Is Patrick Kane the greatest American-born player in NHL history?

Debating the greatest player in any sport, position, or generation is a never-ending conversation with no right or wrong answer. For example, in Chicago, most people would say that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. An earlier generation might argue that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the answer, or someone in 2026 may lay claim that LeBron James is the answer.

In hockey, there is Wayne Gretzky, and then there is everyone else. His nickname is The Great One, and he set some seemingly unbreakable records. Unless the game undergoes a drastic change, no players are coming close to scoring 2,800 points ever again. Yet, a large portion of today's hockey fans consider Connor McDavid to be the best player ever, thanks to his lightning speed and his ability to score 100 points every year on repeat.

All this discussion leads us to an important question, one centered around Chicago Blackhawks' legend Patrick Kane. Despite all his accomplishments, he isn't usually included in the "greatest of all time” conversation.

However, as one of the few American-born skaters who dominated his generation and set numerous records along the way, the question simply comes down to this: Is Kane the greatest American-born player or not?

Kane is the highest-scoring American-born player in NHL history

Since its formation in 1917, the NHL has featured some of the greatest players born in the United States. Whenever fans discuss the merits of some of the greatest American-born players, the conversation includes names like Joe Mullen, Mike Modano, Brian Leetch, Phil Housley, Chris Chelios, Pat LaFontaine, and, of course, former Blackhawks star Jeremy Roenick. Many Americans have won the Stanley Cup multiple times, captured prestigious NHL hardware, and entered both the Hockey Hall of Fame and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

At the moment, Kane is not eligible for either Hall of Fame. However, with a resume as distinguished as his, featuring three Stanley Cup titles, a Conn Smythe Trophy, both the Hart and Ted Lindsay Trophies, plus the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, there isn't much he hasn't accomplished in his 20 years of playing NHL hockey.

Moreover, he is just one of six Americans ever to join the coveted 500-goal club.

In 2026, Kane surpassed Modano and Brett Hull to become the country’s all-time leading scorer, the only one to collect more than 1,400 points. For those wondering why Hull is sometimes included in discussions of the best Americans all-time, he was born in Ontario, Canada.

However, after not being selected to Canada’s World Championship team in 1986, he vowed never to represent the country again. Instead, he opted to skate for the United States for the rest of his career, representing America at several international events, including the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Because of Hull’s decision, the NHL recognizes him as America’s greatest goal scorer with 741, a mark unmatched since his retirement in 2006. Although Kane will not have enough years left to catch Hull’s goal mark, he has recently become the United States’ all-time assist leader, another record to accompany his points record.

Which American legends have an inside edge on Kane?

Throughout NHL history, not many American-born players have gone on to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP. Most recently, goalie Connor Hellebuyck achieved that honor in 2024-25, following in the footsteps of Auston Matthews in 2021-22 and Kane in 2015-16, the only players from the United States to win the award in the salary cap era. Before this trio, Hull won it in 1990-91, while Billy Burch became the first American-born player to capture the award in 1924-25.

Regarding the Conn Smythe Trophy, to date, only four Americans have ever been voted playoff MVP, including Leetch (1994), Tim Thomas (2011), Jonathan Quick (2012), and Kane (2013). Historically, Kane is the only forward to win the award, something that many other champions like Hull, Modano, and even Mullen failed to achieve during their lengthy careers.

Ultimately, there is one category that Kane finds himself all alone in, and that is he is the only American-born player in NHL history to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s scoring champion, which he achieved in 2015-16. Through the 2025-26 season, 31 different players have won the award, but Kane stands alone with a 106-point season, which ranks as the 45th-best total to win the award, tied with Sweden’s Peter Forsberg’s total from 2002-03.

Regarding Kane’s impressive trophy case, he is the only American to win the Calder, Art Ross, Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Conn Smythe Trophies, as several players have gone on to win the Hart, Calder, Conn Smythe, Lady Byng, or the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. Still, none have matched Kane’s total number of individual wins.

Are Stanley Cup championships the ultimate measuring stick?

If someone wanted to know which American-born players won the most Stanley Cups, they’d be shocked to see the results on Google. The answer is defensemen Dave Langevin and Ken Morrow, who won four titles with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s.

Meanwhile, one of the top answers will also include Rick Chartraw, who, like Hull, was born outside of the United States, in Venezuela, but used their dual citizenship to play under the American flag. None of these players won any NHL awards or entered the Hockey Hall of Fame, with their only claim to fame being that their names are on the Stanley Cup more than any other American.

Very few Americans have three championship rings, including Kane, Chelios, Mullen, and Quick. At the same time, Hall-of-Famers like Hull (twice), Modano (once), and Leetch (once) never got into the three-ring club, and other legends like Housley, Roenick, and Tkachuk never got their names on the Stanley Cup as players.

Returning to the discussion about championships being the ultimate measuring stick for a player’s success, it’s obvious that Kane’s leadership during the Blackhawks dynasty from 2010-2015 made him the only American-born player to win three times and capture the Conn Smythe at the same time.

Closing arguments

As mentioned in the beginning, it is impossible to find the right answer to such a complex question. Whether or not Kane is the greatest American-born player of all time is in the eye of the beholder. It’s clear through statistics and merits that he is in a class all by himself, yet without breaking Hull’s goal record or winning a fourth Stanley Cup, people may not believe he’s the correct answer.

Sure, Modano may be the Dallas Stars’ all-time scoring leader, and Chelios played the ninth-most games in NHL history. At the same time, Mullen won the Stanley Cup with two different teams, and Connor Hellebuyck is the country's only three-time Vezina Trophy winner. But Kane achieved so much during Chicago’s dominant run in the early 2010s, while playing in one of the game’s most competitive eras.

Realistically, there's only one significant missed opportunity in his career, and that is the chance he had to break Stan Mikita's franchise scoring records, giving him another accolade as the only American-born player to own all the scoring records of an Original Six franchise.

However, it is pretty cool to look at his career and realize he played for three of the four American-based Original Six franchises, with the exception of the Boston Bruins. In 20 seasons, he’s been out there setting and breaking all these records on home soil.

If that doesn’t make him the greatest American-born player of all time, what else is there to say?

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