Career duration in the NHL: pushing and pulling on Europeans?

Using a panel of National Hockey League players from 2000 through 2013, we analyse the determinants of career length in the league. In our analysis, we include both performance variables and nationality of origin to determine their importance in determining career length. We find that European-born players have shorter careers than North American-born players holding performance constant and Russian-born players have even shorter careers than other Europeans. We further find that Russian-born players have even shorter careers than other players after the 2005 lockout. These shorter careers are consistent with both exit discrimination against European and Russian players who are pushed out of the league as well as voluntary exit by European and Russian players who are pulled out of the league due to opportunities in their home countries.