U.S. Hall of Famers believe skill level of American NHL players rising
Credit USA Hockey for developing talent that can compete for gold at Beijing Olympics
"The bad thing," Granato said, was that his brother Don Granato is the Sabres coach. But moving past that, Tony Granato, a former NHL player and coach and current men's ice hockey coach at the University of Wisconsin, was able to appreciate that Zegras is a product of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program that has produced a number of skilled American NHL players.
"You get to see Toronto Maple Leafs forward] Auston Matthews. You get to see [Chicago Blackhawks forward] Patrick Kane. You see [Arizona Coyotes forward] Phil Kessel," Granato said before being inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame on Thursday. "You see a consistent number of players year after year come out of there and do things like that. And, certainly, for an American player, like I think I still am, or a coach, or whatever it is, when you see another American do something like that, it puts a smile on your face."
There was a lot to smile about for those being honored Thursday. That included the 2021 induction class of former NHL players Paul Holmgren and Peter McNab and journalist Stan Fischler, and the 2020 class of Granato, Boston College coach Jerry York, Dean Blais, who won two NCAA championships as coach at the University of North Dakota, and Jenny Potter, a four-time Olympic medalist.
With the 2020 ceremony postponed due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, the classes were inducted together, along with Jack Barzee, the 2021 recipient of the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States, and 2020 Lester Patrick Trophy winner Lynn Olson. That made the night even more of a celebration of USA Hockey and how far it's come.
[U.S. HHOF profiles: [Granato | Holmgren | McNab | Fischler | York | Blais | Potter | Olson | Barzee]
Unfortunately, McNab was unable to attend because his immune system is weakened by his ongoing battle with cancer. David McNab, a longtime assistant general manager with the Ducks who recently retired, gave Peter McNab's acceptance speech on his older brother's behalf. Peter McNab was also represented by his daughter, Robyn Mastranadi.
But that didn't put a damper on the spirit of the event or the pride in the growth of the sport in the United States.
"As an American player, I'm extremely proud of the numbers now. They keep growing," Holmgren said. "Still with a little bit of a ways to go, but the growth of hockey in the U.S. and the way the NHL's expanded, we've got [teams in] cities like Phoenix, and Florida or South Florida now, Texas, hockey has blossomed everywhere in the United States, so there's going to be more and more that comes."
Holmgren played 10 NHL seasons as a forward with the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars before retiring in 1985. He also coached the Flyers from 1988-92, the Hartford Whalers from 1992-96 and was Flyers general manager from 2006-14.
Blais, who coached the U.S. national junior team on three occasions (1994, 2010, 2012), including a first first-place finish in the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2010, recalled when the U.S. didn't have as many top players.
"It wasn't that long ago we were eighth in the world, sixth in the world, and right now we can, I think, be rivals with Canada and Russia and probably Sweden," Blais said. "So I think USA Hockey has made major strides."
That's created excitement for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. After the NHL decided not to have its players participate in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, the plan is for NHL players to compete in Beijing and the U.S. is expected to be among the medal contenders.
The U.S. last won an Olympic medal in men's ice hockey in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (silver) and hasn't won gold since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. But optimism for that drought to end is based on a talent pool that includes Matthews, Kane, Zegras, Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor, Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau and skilled defenseman such as Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, Seth Jones of the Blackhawks and John Carlson of the Washington Capitals.
"With who we have in our talent pool now, and you look at the other countries, they're great players as well, but we can compete and challenge anybody," said Granato, who coached the United States to a seventh-place finish in PyeongChang. "So I think we're going to go into the tournament and have a really good opportunity to have great success and, hopefully, this will be another year when we can bring home a gold."
Beyond the Olympics, the impact of United States-born players in the NHL is continuing to grow. Although Canada led with 310 of the 721 players on the 2021-22 opening-night rosters (43 percent), the U.S. was second with 190 (26.4 percent).
"When I was coming up Canada was the top dog, and they were," Holmgren said. "All the [NHL] players were Canadian, or 97 percent of them, and some of these other countries have chipped away and are good in their own right. But the U.S. is hot on Canada's tail in terms of the number of players in the NHL and I think it's going to continue to go up just because of the sheer number of players we have playing the game."
