Create the best 5 man unit possible without the use of Gretzky/Lemieux/Orr/Howe

[Hockey Outsider]

Brett Hull Brett Gretzky Brett Lindros

Brett Kessel Brett Lebda

my team is bretter.

Nice, but I think there are a few teams that would beat team Brett.

Team Bobby

Hull - Clarke - Bauer
Orr - Dollas
Taylor

Best defenseman of all-time, best LW of all-time, HOF centre, HOF RW. The only weakness is the goalie and #2 D.

Team Alex/Alexander/Alexei/Alec

Ovechkin - Delvecchio - Maltsev
Ragulin - Kasatonov
Connell

Future HOF LW, HOF centre, HOF goalie, and three Soviet greats. (If it's too much of a stretch to include Alec Connell, you can replace him with Alex Auld, but obviously that's a step down).

Team Bill(y)

Barber - Cowley - Cook
Gadsby - Quackenbush
Smith

Five HOFers - everyone except Barber, who isn't far off. If we want to restrict this to "Bills" only, we'd replace Smith with Durnan in goal, so we'd still have five HOF'ers.

Team Doug

Bentley - Gilmour - Brown
Harvey - Wilson
Favell

Three HOFers (including arguably the 2nd best defenseman of all-time), and another defenseman who's just outside of the HOF. Weaknesses are the RW and especially the goalie.

Team Mike

Knuble - Modano - Bossy
Ramsay - Green
Vernon

Two HOF forwards, and a very good goalie. Fairly weak D compared to the other teams (but they complement each other well). Would be quite a bit better if Gartner was moved to LW to replace Knuble.

Team Brian/Bryan

Propp - Trottier - Hextall
Leetch - Rafalski
Hayward

Two HOF forwards (with Propp not too far outside), a HOF defensemen, and a solid goalie.

Team Wayne

Cashman - Gretzky - Babych
Hillman - McBean
Stephenson

Even with the greatest player of all-time, this team would struggle against the competition. Babych had one amazing season (54 goals, 96 points), but replace him with the steadier, more dependable Simmonds if you prefer.

 

[Kase]

I have to limit this to active players only as I don't have that priviledge of seeing Gretzky and the other greats play.

Benn - Crosby - P.Kane

Vlasic - Doughty

Elite fire power in offence. Elite transition and defensive ability in defence.
Could have put someone like Karlsson or Letang in there too, but I appreciate Doughty's and Vlasic's defensive ability over puck carrying of Karlsson. Just give the puck to the forwards and let them do their magic.

Note: this is in the players' current form, otherwise I would have Jagr there obviously.