5 most exciting hockey players ever!

[The G Man]

Wayne Gretzky
Bobby Orr
Mario Lemieux
Guy LaFleur
Pat LaFontaine

 

[Drake1588]

I'll toss Maurice Richard into the mix.

 

[Gee Wally]

1 - Bobby Orr

2- Lemieux

3 - Gretzky

4 - Lafleur

5 - Bobby Hull

 

[The G Man]

2- Mike Bossy: This guy was so great to watch as all his shots looked good. His wrist shot looked good, his slap shot looked good, 5 hole looked good, everything looked good.

"Good"?? The best shot ... EVER.

 

[Malefic74]

I love your list.

Thanks. I would also add silver_made's pick of Peter Bondra. Missed him somehow. Guy could flat out fly and had a very, very good shot too.

 

[shadoz19]

I can't believe noone has mentioned him yet, but Sergei Fedorov. Definately one of the more exciting players I've ever seen.

Also:

Pavel Bure
Peter Forsberg
Mario Lemieux
Steve Yzerman
Joe Sakic
The young Teemu Selanne

 

[mattihp]

Pavel Bure
Mario Lemieux
Niklas Hagman (when on his game with a national team jersey on)
Peter Bondra
Paul Coffey

 

[Lionel Hutz]

So many lists without Mario and/or Wayne and/or Bobby.

I don't get it.

 

[Heat McManus]

Been watching hockey only 10 years or so, but of those I've seen:

1. Bure - this argument I think is in itself a reason for him to be in the hockey hall of fame. forget numbers, whenever the word "exciting" is mentioned, fans think of Bure.

2. Kovalchuk - Bure with more size and grit. More complete than Bure . If he came inthe NHL at the same time as Bure this might be a tie. More outright arrogant than Bure ever was. I saw him play NJ last yr and he kept taking pucks from the Devils side of the red line in warm-ups then went on to score a shorty in the second beating Brodeur five-hole.


3. Jagr - stickhandling, strength, speed. When he wants to play he is still a force of nature.

4. Lemiuex - Super Mario. Scoring between the legs, from impossible angles, scoring in every possible way in one game!

5. Forsberg - 94 Olympics.


Guys I think will be on this list once their careers progress: Tuomo Ruttuu, Lecavlier, Ovechkin, Crosby, Zherdev, Phaneuf.

 

[Jeff Goldblum]

One name I haven't seen is Alexei Kovalev. When he was in Pittsburgh he was absolutely sick. Not top 5 now or all time, not at all, but exciting.

 

[mcphee]

For pure excitement my first reaction was Perreault,Lafleur,Gretzky,Lemieux,Cournoyer in no particular order.
Then I thought, Orr has to be there,then Bure,Denis Savard. Wally mentionned Bobby Hull, 61-69, he was the guy, easily the most exciting player in the league.
Excitement's a personal reaction though, there aren't any wrong answers. I never found the great Islander players exciting, just coldly effeicient .

 

[Gee Wally]

For pure excitement my first reaction was Perreault,Lafleur,Gretzky,Lemieux,Cournoyer in no particular order.
Then I thought, Orr has to be there,then Bure,Denis Savard. Wally mentionned Bobby Hull, 61-69, he was the guy, easily the most exciting player in the league.
Excitement's a personal reaction though, there aren't any wrong answers. I never found the great Islander players exciting, just coldly effeicient .

That's why I put Hull in there...I can remember going into the old garden with my dad in the pre -Bobby Orr days...Hull was a drawing card for the league in the mid and late 60's for sure. The Bruins were lucky in them days to draw 6 or 7 thousand some nights..when Chicago came to town with the Golden Jet, the place was packed.

 

[RobQ73]

1. Mike Bossy - Had the pleasure of watching him often in my youth. Most feared, graceful and dynamic wing man the game has ever seen, especially on the power play.
2. Mario - Had/has the skills of a little guy in a monstrous frame.
3. Gretzky - Favorite memories are of him rushing up the ice and feathering a no-look drop pass to his mates.
4. Denis Savard - Made everyone look silly chasing him.
5. Pavel Bure - Lousy team player and the jerk stole Anna Kournikova from me (or was it Fedorov?) Would not want to be a goalie if he had a breakaway.

 

[Son of Rocky Bay]

my picks

Wayne Gretzky - (mind)
Mario Lemieux - (body)
Cam Neely - (total package)
Martin St. Louis - (name)
Stu Grimson - (interviews)

Orr - (best ever)

 

[John Flyers Fan]

Fo rthsoe that have listed Bossy, I don't quite get him.

While I consider him to be one of the 2 or 3 best goal scorers I've ever seen, IMO he wasn't as "exciting" as the other players listed.

Bossy had an incredible shot, and was a better version of Brett Hull, but he didn't often do things that "wowed" me, like a Lemieux, Bure, Gretzky etc.

 

[espo*]

my picks

Wayne Gretzky - (mind)
Mario Lemieux - (body)
Cam Neely - (total package)
Martin St. Louis - (name)
Stu Grimson - (interviews)

Orr - (best ever)

Well done...genius post SON OF ROCKY BAY!!!

 

[Masao]

The ones I enjoy watching more?

1. Lemieux and Gretzky, tied (no matter what, if there's a game involving any of those two on TV I'd miss my mother's funeral to watch that game. No other players come close to those two for me)

...

...

..

..

2. Paul Coffey - I miss seeing him take the puck in his zone and rush the length of the ice making opposing players look like monkeys... I miss ya Paul

3. Jaromir Jagr - in the 90s, with the long hair and the sick dekes... ah, he was the man.

4. Pavel Bure - Early 90s... old Canucks yellow/black uniform... he was unbelievable.

5. Sergei Fedorov - That guy had it all. One of the best Russian players ever and always a great show.

 

[RobQ73]

Fo rthsoe that have listed Bossy, I don't quite get him.

While I consider him to be one of the 2 or 3 best goal scorers I've ever seen, IMO he wasn't as "exciting" as the other players listed.

Bossy had an incredible shot, and was a better version of Brett Hull, but he didn't often do things that "wowed" me, like a Lemieux, Bure, Gretzky etc.

I see what you're saying, but I'm the type that finds any goal that isn't a rebound or tap-in to be exciting. My definition of exciting is how many oohs and ahhs a player would get from the crowd, not necessarily by how many dekes or odd-man rushes a player created. It can be loud like a MacInnis slapper, fast like a Bure rush or an exquisite tic-tac-toe power play one-timer that Bossy and Lemiuex were so great at. I listed Bossy first because of how quiet crowds would get every time he touched the puck. And I'll admit also because I am a homer and I saw him most often of all the greats.

 

[mcphee]

That's why I put Hull in there...I can remember going into the old garden with my dad in the pre -Bobby Orr days...Hull was a drawing card for the league in the mid and late 60's for sure. The Bruins were lucky in them days to draw 6 or 7 thousand some nights..when Chicago came to town with the Golden Jet, the place was packed.

Wally, I'm sure you've noticed how many Bruin fans there are in Mtl. I've always thought they evolved from Hawk fans. Most cities have a group that'll always root against the home team,in Mtl. it ran a bit deeper as there were sons of old Maroon fans who felt it there duty to hate the Habs. In the 60's these guys were all Chicago fans, great schoolyard fights. By the late 60's they'd all disappeared and the Orr Bruins were their team, and they sort of stuck with them. Every team had a guy designated to shadow Bobby Hull, but if he could leave his own zone with the puck, he was gone. You slowed him early or not at all.

 

[hockeyfan125]

So many lists without Mario and/or Wayne and/or Bobby.

I don't get it.

I don't know about others, but they are basically given, so I didn't bother to mention them.

 

[#66]

I see what you're saying, but I'm the type that finds any goal that isn't a rebound or tap-in to be exciting. My definition of exciting is how many oohs and ahhs a player would get from the crowd, not necessarily by how many dekes or odd-man rushes a player created. It can be loud like a MacInnis slapper, fast like a Bure rush or an exquisite tic-tac-toe power play one-timer that Bossy and Lemiuex were so great at. I listed Bossy first because of how quiet crowds would get every time he touched the puck. And I'll admit also because I am a homer and I saw him most often of all the greats.

Plus as soon as Bossy entered the "o" zone there was a chance that he would score. IMO his winding up to shoot was more exciting than a guy like Samsonov skating around people but getting 20 goals a year.

 

[PB37]

Guys I've seen play who you just could not help but expect something great to happen everytime they were on the ice:

1. Jagr
2. Lindros
3. Neely
4. Lemieux
5. Samsonav

 

[pei fan]

I'll toss Maurice Richard into the mix.

Look Buddy,I don't know who this Richard character is but I've done some research and he certainly hasn't played in the NHL in the last 20 years.Why did you have to go and ruin a perfectly good "all-time" list.By naming such a nobody you insult
the legend of such greats as Kovalchuk and Pavel"the Russian Rocket"Bure.
Don't you know on this board "all-time" generally means the last 20 years with
extra weighting given to last week(with an exception for Bobby Orr and
only because Don Cherry talks about him so much). You must be
new to here.Anyway next time don't post something so ridiculous.

 

[KOVALEV10*]

Look Buddy,I don't know who this Richard character is but I've done some research and he certainly hasn't played in the NHL in the last 20 years.Why did you have to go and ruin a perfectly good "all-time" list.By naming such a nobody you insult
the legend of such greats as Kovalchuk and Pavel"the Russian Rocket"Bure.
Don't you know on this board "all-time" generally means the last 20 years with
extra weighting given to last week(with an exception for Bobby Orr and
only because Don Cherry talks about him so much). You must be
new to here.Anyway next time don't post something so ridiculous.

What the hell?

 

[dawgbone]

What the hell?

it's called sarcasm....