Quote:
Originally Posted by Kinsella19
Literally all of the players that you mentioned were born in the United States. Why shouldn't they be allowed to represent the country that they were born in? How on earth is this "cheating"?
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I'll agree that calling them cheating is definitely inaccurate; according to Elite Prospects, all of them except for Lodnia are dual citizens. If you are a citizen of a country, then there is nothing preventing you from being called up to represent that country.
The point is that 'nationality' and 'birth country' are not the same thing: being born in a country does not automatically make you a citizen in most of the world. Here is a personal example: my having been born on Canadian soil does not invalidate my Polish citizenship, nor does being a Polish citizen invalidate my Canadian citizenship; as a dual-citizen, I would have the choice to represent either country if I was actually talented enough to do so (though, let's be honest: Poland needs more help than Canada).
IIHF rules pertaining to nationality fall in line with this: dual nationals will select one country to represent. This can be changed once during your career, and the IIHF has a list of requirements in order to do so.
Either way, removing dual nationality from the game would not be realistic at all. Considering the fact that professional leagues in North America that are not the NHL are seen as feeder or developmental leagues instead of independent and professional leagues in their own right, there is a dearth of reasonably-paid spots for players in Canada and the United States. Scores of them move to Europe every year so that they can play competitively; many of them stay long enough to become citizens, compete for the national team of their adopted country, and give birth to children that also end up competing for their European national team (this is very common in the Netherlands and Belgium, for instance).