Who is the next contender to lead American-born players in scoring?
\Patrick Kane rewrote the record book Thursday night, notching his 1,375th career regular-season point and surpassing Mike Modano for the most points by an American-born player in NHL history.
The Detroit Red Wings’ forward is a near-guarantee to be a first-ballot Hockey Hall of Famer, having recorded 500 goals and 875 assists in 1,342 career regular-season games. Now the question becomes: Which U.S.-born player will take a run at Kane’s all-time record?
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Kane’s big night and which current superstar is on a path to breaking his record.
Tyler Yaremchuk: As far as who that next guy will be, I think it’s Auston Matthews. He’s not in the top-10, but he’s at more than a point-per-game pace at this point in his NHL career. Right now, he’s got 772 points in 677 career regular-season games — if he can play another 677 games, he’ll be north of 1,500 points. Even if Patrick Kane plays another season, Matthews will have another to get past him.
But Patrick Kane has dealt with injuries and surgeries, and we weren’t sure if we were going to see Kane keep playing in the NHL. That question exists, to some extent, for Matthews. He’s already racked up plenty of injuries, so him getting to 1,200 games isn’t a guarantee. I don’t think you can look at Matthews and say he’s guaranteed to get there.
Carter Hutton: I’ve always made this argument about Matthews and compare him to Alexander Ovechkin.
Ovechkin is a stationary guy who can score from a single spot, while Matthews creates opportunities with his skating. Over time, it’s going to get harder and harder for Matthews to produce.
A player like Patrick Kane buys ice, he manages time with the puck. I’ve played with and against him, and you just let him be. Keep him over there and hopefully he won’t burn us, where a guy like Matthews carves up the ice and use his body.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…