The Habs have had quite a few quality USA-born players suit up for them over the history of the franchise. Which ones were the best? Vote for your top Team USA line.
With the ongoing pandemic set to last for a while yet, it’s time to look back at some of the top international players in Montreal Canadiens history. But rather than just pick the top players from each country ourselves, we wanted to open things up to our readers and let you pick the teams. Over the coming weeks, we will be posting a series of polls in the following order:
Week 1: Sweden
Week 2: Russia
Week 3: Finland
Week 4: Czech Republic
Week 5: Team Europe (all other international countries)
Week 6: Team USA
Unlike the first five rounds where the number of players available to choose from was somewhat limited, there are enough from the US that we can institute some minimum games played policies. Forwards and defencemen must have played at least 100 games with Montreal while for goalies, the threshold is dropped to 10 as no American-born netminder has played in at least 100 games for the Habs. Players are slotted according to their birth country, not which one they represent(ed) internationally if it differed from where they were born.
For this exercise, we’re going to be assembling a top line that consists of three forwards, two defencemen, and one goalie.
When voting, please make your selections based on their contributions with the Canadiens only and not the rest of their NHL and international careers. Click here for a listing of the all-time stats for the Habs.
Here are the players to select from for Team USA.
Please cast your ballot by Friday, June 5th. Results will be posted on Saturday, June 6th.