“Back when I was a kid, everybody played hockey,” said the former N.H.L. goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. “If you had a son, he would play hockey, which is not necessarily true anymore. There are so many things to do that we can’t take for granted that kids are just going to play hockey.”

Few people are as well versed as Thibault in Quebec’s hockey culture. A Montreal native, Thibault was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the 1993 draft before being sent to Montreal in the 1995 trade that sent Roy to the Colorado Avalanche, who had relocated from Quebec the previous season. That trade remains an infamous moment in the province’s sporting history.

“Hockey is still very important here,” said Thibault, who is now an owner and general manager of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Sherbrooke Phoenix. “The Montreal Canadiens draw so much attention and publicity. I don’t think it’s fair to say that hockey is on the downside here. But there is a challenge as far as bringing young kids to hockey. If we take things for granted, we might lose our base. That’s a fact.”

In Toronto at the World Cup of Hockey, the Canadian team, which was to play in a semifinal Saturday night, has only three Quebec-born players: Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron, San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. The eliminated North American squad, which consisted of American and Canadian players 23 or younger, had one Quebec-born player, Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin.

“There’s still some really good players from Quebec that are in this league,” Bergeron said. “There’s less this time around, but I don’t think it’s a decline. I think it’s a cycle. It’s going to come back and be fine.”

The startling statistics are part of a troubling trend that inspired Hockey Quebec to adjust its development model 10 years ago, when the organization introduced a new program made up of 15 regional clubs. Borrowing from a system first developed in Europe, each club draws from the top youth players in its region, evaluating each player three times a year and sending those results to Hockey Quebec, which helps to fund the clubs while reviewing each coach.

The best players from each club are also identified by Hockey Quebec and invited to participate in elite summer clinics and tournaments.