Only 37 NHL players have both been born in the greatest state in the country, with Long Beach Native Matt Nieto being among them. While there have been relatively few NHL players to come out of the Golden State, Long Beach has become something of a hockey hotbed.
Well, relatively speaking. Nieto is one of two active NHL players to hail from Long Beach (Emerson Etem being the other), and while he had to leave relatively young to pursue a hockey future his family still lives in the area.
That got me to thinking about where Nieto, whose NHL career is still very young, stacks up against other players to come from California.