NHL battle of the nations 1996–97

Every country with at least five NHL skaters is ranked in five disciplines. First in a discipline is worth 8 points, second 7 and so on down to 1 for last. The league table is the sum. A shared placing gives the same points.

• Points per gameAll the nation's skaters' points divided by their games, evened out toward the NHL average.
• Best trioThe three best scorers' points combined.
• Defencemen's points per gameThe defencemen's points per game, evened out the same way.
• Goalies' save percentageThe goalies' save percentage, evened out toward the NHL average. A country without a goalie comes last.
• NHL players per million inhabitantsHow many NHL players the country has per million inhabitants.

The rate disciplines are evened out so that a small country cannot win on one hot player: we add 400 games (300 for defencemen, 1,500 shots for goalies) at the NHL's own average before dividing. This season the NHL average is 0.43 points per game and player. A country with many games is barely affected; one with few is pulled toward the middle.

A player counts for his birth country, except Swedes, who count as Swedish wherever they were born. Players born in Sweden who represent another country count for no country. Regular season only, and only players with at least one game.