Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "Some players look like they are digging into the ice when they skate and Modano looked like he was hovering just above the ice," St. This was a breakthrough moment for young American players."įew players looked more majestic playing the game than Modano, who at 6-foot-3 could skate like he was jet-propelled and hammer a puck at more than 100 mph. Obviously to have a player of his talent go out there was a coup for the Western Hockey League. "You would think a kid growing up in Michigan might take the college route. "It probably took courage just to leave home, and then you consider the physical aspects of that league," Nashville Predators general manager David Poile said. The Minnesota North Stars made Modano the No. At 17 he had 47 goals and 80 assists for 127 points in 65 games. Modano handled whatever the WHL threw at him. "It didn't matter how talented he was, people just thought he didn't have the DNA of a good, hard Western Canadian." "He was like the anti-Western Canada kid," former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button said. When Modano arrived in the WHL with braces and boyish good looks, he didn't fit the league's image. That's the commitment he had to play hockey." He was going to a small town in Saskatchewan and a league known for long bus rides and physical play. "When you go there you are going to play hockey. "It's freezing cold in Prince Albert," Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. That's where Michigan native Pat LaFontaine had gone several years before. It created a stir when Modano agreed to play in the rough-and-tumble WHL because it was presumed that if the offensively gifted center wanted to play Canadian junior hockey he would go to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. They expect nothing less than your best."
I was in Canada where people love their sport. "When I got there, I felt like I had something to prove," Modano said. Modano said that decision, and Wilson's guidance, changed his life. Louis Blues assistant coach, who recruited Modano to leave his suburban Detroit existence in Westland, Michigan, at age 16 and prove himself in the Western Hockey League.
He holds the records for NHL goals and points (1,374) by a United States-born player. Modano had both style and substance during a 21-season NHL career highlighted by 561 goals and a Stanley Cup won with the Dallas Stars in 1999. "His jersey did flow differently than everyone else's," USA Hockey general manager Jim Johannson said. Games: 1,499 | Goals: 561 | Assists: 813 | Points: 1,374Įveryone in hockey loved watching Modano skate.
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