27 greatest American NHL players of all-time

Right Wing. Calgary Flames. Joe Mullen. 12. player. 112. <p>Joe Mullen went undrafted despite breaking school records at Boston College and is easily one of the best undrafted players in NHL history considering the undersized right wing is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. At 5-9, the New York City native didn’t have great size and a general bias toward picking Americans in the draft made teams look silly when he got his chance with the St. Louis Blues to begin his career.</p> <p>Mullen had 335 points in 301 games, including a pair of 40-goal seasons but was traded to the Calgary Flames in middle of the 1985-1986 season with Terry Johnson and Rik Wilson for Eddy Beers, Charles Bourgeois and Gino Cavallini. He had 38 points in 29 regular season games for the Flames and turned in a stellar postseason performance with a postseason-high 12 goals and scored 19 points in leading the team to their first Stanley Cup Final.</p> <p>Calgary didn’t win that year but Mullen would lead them to the Cup three years later when he scored a postseason-high 16 goals and scored 24 points. That capped a season for Mullen that saw him win his second Lady Byng and finish fifth in the Hart after setting career-highs with 51 goals, 59 assists, 110 points and led the NHL with a plus-51.</p> <p>He dropped down to 69 points the next year and was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins where he won the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons and he had three seasons with at least 30 goals. It was with the Penguins where he became the first American-born player to score 500 goals and reach 1,000 career points.</p> <p>His 502 goals rank fifth and 1,063 career points in 1,062 games rank sixth all-time among Americans.</p>