[herewulf]

If a hockey stick costs 1000% to 1200% what it used to, then that's definitely going to affect pick-up games. Particularly with how often these things break (I don't know how junior league teams afford it). Statistic per the video. Also per the video, the cost of sports equipment in general has decreased by 25% over the same time period.

I don't blame you if you didn't watch a 20+ minute video straight through and missed some of the details.

The cost of watching hockey may not increase, but the percentage of Canadian players in the once Canadian dominated NHL will probably continue to decline (if that's important to anyone watching). However, it probably means worse Olympic performances in the long run with a smaller pool of top tier Canadian players.

[dlcarrier]

Entry-level hockey sticks costing 10x to 12x more would curtail pick-up games, but fortunately they're only $20: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/6000206343344

Inflation adjusted, that's a decrease in price, in line with other sports. I don't blame you, if you're only going off the video's selective sources, but there's much more to reality, as revealed by a quick web search.

Also, getting hockey players for Canada's Olympic team isn't that difficult, they just get their players to take a break from the US teams they normally play on, to play for the team Canada.