THE TOP 10 BLACK NHL PLAYERS OF ALL-TIME

[Zegras Zebra]

Iginla and Fuhr are kind of a 1 and 1a type of situation where there is a legitimate argument for each player to be number 1. Personally I would choose Iginla over Fuhr though because he was slightly more dominant, and had less reliable teammates than Fuhr, plus he came pretty close to winning the 2004 Stanley Cup with a team of nobodies and Mikka Kiprusoff.

I would put Wayne Simmonds at least 6th all time ahead of Anson Carter and Mike Grier, although he is currently about level to Anson Carter's career production at this point in time.

 

[Big Phil]

What does that even mean "Fuhr was never about the numbers?" He just let goals in for fun?

From '83 - '88, you had guys like Barasso, Vanbiesbrouk, Peeters, Lindbergh, Liut, Froese, Hextall all having better seasons than Fuhr (feel free to look at the stats more closely, I just did a quick scan, so my argument may not hold up to scrutiny)

He won the Vezina in '88 because he played a lot of games and lead the league in wins, not because he was the best goalie in the league

As I said, he didn't care about GAA. He wasn't on the sort of team that did in the first place. They played a wide open game. They left him hanging a lot of the time because they knew he could bail them out. Think Curtis Joseph. He always seemed to play better the more rubber he saw and the Leafs were able to play a wide open game because of him back there.

There were goalies that had good individual seasons during this 1983-'88 time but which ones do you take over Fuhr for that whole time frame? Lindbergh died in 1985. Hextall was a rookie in 1987. Peeters was ordinary outside of a couple of years, Beezer had that good year in 1986. The only cases to be made would be Barrasso and Liut and there wouldn't be a GM that would make that trade. You think Glen Sather trades Fuhr in 1987 to the Sabres for Barrasso? Never. He was the only goalie that played for Canada in 1987 for a reason.

 

[Puck Dogg]

1 - Grant Fuhr. Plenty of bling to show around.
2- Jarome Iginla. 1500 games and 1300 points.
3- PK Subban. Solid defenseman with scoring touch.
4- Dirk Graham. Selke Winner. Wore also trademark moustache.
5 - Seth Jones. Already a solid defenseman who just keeps getting better.
6- Tony McKegney. Journeyman with 600 career points
7- Wayne Simmonds. Going strong for 400 career points
8 - Dustin Byfuglien. Solid defenseman with offensive upside.
9- Johnny Oduya. Two Cups don't lie
10 - Evander Kane. Not quite made it yet, despite the potential

Honorable mentions: Georges Laraque who was good at what he was doing and Anson Carter. Got traded for Jagr, scored gold- medal winning goal in 2003 Worlds.

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

Thank you for finally including Wayne Simmonds in the top 10. Kuddos for that.
And as a Sharks fan I love the Joel Ward honorable mention (outside your top 10, but heck, he's already earned $30+ million so **** him!).

But Johnny Oduya drops off the radar? Man, you'd think the honorable mention list would get longer instead of buzzcut at 12. He averaged 22:45 and 24:45 minutes per game on Stanley Cup championship squads, easily top-4 for the best team both postseasons. (Yeah, he's an old man skating the last couple of years, but seriously!)

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

Top 10 Black Hockey Players of All Time

The Greatest Black NHL Players of All Time

 

[Neutrinos]

Top 10 Black Hockey Players of All Time

The Greatest Black NHL Players of All Time

Yep

 

[SovietWings]

I learnt two new things from this thread:
1) Grant Fuhr is black. I probably always saw "wrong" pictures of him like this one:

2) Jarome Iginla is black. I always thought he is Native-American.

So I kinda didn't expect either of them in this thread.. But I would probably vote for Fuhr. They were both among the best for some time, but with Iginla I have a feeling is mainly because the others were taking off-years or having injuries. Basically one one who could be improvement over Fuhr is Roy, but there are more guys you could chose over Iginla around 2000 (Jagr, Forsberg, Lindros, Sakic...).

 

[MS]

This whole discussion about Dirk Graham is really weird because when you look at pictures like the one above, he's really obviously black, with a nearly identical pigmentation/overall look to other mixed-race guys like Grant Fuhr and Ray Neufeld.

Yet when I was growing up, he was never identified as a 'black player' in the same way those guys were. I only learned he was black when he was hired to coach Chicago and was surprised until I looked at photos and was like 'oh ... how did I miss that?'

 

[FerrisRox]

Yet when I was growing up, he was never identified as a 'black player' in the same way those guys were. I only learned he was black when he was hired to coach Chicago and was surprised until I looked at photos and was like 'oh ... how did I miss that?'

I certainly remember discussions in the 80's and early 90's about Dirk Graham being black.

When he was named to the 1991 Team Canada roster I remember there being talk of him being the first African American skater to play for Team Canada and when he was named the Blackhawks captain (which I think happened after the Savard trade) it was definitely discussed as he was the first African American player to captain an NHL club.

 

[Michael Farkas]

African American skater to play for Team Canada

Now, that's really something...

 

[Eddy Punch Clock]

Three pages in..... too many god damned back up goalies..... or should I say black up goalies?

Anyways, for pure talent and being one of the best ever at his role, Donald Brashear supplants most of those goalies... some players too.

 

[Peiskos]

I certainly remember discussions in the 80's and early 90's about Dirk Graham being black.

When he was named to the 1991 Team Canada roster I remember there being talk of him being the first African American skater to play for Team Canada and when he was named the Blackhawks captain (which I think happened after the Savard trade) it was definitely discussed as he was the first African American player to captain an NHL club.

Impossible. Blacks in Canada are not referred to as African Americans nor do they identify themselves as such. From my experience blacks in Canada refer to themselves as simply "Canadian" like everyone else. The "African American" term is as you would expect an phenomenon we only see in the US.

 

[57special]

Let me put it this way: Jarome Iginla's mother is white, should he be included on a list of "Top White Players"?

Yes!

Let's also call Obama one of the great white orators of the 21st century. He had a White mother, and was brought up by his White Grandparents.

As a parent of mixed race kids, I, and we, find all of this stuff ridiculous. Calling some person Black, because some White guy from the U.S. two centuries ago( or whenever it was) made up some arbitrary law about who was White and who was Black, is just absurd. The " one drop rule" is/was something found only in the U.S., and usually in the southern States at that. No other country does this.

Celebrate both heritages. It's cool.

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

I used to think Clint Malarchuk was black because of this 88-89 panini sticker

Then I saw this

And I was a confused child for a very long time.

 

[cupcrazyman]

I used to think Clint Malarchuk was black because of this 88-89 panini sticker

Then I saw this

And I was a confused child for a very long time.

I thought at first the panini sticker was an error & the left side was a different player.

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

I'm guessing he spent a lot of time in the sun that summer. As for the hair, I'm guessing the camera and the angel had something to do with it, and maybe he had moose in his hair or just got out of the shower.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

So Dirk Graham was the NHL's first black head coach? It's kinda interesting because I don't think I ever heard this brought up.

 

[Byron Bitz]

1: Iginla
2: Fuhr
3: Subban
4: Lilja
5: Byfuglien
6: Simmonds
7: Grier
8: Carter
9: Jones
10: E.Kane

Lilja is not black

 

[Doctor No]

Lilja is not black

You presumably had three months to see my response as well, but here's your answer.

Fake ID? Police say Worrell claimed to be Lilja

 

[Eye of Ra]

Lilja is not black

yes he is, ask worell

 

[Byron Bitz]

yes he is, ask worell

He may be a little darker than most white dudes but if he dropped the N-bomb people would get mad

 

[The Panther]

Yes!

Let's also call Obama one of the great white orators of the 21st century. He had a White mother, and was brought up by his White Grandparents.

As a parent of mixed race kids, I, and we, find all of this stuff ridiculous. Calling some person Black, because some White guy from the U.S. two centuries ago( or whenever it was) made up some arbitrary law about who was White and who was Black, is just absurd. The " one drop rule" is/was something found only in the U.S., and usually in the southern States at that. No other country does this.

Celebrate both heritages. It's cool.

I like your post.

I must say, I find this kind of thread (which is more about identity politics than biology) a bit uncomfortable. I just don't think we, the disconnected fan, should be applying culturally-loaded identity labels to people not involved in the conversation.

I mean, I get that the thread is well intended and everything, but people should decide for themselves what "race" they are. The public does not decide.

Let's take Dirk Graham, for example. If he said, publicly, "I'm black," then, okay, I guess it's fair enough to call him black. But if he didn't, then I don't think we get to decide it.

Since race doesn't biologically exist, it is really an identity marker and nothing else. So if Patrick Laine announces tomorrow that he's black, then he's black.