Born in the U.S.A.

For the past few years, I've been assembling an autographed piece that has become one of the centerpieces of our collection -- a Team Canada goalie mask. Not wanting to leave their American-born counterparts on the bench, so to speak, I started a goalie stick featuring goalies born here in the states.

And while the Team Canada mask, which features autographs from Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur, has no shortage of candidates, the goalie stick will draw from a very shallow pool. Simply, there's not too many NHL goalies who hail from the United States.

So far, we've added these goalies: Boston's Tim Thomas (Flint, Mich.), Buffalo's Ryan Miller (East Lansing, Mich.), Carolina's John Grahame (Denver, Co.), Florida's Craig Anderson (Park Ridge, Ill.), the Isles' Rick DiPietro (Winthrop, Mass.), Mike Dunham (Johnson City, N.Y.) and Garth Snow (Wrentham, Mass.), and Washington's Brent Johnson (Farmington, Mich.).

Waiting in the wings are Carolina's goalie coach Tom Barrasso (Boston, Mass.), a noted toughie toward hounds; Pittsburgh's Ty Conklin (Anchorage, Alaska), whom I hope to add next Thursday when the Penguins come to Tampa; and Toronto's Scott Clemmensen (Des Moines, Iowa).

There are others, too, like Colorado prospect Jason Bacashihua (Garden City, Mich.), who will, in time, likely be added. I'd also like to add, say, Philadelphia's Brian Boucher (Woonsocket, R.I.) or Robert Esche (Whitesboro, N.Y.), now playing for Ak Bars Kazan in the Russian Super League, but I'll have to wait until they are back in the NHL.

Who else am I saving room for? How about former Rangers great Mike Richter (Abington, Pa.) and Hall of Famer John Vanbiesbrouck (Detroit, Mich.)? That would be sweet, wouldn't it? Given they're retired, though, it'll take some time.

Anyways, enough of the name-dropping drivel. Rather than show one picture of the stick, likely making it difficult to read the signatures, here are a series of photos (please accept my apologies for a couple redundancies) showing the players' signatures up close:

Carolina's John Grahame, left, and the Isles' Rick DiPietro

The Isles' Rick DiPietro, left, and Garth Snow

Washington's Brent Johnson, left, and Florida's Craig Anderson

Florida's Craig Anderson, left, the Isles' Mike Dunham and Buffalo's Ryan Miller

Buffalo's Ryan Miller and Boston's Tim Thomas