Your best team all-time, with a twist

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Jan Suchy's last season in Czechoslovakia was in 1978-79.

Source: http://www.eurohockey.net/players/show_player.cgi?serial=27033

Do his seasons in the Austrian and German leagues in the 1980s really let him qualify for this?

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Damn this was a bloody tough exercise. I took out Suchy and put back in Fetisov on defence, and subbed in LeClair for Kharlamov (whose lone 30 games in the 1980-81 season before his death also doesn't seem appropriate here).

 

[Pear Juice]

Damn this was a bloody tough exercise. I took out Suchy and put back in Fetisov on defence, and subbed in LeClair for Kharlamov (whose lone 30 games in the 1980-81 season before his death also doesn't seem appropriate here).

You also are not including your coaches, however you have three of them, which is more than necessary according to the rules

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Ah, but if you look at the original post he said no more than four players per team. He said nothing about the composition of the coaching staff. Bowman would be my primary coach but I just had some fun and added two assistants.

So, all and all 21 names from 6 different country. But, you can not have more than 4 players from each nation.

Needless to say, this has proven to be quite the difficult undertaking, finding a balance between position, nationality, and in keeping within the requirements to find players whose contributions came mainly after 1980 and who are retired by now. Some searching led me to also remove Fedorov from my list and replace him with Sundin as Sergei is currrently playing in the KHL.

 

[Pear Juice]

Ah, but if you look at the original post he said no more than four players per team. He said nothing about the composition of the coaching staff. Bowman would be my primary coach but I just had some fun and added two assistants.



Needless to say, this has proven to be quite the difficult undertaking, finding a balance between position, nationality, and in keeping within the requirements to find players whose contributions came mainly after 1980 and who are retired by now. Some searching led me to also remove Fedorov from my list and replace him with Sundin as Sergei is currrently playing in the KHL.

True indeed. It's just that I enjoy as much complexity as possible! Good point on Fedorov. I'm not sure if I really like Sundin as a replacement for 4th line center though.

 

[Domino666]

Man I guess I don't know hockey like I thought I did, but I'm stumped about Hasek and everybody picking him, maybe I missed something when watching him, wow I need to rethink my whole life now....

 

[Plural]

As for my all-time team according to the parameters set out in the original post (rather than club team):

International Selects

Forwards

Mario Lemieux (CAN) - Wayne Gretzky (CAN) - Sergei Makarov (RUS)
John LeClair (USA) - Peter Forsberg (SWE) - Jari Kurri (FIN)
Alexander Mogilny (RUS) - Mats Sundin (SWE) - Pavel Bure (RUS)
Esa Tikanen (FIN) - Peter Stastny (SLO) - Markus Naslund (SWE)

Defencemen

Raymond Bourque (CAN) - Borje Salming (SWE)
Chris Chelios (USA) - Brian Leetch (USA)
Vyacheslav Fetisov (RUS) - Mark Howe (USA)

Goaltenders

Patrick Roy (CAN)
Dominik Hasek (CZE)

Coaching Staff

Scotty Bowman (CAN)
Bob Johnson (USA)
Viktor Tikhonov (RUS)

Division by Nationality

CANADA: LW/C Mario Lemieux, C Wayne Gretzky, D Raymond Bourque, G Patrick Roy.

UNITED STATES: LW John Leclair, D Brian Leetch, D Mark Howe, D Chris Chelios.

SWEDEN: C Peter Forsberg, C Mats Sundin, LW Markus Naslund, D Borje Salming.

RUSSIA: RW, Sergei Makarov, LW Alexander Mogilny, RW Pavel Bure, D Vyacheslav Fetisov.

FINLAND: RW Jari Kurri, LW Esa Tikanen.

CZECH REPUBLIC: G Dominik Hasek.

SLOVAKIA: C Peter Stastny.

One season has gone by and Lidstrom retired. I like this team a lot, but i would be inclined to take in Lidstrom. Where would you sit him? By a quick look it is going to be Salming, since he opens up a spot on Sweden nationality and he is a D.

 

[Ivan13]

Gifted offensive player while also an apt defender. Leads all defensemen in scoring in the Czech top division and was top scoring defensemen every year from 1967-1972, leading his team to six consecutive league titles, and then a seventh one in 1974.

Won the golden stick award given to the best player in Czechoslovakia for it's two first years and was a WHC all-star for 4 straight years, winning the defenseman directorate award two of those years. It's widely considered that he should have three of those as Lennart Svedberg beat him out in 1970. Svedberg himself said that he was the best defenseman he had ever seen.

The title European Bobby Orr stems alot from his offensive ability to join the attack as a 4th forward, but also from the time of his dominance. Jan Suchy was undoubtedly the best defender in Europe for the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Yeah, that sounds like Suchy. A while back I was playing in a handball tournament in Havlíčkův Brod (his hometown and a really nice little town in Czech Rep) where I met a couple of older guys and we ended up talking about hockey, I asked them if there's any well known hockey players from there other than Radek Martinek. They basically told me what you posted here about Suchý, he was a marvel to watch, dynamic skater, fast, liked to join the rush etc.

 

[Dark Shadows]

New take, following all the rules this time If you want to be strict with positions (I tried to keep all players on their main positions), this is actually a lot harder than it initially sounds.

Bobby Hull - Wayne Gretzky - Jari Kurri
Valeri Kharlamov - Peter Forsberg - Gordie Howe
Vladimir Krutov - Peter Stastny - Brett Hull
Markus Näslund - Mike Modano - Jere Lehtinen

Viacheslav Fetisov - Chris Chelios
Denis Potvin - Jan Suchy
Brian Leetch - Börje Salming

Dominik Hasek
Jiri Holecek

Coach: Viktor Tikhonov

Canada: (Gretzky, Bo. Hull, Howe, Potvin)
Sweden: (Forsberg, Näslund, Salming)
Russia/CCCP: (Kharlamov, Krutov, Fetisov, Tikhonov)
Czech Republic: (Stastny, Suchy, Hasek, Holecek)
Finland: (Lehtinen, Kurri)
USA: (Br. Hull, Modano, Chelios, Leetch)

Replace Krutov with Anatoli Firsov!

Edit: Hmm original post has changed a few times lol