There's so many eligible people, but few of them are alive. That's 10 seasons or whatever of created players. Way more people come with players from US than other countries and as a result there's a bigger list for the USA guys. They aren't hard to pass I'd bet a majority don't have 350 TPE. Pointing out that list to a new guy is just something IIHF GMs do to get players to join their nation.

Which is okay, they need someone and everyone who's good enough will get poached onto a new team if they want the playing time, or stick around if that's their thing.

Adding a 2nd USA team would split up the current group and allow for less people to transfer out which would end up hurting other nations recruitment..