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Boost for Business The top-scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history has returned to where it all started for him in 1988 when Lou Nanne and the North Stars selected him first overall over Trevor Linden in the NHL Draft. In May, the Michigan native was named executive advisor to Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold and team president Matt Majka. Modano's job is to help drive business by working on a number of initiatives relating to the team's sales, corporate partnerships and community relations efforts. He arrived at a challenging time for the Wild. After missing the playoffs last season and struggling to start this season, their long sellout streak was readying to come to an end as Wild account executives are finding it much harder to sell tickets, suites and corporate sponsorships. Modano is the type of friendly fel- low who has the ability to schmooze with bigwigs to help rebuild revenue streams but also disgruntled Wild fans who perhaps need to get excit- ed again by the team and its future. But there's another value to Modano: He's a tried and true hockey guy. No U.S.-born player in the history of the NHL scored more goals than Modano's 561, more points than his 1,374 and no U.S.-born forward has more assists than his 813. He owns just about every North Stars/Stars record: 1,459 games, 557 goals, 802 assists, 1,359 points, 372 even-strength goals, 156 power-play goals, 29 shorthanded goals, 92 game-winning goals and 4,194 shots. He played in eight All-Star Games, three Olympic Games and two World Cups. No Dallas Stars player will ever again wear Modano's retired No. 9. So in late July when the Wild fired general manager Paul Fenton after just one season at the helm, Leipold and Majka tapped into Modano's expertise to help hire the new GM, which would end up being Modano's former Stars and USA Hockey team- mate, Bill Guerin. Whether it was by phone from his home in Utah or in person when he flew in for interviews, Modano was part of the process that narrowed dozens of candidates to Guerin, who was assistant GM in Pittsburgh, and fellow former NHLer Scott Mellanby, who is assistant GM in Montreal and coincidentally just moved to Hudson, Wisconsin. 28 Russo's Rants M H J ON L I N E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 Photos /Michael Russo, USA Hockey Magazine, The Mighty Ducks The Dallas Stars retired Mike Modano's No. 9 before a game against the Minnesota Wild in 2014.