.
Good point
If that was the subject, but people mention people that never played for team usa, like brimsek without anyone having an heavy-handed internet litigation about it, because people interpret the question as the all-time team of player I consider American, not having the best team USA resume.
If the question was all-time team USA in the sense of the athlete that performed the best for team USA, Hull will objectively be a candidate, as would Trottier.
True, I don't know know how much international hockey existed in Brimsek's day, at least for players on the professional track. He would have likely played for USA in the 1930 IIHF U18s had such a thing existed and then been locked in from there. Basically, we know which country he would have been eligible for and played for.
In Hull's case, it's all a bit odd, because he's really not even that much of a fringe case. If you follow the World Juniors, there are kids every year that would have been eligible for multiple nations, often USA and Canada. USA being the historically easier team to make, and now with the recruitment that the NTDP does when they're 15 tend to get a good chunk of them. But sometimes it goes the other way, like Thomas Harley playing in the 4 Nations for Canada. Nick Foligno and Marcus Foligno are brothers that belonged to different sides of the border in IIHF play.
In Hull's case, it just seems as though some sort of 90s era zeitgeist appears to still partially carry the day. When how many people in the 90s, when everyone didn't have an encyclopedia in their pocket, even knew his mother was an American, that he lived in the U.S. up until he was 8 and then again when he was 18 to go to college, had he been born a couple months earlier or later would have likely been born in the U.S. like his siblings, he cited USA picking him for the 1986 World Championships as a big confidence boost to help launch hif NHL career, etc.... He's a pretty classic Dual Citizen who made the choice to play for USA, so that was his team (because it's very hard to switch). Seems to be where the whole "primary training" thing came up, which I don't think is the true essence of international sport or anything, as there are always nationals of one country playing in another, like Hughes in GTHL, Celebrini in California because they had a parent working with a sporting org in the other country, etc.
If he wasn't (a) son of a Canadian legend, (b) born in Canada, (c) very good.. it wouldn't have been such a big thing. With benefit of distance, I think people should be able to see all the hoopla was overblown.
