The Washington Capitals have had many great goalscorers in their franchise history including from the USA. When one thinks of USA born Capitals most think of John Carlson or T.J. Oshie. If you're looking to the future you're thinking Ryan Leonard.
The leader in goals in franchise history among American born players on defense is wasn't Carlson. It was Kevin Hatcher during the 1992-93 season where he recorded 34 goals which is Ovi numbers in a lockout shortened season. Oshie had 33 in 2016-17.
Hatcher has 149 goals in his career among defensemen. Dave Christian leads the Caps in terms of goals in franchise history for American born players. He had 193 in his Capitals career which spanned seven years from 1979-80 through the middle of the 1989-90 season before being traded to the Boston Bruins. He was originally drafted by the original Winnipeg Jets. Christian had 41 goals with the Caps in 1985-86
Like Oshie who was raised there, Christian is from Warroad, Minnesota which makes tomorrow night's game special after Oshie scored the games first goal in his hometown of Seattle, Washington in his 999th game. Tomorrow night in Vancouver is the big 1,000 for Oshie.
Oshie was traded to the Capitals in the summer of 2015 from the St. Louis Blues and has 191 goals since donning Caps red, white and blue. Carlson has skated in 992 games all with the Capitals and has 146 career goals needing just four to pass Hatcher. So a couple of big milestones are coming up!
Since joining the Capitals in tht 2015-16 season, Oshie is second on the Caps in goals trailing only Alex Ovechkin. Oshie has 76 power play goals while tied for fourth in playoff goals with 29. In addition, Oshie has six game winning playoff goals. That's tied for third on the Caps in franchise history.
So the Caps have been stocked with American Heroes for the longest time.