One of the most common topics in the NHL every year is the best ways to grow the game – through the international play, through marketing stars or by growing in unconventional markets.

Hockey is often considered to have a great on-ice product, especially in big tournaments and playoffs, but it doesn’t have quite the star power of other leagues. Of course, Bill Daly, said that it’s intentional because they are the ultimate team sport. Still, as more and more fans connect directly with their stars through social media, the NHL players aren’t nearly as visible as sports of similar popularity.

Opendorse, a company that specializes in the social media of professional athletes, tweeted out some stats about the engagement rates of players in the NBA.

These were the leaders on the list:

That makes sense, basketball’s biggest stars are at the top.

Hockey’s list is quite different. First of all, the best player in the league for the past 10 year, Sidney Crosby, has never had a social media account. Just considered how visible LeBron and Tom Brady are on social media, or even Cristiano Ronaldo, who has turned his presence into a revenue source.

TSN reached out to the organization for some similar numbers on hockey players on social media and it doesn’t look quite so natural. First off, the list the list is topped off by TSN’s own Bob McKenzie.

 

Most engagements — past year

1. Bob McKenzie — 516K

2. Paul Bissonnette — 493K

3. Phil Kessel — 385K

4. Roberto Luongo — 352K

5. PK Subban — 311K

Of course, McKenzie is one of the biggest names in hockey and is the absolute best at what he does, but we don’t imagine the NHL building a marketing campaign around the Bobfather. Even the second person is kind of similar. Every NHL fan loves Biz Nasty, but aside from his time on the most legendary line of all time, you won’t see him climbing any jersey sale lists. Even if you look at the names on the bottom of the list, it’s players that are frequently fan-favourites, but have been forced out of their original teams for silly reasons unrelated to their performance.

It’s not as if players don’t want to engage with the best players either. Another list of the engagement rates per tweet shows the opportunity for stars to get more from their audience if they were more active.

 

Engagement rate (min. 500K followers)

1. Roberto Luongo — 1.41%

2. Patrick Kane — 1.04%

3. Henrik Lundqvist — .57%

4. Steven Stamkos — .55%

5. Claude Giroux — .23%

Of course, Luongo remains at the top because everything he tweets is gold. But the other players are major stars in big markets, that have a lot of opportunity but don’t tweet that often. From that list, Kane tweeted 14 times in 2016, Lundqvist 33, Stamkos 22 and Giroux 76 times. Even with the most active from that group (Giroux), Curry tweeted the same amount in 2.5 months in 2016.

Is this a problem for the NHL? As the NHL gets younger and younger, we’re seeing more players on other mediums like Snapchat and Instagram, but they still aren’t near the level of other leagues. It’s also not necessarily up to the league. If the players don’t want to tweet, they don’t have to tweet. However, it is another opportunity for themselves and the league to increase their value.

It could develop into a bigger issue down the road as the NHL adjusts to market to a younger demographic.