Few in the sport have experienced the rapid evolution of American hockey as up close and personally as Mike Modano.
Growing up just outside Detroit, Modano was a minor hockey star. He spent his junior years in the WHL in Prince Albert, Sask., which was at that time the highest level available to American teenagers.
Picked first in the 1988 NHL Draft, Modano played four years with the Minnesota North Stars before relocation in 1993-94 led him to Dallas. There, he led the Stars to the first-ever Stanley Cup title for a team from the U.S. Sunbelt.
Modano saw how hockey quickly exploded in Texas from that 1999 championship on and how it spread into other non-traditional markets after the NHL expanded across the country throughout the decade.
Twenty-five years later, more American kids are playing hockey than ever. More Americans are playing in the NHL than ever, too.
It’s all built up to this: Team USA, with a captain in Auston Matthews from Scottsdale, Ariz., enters the 4 Nations Face-Off — the sport’s first best-on-best event in nine years — as the favorite.
Modano, 54, retired in 2011 as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer among U.S.-born players. He won gold at the 1996 World Cup and silver at the 2002 Olympics but admits it feels different watching this next generation of Team USA compete internationally.
The Americans are no longer the underdogs, as was often the case throughout his career.
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GO FURTHER
Has U.S. hockey caught Canada? Why the Americans are no longer the underdog
