The temperate West Coast has seen a similar surge.

“Since the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks arrived in the early 1990s, the number of registered players in the Pacific region has increased by 240 percent,” Ogrean said. “The fact that we now have N.H.L. teams in so many parts of the country has been so great for us.”

The growth rates in Virginia and the District of Columbia (the highest at 683 percent, but with only 742 registered players last year) might have been spurred by the recent success of the Washington Capitals. North Carolina has the Hurricanes, based in Raleigh since 1999. Florida’s nearly 11,000 players can root for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers; both arrived in the mid-’90s. A majority of Texas’ nearly 11,000 players are from the Dallas area, where the Stars landed in 1993, fueling the construction of several ice rinks, six built by the club itself.

“I look at the arrival of the Stars in Dallas as kind of Year Zero for hockey in Texas,” said Ted Skinner, president of the Texas Amateur Hockey Association.

Although a vast majority of players still come from traditional hockey states, only two of those states have had significant growth over the last decade.

Pennsylvania’s nearly 27,549 players represent a 17 percent increase, helped by increases in youth and adult registration around Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Minnesota’s 53,450 players — the highest number in the country — represent 13 percent growth, spurred perhaps by the innovative Fair Play initiative, which has sharply reduced dangerous fouls in youth hockey since 2004.

Others have not fared so well. The 43,445 playing in Massachusetts represent a 5 percent drop since 1998-99 when measured against the state’s population. Michigan’s 51,404 represent an 8 percent decline and New York’s 46,389 a 10 percent drop.