Relations between Canada and the United States under the Trump administration are more strained than ever, and sport has felt it too. Tariffs, border controls aimed at monitoring migrants and illegal trafficking, and the new trade agreement between Canada and the European Union have changed the relationship between the two North American neighbours, which share several NBA, MLB and, above all, NHL franchises. It is in professional hockey that the effects of the divide have been most visible. As reported by the Guardian, there appears to be a genuine exodus of American players from Canadian teams. Quinn Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks centre, decided to move to Minnesota after making it clear that he did not want to renew his contract. In April, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks’ president of hockey operations, was very direct about what lay behind the decision: “Some people think Quinn left Vancouver because the team wasn’t good enough. He would have left anyway,” he said, referring to Matthew Tkachuk, who left Calgary in 2022. “He wanted to go back to the United States and he did.” And, he added, Hughes would not be the last. Rutherford was right.
At the end of the 2025/26 season, Brady Tkachuk, captain of the Ottawa Senators, also asked to be traded. He eventually got his wish and joined the Florida Panthers, where he was reunited with his brother Matthew. “Blood is thicker than water. And let’s just say his father and his brother spoke to him a lot,” Senators owner Michael Andlauer said at the beginning of September. “In the end, he decided to go and play with his brother. To some extent, it was a decision we couldn’t control.” Now Dylan Larkin wants to leave Detroit too. And although he is leaving an American city, none of the destinations mentioned so far are in Canada. Not even Montreal, which has been following him for some time, has the cap space and has built an interesting young team through a series of recent extensions. According to TSN, however, Larkin would not consider any Canadian team.
Then there is Connor Hellebuyck, the most complicated case of all. The Winnipeg Jets goaltender revealed that he had asked to be traded several months ago. A surprise, especially given what he said in 2023, when he signed a seven-year, $59.5 million contract: “I’m ready to be a Jet for life and bring the Stanley Cup to this city.” Then things changed. Winnipeg started to lose ground and the prospect of winning the Stanley Cup began to look more distant. The Milan-Cortina Olympic final did the rest. Hellebuyck made 41 saves and played a decisive role in the American victory, a performance that earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. The ceremony and subsequent visit to the White House drew a negative reaction from some fans and, according to Hellebuyck himself, online threats and abuse directed at his family. The goaltender would be willing to accept a move to a competitive American team, but talks with Buffalo stalled over the Jets’ asking price. There was also speculation that Hellebuyck might accept a move to Edmonton or Montreal. It is natural, then, to think that his decision has less to do with any desire to leave Canada and more with wanting to play for a team capable of competing for the title.
The trend remains. For now, Hellebuyck has been suspended for failing to report to training camp and is waiting to find out what happens next, presumably somewhere in Michigan, the state where he was born. It should be said that none of these players has publicly attacked Canada. There are practical reasons to leave, from family ties to tax differences. And this is not a general exodus either. Auston Matthews, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has stayed where he is for now, perhaps also because of the change in management and the moves the team made over the summer. After all, these are professional players and they have the right to decide where they want to play, within the limits of their contracts, but Rutherford’s prediction kept coming back throughout the summer. It touched something deep in Canadian hockey culture.
For a long time, the problem seemed to be the difference in value between the Canadian and US dollars, but perhaps that gap does not matter quite as much. Since the salary cap was introduced in 2005, Canadian teams have learned to work within the numbers and put together contracts capable of competing with those offered by American franchises. What they cannot manufacture is the desire to play in Canada, the feeling of wanting to be there. Perhaps that is beginning to disappear among American players too, for political reasons.