Mike Modano highlights U.S. Hockey Hall class

• Mike Modano finished with 561 goals and 1,374 points
• Ed Olczyk scored 112 goals over one three-year period
• Lou Lamoriello has guided the Devils to five Stanley Cup finals and three titles

The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame will be inducting its 40th class Monday in Dallas. My reflections on this year's inductees:

Mike Modano: When fans think of Modano they will remember the majestic way he skated up the ice with the puck.

"Some players look like they are digging into the ice when they skate, and Modano looked like he was hovering above it," St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong once told me.

But the lasting memory that I have of Modano is the sight of him collapsed on the Buffalo ice, his face drenched in a pool of tears, after the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999.

It was his reaching-the-summit-of-Mount Everest moment, and he was overwhelmed by the jubilation and exhaustion that comes with completion of the ascent.

Modano never was considered one of the grittiest warriors of America's greatest hockey generation. Chris Chelios, Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin, Jeremy Roenick and others usually are listed as the fire starters of that group. But I can argue that Modano proved he was as mentally tough as any of those players, starting when he left his Michigan home to play in the Western Hockey League as a 16-year-old.

Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland was a scout when Modano was playing in the WHL, and he recalled that NHL scouts were impressed that Modano left his comfort zone to test himself in a league known for toughness. That's commonplace today, but it wasn't in the 1980s.

"It's freezing cold in Prince Albert. When you go there, you are going there for hockey," Holland said. "He was going to a small town in Saskatchewan to a league known for its long bus rides and lots of physical play. That's the commitment he had for playing hockey."

Modano knew then he was making a statement by going to the WHL. He said he took razzing, some good-natured and some not, when he played there.

"When I got there I felt like I had something to prove," he told me. "That was motivation to do well. I was in Canada where they love their sport. They expect nothing less than your best. I felt like I had to make an impact."

It seemed as if Modano spent his entire career trying to prove something. Having tough-love coaches Bob Gainey and Ken Hitchcock early in his career seemed to make that feeling more pronounced.

That's why Modano was overcome by emotion the night he won the Stanley Cup. He had been trying to climb the mountain a long time and to get there was more than he could handle at that moment.

While Modano was trying to prove himself, he became the highest-scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history, finishing with 561 goals and 1,374 points in 1,499 games. He scored 30 or more goals nine times. Included in that was a 50-goal season.

Roenick told me earlier this year that he spent his entire career measuring himself against Modano, and about the 15-year mark of their careers, he begrudgingly conceded that Modano had the better career. Roenick told me he believes Modano is the greatest player in American hockey history.

Ed Olczyk: Olczyk has become such a smooth, polished and respected NBC lead analyst that it has almost become forgotten that he scored 342 goals in 1,043 NHL games. Over one three-year period from 1987-88 to 1990-91, he scored 112 goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He had 42 goals in those of seasons and 90 points in another. More important, Olczyk was a proven scorer at a time when the Americans were just beginning to flex their muscle in the NHL.

Olczyk was 17 when he played with Pat LaFontaine on the 1984 Olympic team, and he became a 20-goal scorer for the Chicago Blackhawks at age 18. He joined the 1980 American Olympians -- Joey Mullen, Tom Barrasso and Phil Housley -- and others in proving to NHL teams that there was great benefit in harvesting American talent.

Undoubtedly, Olczyk's Hall of Fame candidacy was also aided by his television work. Olczyk's home-cooked, professional and analytic style helps sell hockey in America.

Lou Lamoriello: He is America's Sam Pollock. The late Pollock is perhaps the NHL's most famous general manager, the architect of the Montreal Canadiens' dynasty in the 1960s and 1970s. Lamoriello's resume easily qualifies him as the greatest American-born general manager in NHL history.

He became the New Jersey Devils' general manager in 1987, and since then the Devils have made the playoffs 21 times, reaching the Stanley Cup Final five times and winning three of those championship series.

Similar to the shrewd way Pollock governed the Canadiens, Lamoriello has kept the Devils strong through aggressive trading and solid drafting. Considering he has won with different coaches and different players, it is clear that his leadership has been the power source of the franchise's success. Although he has a reputation for being tough and unwavering, Lamoriello is usually highly respected by his players.