There was a point in time where Fox was marketing Derian Hatcher as the best US player, but I firmly believe he wouldn't be much different from Eric Gudbranson if you put him in 2017 (I realize Hatcher has his fans).
Scott Stevens for sure. He'd be run out of the league today.
This, I don't agree with. People forget that Scott Stevens had some real strong offensive and puck moving skills before Lou turned him into Mr Defense.
Apart from fighting way too much early in his career, it's not like he was a loose cannon for 20 years. He's got some brutal hits on his resume (and the Kariya hit was completely illegal), but he was never Ryan Hollweg or Zac Rinaldo, running around all game like an out of control idiot. A lot of his famous violence was entirely calculated (and usually in the context of a close playoff series). Change the tolerance and you change the calculation.
And even those morons (Rinaldo, Hollweg) took what seemed like an eternity to wash out of the modern game, despite the fact that they couldn't, you know, play. Stevens could
really play. Guys who can play tend to hang around for quite a while, no matter how dirty they are (see: Cooke, Matt).