New Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane is great. But is he America's G.O.A.T.?
It was a sight perhaps a bit jarring to longtime Detroit Red Wings fans, even with a couple weeks to mentally prepare for it: Longtime EOD (Enemy of Detroit) Patrick Kane skating with the Winged Wheel on his chest.
It was a bit like seeing Brett Favre in Honolulu Blue, Jim Thome or David Ortiz wearing the Old English “D,” or LeBron James with “Pistons” across his chest. (Actually, there’s still time for that ….)
But there was Kane on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, with his locker sitting between two all-time Wings greats — or at least their nameplates: On the left, Gordie Howe, and on the right, Nicklas Lidstrom. Howe, of course, is No. 3 in NHL points all-time among Canadians (and was No. 1 for three decades or so), while Lidstrom is No. 3 among Swedes. This is Hockeytown, the winningest U.S. franchise in the NHL (by Stanley Cups, at least, with 11).
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Kane? Well, we’ve heard many times over the past few weeks that he is arguably the greatest U.S.-born player in NHL history. But still, we wondered: Is he?
And so, we took some time to analyze the algorithms and accolades, only to come up with: Maybe?
Let’s break it down:
(By the way, we’re going to stick to U.S.-born players to avoid the thorny issue of Brett Hull, who has 741 goals, 650 assists, an MVP award, all after … being born in Canada. Hull, the son of Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, has dual citizenship and opted to play for Team USA over a snub by Team Canada while he was in college. Feel free to mentally edit him into each of the next few sections.)
Goals
Let’s start with the goals: Kane has 452 of those (446 with the Blackhawks, five with the Rangers and one with the Wings) in 1,182 games — that puts him seventh among U.S.-born players. Not only is he well behind the U.S. leader, Livonia’s Mike Modano at 561, he has a ways to go just to reach the top five, with Waterford-raised Pat LaFontaine No. 5 with 468 goals. (Though he has competition there, too: Wisconsin native Joe Pavelski has 460 goals, thanks to a career resurgence — 39 goals since the start of the 2022-23 season — in his late 30s with the Dallas Stars.) The other top scorers: New York’s Joe Mullen with 502, Massachusetts’ Jeremy Roenick with 513 and Massachusetts’ Keith Tkachuk with 538.
Still, Kane just turned 35; his recent hip surgery likely means he has only a few more seasons left, but becoming just the fifth (or sixth) American with 500 goals isn’t out of the realm of possibility. That’s thanks to Kane’s year-to-year consistency; last season, in which he had 16 goals with the Blackhawks and Rangers, was just the second of his career with less than 20 scores. (The other? 2020-21, when the coronavirus pandemic limited him to 15 goals in 56 games.) Indeed, Kane’s 15 seasons with at least 20 goals is tied for second among U.S.-born players in NHL history with Tkachuk and behind only Modano’s 16.
Kane, of course, has played roughly 300 fewer games than Modano, but if we switch to goals per game, he doesn’t fare much better. Kane’s 0.38 mark ranks just 10th among U-S.-born players with at least 400 NHL games — and second among current Red Wings: Alex DeBrincat is No. 8, at 0.42 goals per game over his 476 outings. Auston Matthews, a California native raised in Arizona, is No. 1, by the way, at 0.63 over 505 games. The state of Michigan is represented well here though; in addition to DeBrincat, there’s Southfield native Jimmy Carson (0.44) at No. 6, Shelby Township’s Kyle Connor (0.46) at No. 4 and, of course, LaFontaine (0.54) at No. 2.
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Assists
Ah, but hockey is all about the helpers, too. Kane has picked up 786 assists, good for third among American-born players. Checking in at No. 2 is, yep, Modano, with 813; longtime Buffalo Sabres defenseman Phil Housley is No. 1 with 894.
Again, Kane fares well in year-to-year consistency here: he has posted at least 30 assists in every one of his 16 seasons; that’s good for the second-most 30-assist seasons by a U.S.-born player, behind only Modano at 17. (Kane’s probably going to have to hustle to catch Modano this year, and point-free outings like his Wings debut Thursday don’t help.)
Kane fares better on a per-game basis, though: His rate of 0.67 assists per outing is No. 2 all-time, behind Connecticut’s Craig Janney at 0.74 in 760 games. If we only counted players with at least 1,000 games played, Kane is No. 1, just ahead of Missouri’s Brian Leetch at 0.65 and Michigan’s Doug Weight (of Warren) at 0.61.
Points
Add the goals and assists together and Kane’s case gets a little better — his 1,238 points are No. 2 all time, just ahead of Housley (1,232) and … yep, you guessed it: Modano, at 1,374 (though only 15 of those came in his final season with the Red Wings, in just 40 games).
On a per-game basis, though? Kane is one of four U.S.-born players (with at least 400 games played) to average at least a point per game; his 1.05 mark is third behind Matthews (1.13 in 505 games) and LaFontaine (1.17 in 865). Finally, we’ve gotten Kane to No. 1 in one category: Points per game among U.S.-born players with at least 1,000 games — a mark he should hold for another five seasons or so, until Matthews passes him (or until a few more point-free games with the Wings drops him below Mullen, at 1.00).
Chasing the Cup
But hey, it’s all about the NHL’s second season, right? When the calendar turns to the Stanley Cup playoffs, true greatness shines through. And sure enough, Kane’s 53 goals (in 143 games) is good for … fourth among U.S.-born players. That’s behind Modano (58), Mullen (60) and Pavelski (73). (Improbably, more than a third — 25 — of Pavelski’s postseason goals have come since his 35th birthday, a good sign for Kane and, perhaps, the Wings.)
Kane’s also fourth in playoff assists, though he could be moving up soon; at 85 helpers, he needs two to pass Janney and four to pass Modano. Getting to No. 1 will take some work, or maybe a fountain of youth — former Wing (and Illinois native) Chris Chelios reigns supreme with 113 assists (in a whopping 266 games).
Kane could take over the lead in postseason points, however, if the Wings continue their playoff push this season; at 138, he needs a combo of just nine goals and assists to pass Pavelski (139), Chelios (144) and Modano (146).
Most importantly, Kane has lifted the Stanley Cup three times in his career — he’s one of just 11 Americans with at least that many Cups: he, Chelios, Mullen, Matt Cullen (Minnesota), Phil Kessel (Wisconsin), Alec Martinez (Rochester Hills), Pat Maroon (Missouri), Bill Nyrop (D.C.) and Brian Rafalski (Dearborn) have three, while Dave Langevin (Minnesota) and Ken Morrow (Flint), the only two Americans on the N.Y. Islanders’ run of four Cups in the early 1980s are, yes, the only Americans with four Cups. (Hull, if you were wondering, has two — albeit only one that Kane’s hometown of Buffalo officially recognizes.) Raise another Cup in Detroit, and, yes, Kane might have another argument as the U.S. G.O.A.T.
Honors
Still, raw numbers — even when counting Cups — aren’t the only measure of greatness in the NHL, and Kane fares pretty well here. His ninth season in the league, in which he had 46 goals and 60 assists, brought him the Hart Memorial Trophy as the MVP (as selected by the writers). Kane was the first U.S.-born player to take home the Hart, with Matthews joining him in 2021-22.
A few years later, Kane broke more ground when he became the first American forward to claim the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, following Leetch (a defenseman, in 1994) and goalies Tim Thomas (2011, from Flint) and Jonathan Quick (2012, from Connecticut).
And, of course, you’ll note that no American but Kane has won the Hart and the Conn Smythe, giving him one more claim to the title of greatest U.S.-born NHL player of all-time. Until, that is, a 42-year-old Auston Matthews leads the 2039-40 Toronto Maple Leafs to their first Cup in 73 years. But that’s a story for another day.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford.
This story was updated following Saturday's Red Wings game.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Is Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane truly America's G.O.A.T.?
