The two most prolific United States-born scorers in the NHL today will face off in a matinee when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday (2 p.m. ET; Prime, FDSNDET).<\/p>\n
Red Wings forward Patrick Kane<\/a> heads the list among active players with 1,347 points (493 goals, 854 assists) in 1,304 NHL regular-season games. Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews<\/a> is second on the list with 728 points (402 goals, 326 assists) in 631 regular-season games.<\/p>\n Each is chasing Mike Modano<\/a>, who had 1,374 points (561 goals, 813 assists) in 1,499 games with the Minnesota North Stars, Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings from 1989-2011.<\/p>\n Brett Hull<\/a>, who played for the U.S. internationally, had 1,391 points (741 goals, 650 assists) in 1,269 games from 1986-2005. He was born in Canada in Belleville, Ontario.<\/p>\n Kane, 36, has four points (one goal, three assists) in the first two games of this season and needs 27 points to tie Modano. He had a goal and two assists in a 6-3 win against the Maple Leafs in Detroit on Saturday.<\/p>\n Matthews, 28, did not have a point Saturday and has one goal in two games this season.<\/p>\n With these two point producers facing off again on national TV Monday, this edition of NHL.com\u2019s State Your Case, executed by columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika and staff writer Tracey Myers, examines which of the two will sit atop the U.S.-born scoring heap when each has finished his career.<\/p>\n Myers: I can\u2019t talk Kane-Matthews without going back to Oct. 7, 2018, when the two were trading goals and reactions, each holding a glove to his ear after scoring, in an entertaining game at United Center in Chicago. What does that have to do with my argument for Kane finishing as the all-time leading scorer among U.S.-born players? Nothing. It\u2019s just a great story. Anyway, I\u2019m going with Kane because of where he currently is in the U.S. scoring race. Kane has done it all and still has a good amount of game left. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind he\u2019ll top Modano this season and will keep on going. Matthews will certainly be up there among the U.S. greats, but I just don\u2019t see him passing Kane.<\/p>\n Cotsonika: Let\u2019s do the math. Matthews had 728 points (402 goals, 326 assists) in 631 games. He turned 28 on Sept. 17 and just started his 10th season. Through his first 630 games, Kane had 631 points (235 goals, 396 assists). He was 27 and a little more than halfway through his ninth NHL season. That means Matthews is significantly ahead of Kane\u2019s pace, although he\u2019s slightly older and deeper into his NHL career than Kane was at this number of games. Matthews doesn\u2019t even need to keep pace with Kane from this point forward. He just needs to be close enough. I like his chances.<\/p>\n Myers: First, I was told there\u2019d be no math. Second, there\u2019s no doubt Matthews will get his points. It\u2019s great that he\u2019s been playing and producing at the pace he has, but that\u2019s where I get stuck. Sometimes, paces change. I\u2019m also curious to see how Matthews adjusts without Mitch Marner<\/a>. What has stuck out about Kane throughout his career is his ability to play and produce with anybody, be it 5-on-5 or the power play. And believe me, Kane has had his share of linemates. Maybe it doesn\u2019t matter who Matthews is playing with, but you never know. Regardless, Kane still has my vote as ending up the top U.S.-born scorer.<\/p>\n Cotsonika: Yeah, I hear you on the math, Tracey. And good points. We must see how Matthews adjusts without Marner, and Kane has been able to produce with many different teammates. Kane is not done yet, either. But in Matthews, I see a guy who scored 33 goals last season while battling an undisclosed injury — and 33 goals was his NHL career low! That\u2019s incredible. To me, that shows he\u2019s able to adjust amid adversity and still produce, and that tells me he\u2019s probably going to continue to be productive for a long, long time. I think he\u2019s like Alex Ovechkin<\/a>, who has defied the odds and remained an elite goal-scorer deep into his NHL career. Records are made to be broken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two most prolific United States-born scorers in the NHL today will face off in a matinee when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-221284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}