Few in the sport have experienced the rapid evolution of American hockey as up close and personally as Mike Modano.
Growing up just outside Detroit, Modano was a minor hockey star. He spent his junior years in the WHL in Prince Albert, Sask., which was at that time the highest level available to American teenagers.
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Picked first in the 1988 NHL Draft, Modano played four years with the Minnesota North Stars before relocation in 1993-94 led him to Dallas. There, he led the Stars to the first-ever Stanley Cup title for a team from the U.S. Sunbelt.
Modano saw how hockey quickly exploded in Texas from that 1999 championship on and how
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