), Cody Franson (Toronto), Evander Kane (Winnipeg), Andrew Ladd (Winnipeg), Milan Lucic (Boston), Andrej Meszaros (Philadelphia), Michal Repik (Florida), Tomas Vincour (Dallas)

Spokane (7): Drayson Bowman (Carolina), Jared Cowen (Ottawa), Justin Falk (Minnesota), Michael Grabner (NY Islanders), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Jared Spurgeon (Minnesota), Ray Whitney (Phoenix)

Tri-City (7): Brian Boucher (Carolina), Scott Gomez (Montreal), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Daymond Langkow (Phoenix), Carey Price (Montreal), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Clayton Stoner (Minnesota)

Lethbridge (6): Tomas Kopecky (Florida), Chris Phillips (Ottawa), Bryce Salvador (New Jersey), Luca Sbisa (Anaheim), Brent Seabrook (Chicago), Kris Versteeg (Florida)

Regina (6): Jordan Eberle (Edmonton), Josh Harding (Minnesota), Barret Jackman (St. Louis), Derek Morris (Phoenix), Colton Orr (Toronto), Brad Stuart (Detroit)

Swift Current (6): Colton Orr (Toronto), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Michal Rozsival (Phoenix), Zack Smith (Ottawa), Dale Weise (Vancouver), Ian White (Detroit)

Prince Albert (5): Kyle Chipchura (Phoenix), Scott Hartnell (Philadelphia), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Chris Phillips (Ottawa), Nick Schultz (Minnesota)

Kootenay (4): Brayden McNabb (Buffalo), Roman Polak (St. Louis), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Jarret Stoll (Los Angeles)

Seattle (4): Brooks Laich (Washington), Patrick Marleau (San Jose), Cory Sarich (Calgary), Nate Thompson (Tampa Bay)

Everett (2): Leland Irving (Calgary), Peter Mueller (Colorado)

Edmonton (1): Tomas Vincour (Dallas)

Victoria (1): Roman Horak (Calgary)

Couple notes:

 - Remember that these are FRANCHISE counts. So the Kootenay count includes players who may only have played with the Edmonton Ice, the Victoria count includes Chilliwack players, etc.

 - Players who played for more than one WHL team are credited to each franchise they played for - so one given NHLer may be counting in 2 or more WHL team totals. 

 - And lastly, this is a snapshot in time only. Obviously there are many other WHL alumni who are currently in the AHL and who may even have played games in the NHL this season, but they are not currently on NHL rosters TODAY and therefore they aren't counting in these totals. 

Couple notes on things that stood out to me....

Generally I think most WHL clubs' position on the list was not too surprising to me. Teams with a history of success (or at least success 5-15 years ago, when most current NHLers were junior-aged) are near the top while teams with less history of success (or just less history, period, in the cases of Edmonton and Victoria, etc) are near the bottom.

I found interesting, however, the fairly high placing of a team like Prince George, which is not a club which has had a great deal of success on the ice over the last 15 years - they've only been above .500 six times in the last 15 years. But yet they seem to be doing well at producing NHL-calibre talents. 

Then there's Everett who, despite a fairly successful product on the ice for most of their 8 years in the league, have only put 2 alumni onto current NHL rosters - and one of those actually only got called up 2 weeks ago. Yes, they have only been around for 8 years, not 30 or 40 like some of these teams. But compare them to Vancouver, who have only been around 10 years - just 2 more years than Everett - but who have managed 9 NHLers. 

Same goes for Kootenay - on the ice they have been one of the most consistently good franchises in the entire WHL for quite a while. But yet, only 4 NHLers.

Anyways, enjoy.....comments welcome as always of course....