Happy 4th of July - A look at Brendan Lemieux and other great American Born Barrie Colts! #OHL

Happy 4th of July to all of our American friends, readers and supporters!

We want to take this time to thank all of you for coming to the site! Did you know that a HUGE chunk of our readers follow the site in America? In fact, we have had more views from the USA than we have from here in Canada. More than 1,000,000 of our all-time hits are from Americans. For those of you who share, read and support us, thank you!

Sure, the OHL is an Ontario based hockey league: in the Canadian Hockey League but some of the best talent to come through Barrie has been American born talent. Here is a quick look at Brendan Lemieux, and other American born Colts!

Brendan Lemieux

Lemieux was drafted 69th overall by the Barrie Colts at the 2012 OHL Priority Selection Draft. He played in 175 regular season games with Barrie before being traded to the Windsor Spitfires during the 2015-16 season to finish his OHL career.

While in Barrie; Brendan scored 83 goals, which is the 2nd most all-time among American born Colts players. He also has the 5th most assists (American born Colts) with 58 and the 4th most points with 141.

Brendan finished his OHL career with 106 goals and 83 assists in 209 games. He also served 407 PIM.

He would go on to get drafted by the Buffalo Sabers 31st overall at the 2014 NHL Draft. Later, he would be moved to the Winnipeg Jets in a multiplayer deal. Since then, Lemieux has spent most of his time in the AHL with the Manitoba Moose, where he has scored 33 goals and 32 assists in 117 games. He has appeared in 9 NHL games in that time where he has scored 1 goal.

Despite having a reputation as a "goon" here, Lemieux will be remembered more for being one of the best goal scorers in Barrie Colts history. I don't think there has ever been a more dominant goal scorer on the power play than he was.

Here is a look at the top 5 American born Barrie Colts players all-time for Goals, Assists, Points, Games Played and Penalty Minutes.

Most Goals (American born)

1. B.J. Crombeen - 86
2. Brendan Lemieux - 83
3. Kevin Labanc - 81
4. Vladimir Nikiforov - 59
5. Roy Radke - 51

Most Assists (American born)

1. Kevin Labanc - 188
2. Vladimir Nikiforov - 100
3. B.J. Crombeen - 84
4. Mark Langdon - 61
5. Brendan Lemieux - 58

Most Points (American born)

1. Kevin Labanc - 269
2. B.J. Crombeen - 170
3. Vladimir Nikiforov - 159
4. Brendan Lemieux - 141
5. Mark Langdon - 99

Most Games Played (American born)

1. B.J. Crombeen -248
2. Kevin Labanc - 198
3. Eric Reitz - 192
4. Ed Hill - 179
5. Brendan Lemieux - 175

Most Penalty Minutes (American born)

1. B.J. Crombeen - 516
2. Eric Reitz - 416
3. Brendan Lemieux - 370
4. Ed Hill - 209
5. Chris Feil - 209

Happy 4th of July! And please remember, if you are drinking to do so responsibly and please don't drink and drive.