Interesting. Those are 4 great players, but it makes me wonder if the batch of North Americans drafted around the dead puck era (arbitrary starting point admittedly, and meaning those who have been full time players during the period between the dead puck and the lock out) might be the weakest (relative to competition?) that we've seen in a while. During that period, the highest scoring North American players were guys like Sakic, Modano, Kariya, Iginla, Thornton, Recchi, Shanahan, Hull, Roenick (9 of the top 20).
Compare that to '50/06 to today, where Thornton, Crosby, St.Louis, Heatley, Staal, Lecavalier, Spezza, Marleau, Richards, and Getzlaf (10 of top 20), and it looks like a bit of a resurgence both in terms of productivity and calibre of player, imo (especially at the centre position).
Not necessarily drawing that conclusion, but it's interesting (in the context of "strength of league/competition" discussions involving different eras). A common assertion as to why the league has become more competitive over time is the addition of European players, but it seems like a less common assertion that I've seen - that talent pools from all countries ebb and flow (fluctuate) over time - might hold more water than many have recognized (I have to pee now). Hard to say that the overall level of competition in the league has been a constant upward trend through time, when the largest talent pool of players may be seen as having a dip during the period immediately preceding the lock out. Did a period of relatively "weaker" top North American players just make the increasing number of European players look better, or were the top European players really that much better than those who came before them?
I also wonder what people's opinions are concerning the strength of the drafts between the two lockouts versus the periods immediately before and after, especially wrt to North American draftees, and particularly the "top calibre players" in each. Lots of interesting questions that I'm sure won't/can't really be answered fully.
There's a lot of factors at work, but I would say the North American talent has been on the weak side during the last two decades, while the influx of talent has more than made up for that. Also, longer careers keep talent in the league longer. The low scoring due to rules, equipment and strategy changes didn't make the forward talent any better, especially following the Gretzky/Lemieux era. Look at the European talent born in 1969-1973, that was a golden era for European/Russian elite forward talent, just as 1961-1965 was for North American elite forward talent.
Looking at some of the top forwards by birth year, with North Americans listed first and Europeans bolded:
1956- Trottier, Federko, Brian Sutter
(P. Stastny, Nilsson)
1957- Bossy, Mullen, Tonelli
1958- Smith, Linseman, Smyl
1959- Gartner, Propp, Broten, Ogrodnick, Vaive
(A. Stastny, Mats Naslund)
1960- Ciccarelli, Goulet, Anderson, Hunter, Kerr, Carboneau
(Kurri, Steen, Larionov)
1961- Gretzky, Messier, D. Savard, Nicholls, Larmer
1962- Oates, Brent Sutter, Courtnall
1963- Francis, Gilmour, Hawerchuk, Andreychuk
1964- Hull, Verbeek, Bellows, Tocchet, Ferraro
(Sandstrom, Klima)
1965- M. Lemieux, Yzerman, Neely, Lafontaine, Stevens, C. Lemieux
1966- Nieuwendyk, Robitaille, Muller, Roberts, Mellanby, Richer, Clark, Sheppard
(Kamensky, Pivonka)
1967- Damphousse, Young, Janney
1968- Recchi, Fleury, Graves, Juneau
(Bondra)
1969- Sakic, Shanahan, Leclair, Turgeon
(Fedorov, Mogilny, Khristich)
1970- Modano, Roenick, Brindamour, Amonte, Guerin
(Selanne, Zhamnov, Lang)
1971- Weight, Smolinski, Primeau, Ricci
(Sundin, Bure, Holik, Nedved, Reichel, Rucinsky)
1972- Tkachuk, Whitney, Nolan, Sanderson, Murray
(Jagr, Alfredsson, Kozlov, Straka, Palffy, Nylander, Stumpel, Renberg)
1973- Lindros, Rolston, Stillman, Brunette, J. Blake
(Forsberg, Kovalev, Naslund, Yashin, Lehtinen)
1974- Kariya, Arnott, Sullivan, Peca
(Demitra, S. Koivu, Modin, V. Bure)
1975- St. Louis, Bertuzzi, Langenbrunner, Morrison, Allison
(Prospal)
1976- Smyth, Doan, Langkow, Drury
(Elias, Hejduk, Sykora)
1977- Iginla, M. Savard, Briere, MacDonald
(Dvorak, Hecht, Handzus)
1978- Dumont, Horcoff, Cole
(Datsyuk, Jokinen, Samsonov, Zubrus, Sturm, Huselius)
1979- Thornton, Marleau, Tanguay, Gomez, Morrow, Gionta
(Hossa, Afinogenov)
1980- Lecavalier, B. Richards, Gagne, Ribeiro
(Sedins, Zetterberg, Antropov)
1981- Heatley, Williams, Connolly, Sharp
(Havlat, Erat, Vrbata)
1982- Hartnell, Cammalleri, Pominville, Boyes
(Gaborik, Frolov, Plekanec)
1983- Spezza, Roy, Weiss
(Kovalchuk, Hemsky, M. Koivu)
1984- E. Staal, Parise, Nash, D. Brown, Kesler, Pavelski
(Vanek, Semin)
1985- Getzlaf, Perry, M. Richards, Horton, Carter, Bergeron, Stastny
(Ovechkin, Eriksson)
1986- Dubinsky, Versteeg
(Malkin, Krejci, Wolski?)
1987- Crosby, Kessel, Ryan, Setoguchi
(Kopitar, Backstrom)
1988- Toews, Kane, J. Staal, Lucic, Giroux
(Frolik, Anisimov)