(Say hello to a special July 4th edition of Puck Lists from yer boy RL, in which he arbitrarily lists hockey things.)

Today is Independence Day here in the good ol’ U.S. of A, but American hockey should be celebrated year-round because of how good and excellent it is.

With this in mind, why don’t we go ahead and rank the guys who are the best American-born players of all time? Don’t bring up Canada or Russia or Sweden to me on this day. Those countries have their own Independence Days, and it certainly isn’t my fault that Canada — I’m assuming, anyway — decided to have the first day of free agency on July 1 (which, by the by, copy America much?).

Russia’s Independence Day is in the middle of the playoffs. Tough to recognize it. We have better things going on. And tough to come up with more than a handful of good Russian NHLers anyway. Uhh, Alex Ovechkin and Pavel Bure and…. Nikolai Khabibulin? Yikes that list drops off fast.

I don’t know when Swedish Independence Day is. Probably whenever the Kalmar Union broke up, but I don’t know when that is only that it was like 500 years ago. And by the way: You’d have an even better team for the World Cup if the Kalmar Union were still together. Just something to think about.

The future is bright for American hockey, no two ways about it, but a lot of the most talented players the country has developed are still in their late teens and early 20s. Do this list 20 years from now and it will look a lot different, which is a good thing because it shows we’re getting better all the time. Call it manifest destiny. Canada’s list of “best players ever” probably wouldn’t. Call that stagnation.

Anyway, this is a day for America and American NHL players, so here is a ranking of the 13 best. Happy Fourth of July, folks.

(Don’t read past this line if you are not from the U.S.)

13. Jeremy Roenick

The mid-90s was something of a Golden Era for the U.S. in terms of the quality of player league-wide.

He’s one of only a handful of U.S. players to clear 500 goals and 1,000 points in his career, and one of only four to do both (the others are slightly ahead of him on this list).

How about this for a stat: Three straight 100-point seasons in the early 1990s. You’d have to imagine few U.S.-born players

And you know he’s a good American because he says dumbass things he can’t back up all the time, and he’s voting for Donald Trump.

12. Ryan Miller

The thing you have to understand about goaltending is that the U.S. has recently become the best at it, in terms of churning out high-quality players on a regular basis. Of that group, you can really make the argument that Ryan Miller was the first through the door in the modern era.

He’s won a Vezina, and was the best player in the Vancouver Olympics by far (the less said about the team in front of him, the better).

Miller is probably better for what he represents than what he actually is, but man, he was really good in the late 2000s for a minute there. You also rarely see goalies with this kind of ability to carry a heavy load: He had three seasons in four years in which Buffalo made him play at least 65 games, including 76(!!!) in 2007-08.

He’s been in the league for the entire salary cap era, and has only twice posted below-average seasons. More often, he’s adding at least a win or two to his team’s point total. The year he won the Vezina, he added about six. Probably should have won the Hart, too.

(Honorable mention here for Tim Thomas, who didn’t have a long enough career to make the list, but had the best peak of probably any goalie in hockey history besides Dominik Hasek.)

11. Cory Schneider

Schneider seems like heir apparent to the Ryan Miller throne of, “Terrifying American Goalie.” If Miller opened the door, Schneider ran through and ripped it off the hinges without breaking a stride.

Let’s put it this way: While he hasn’t even played 300 games yet and already turned 30, if he retired today, he would technically have the best career save percentage in NHL history. There hasn’t been a single full season in which he was less than a .921 goaltender, and the added value there is unbelievable. In an era in which goaltending is everything to NHL teams, Schneider has been one of the best options in the entire league — and certainly the best American option — for the last three years.

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