Each franchise's top five players historically?

[Hardyvan123]

I was around at the time and I never thought I would live long enough to see a Red Wings top five list that did not include both Kelly and Lindsay as well as Sawchuk and Howe. Your estimation of Kelly's value is spot on in my view. But Lindsay provided a definite spark to the Wings; when the team needed a push, he stirred things up and got them going. Apart from his superb skills, he was gritty and determined--never say die.

That's the problem with selecting a limited number of top players from a team that has had several periods of success: you have to exclude players it kills you to exclude. It's the same with the team I support, the Canadiens. It's the original poster's fault; he should have asked for top 10 lists! Top 20?

I was thinking the same thing but can you imagine the top10 or 20 list for Florida or Anaheim.

Even for the Canucks, the team I have followed the most closely for my life the list gets pretty thin after the top 5 which is still kind of weak right now and has question marks besides some of the players listed, especially with the current group.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Gretzky
Messier
Dionne
Esposito
Leetch

Lundqvist on his way to the top, already made the list in my mind.

 

[Hardyvan123]

greatest Canucks
1. Pavel Bure
2. Trevor Linden
3. Daniel Sedin
4. Henrik Sedin
5. Roberto Luongo
9876. Mark Messier

HMs: Smyl, Gradin, Näslund, Lumme, McLean

Messier is 48th all time in Canucks scoring but your ranking is very astute as he did more to hurt the franchise than anyone in it's history with his ego and me 1st attitude.

 

[Hardyvan123]

You try to do a top 20 for the Blue Jackets without crying.

Federov is 13th all time in scoring for the Blue Jackets this list of all time points leaders is very telling.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=points

 

[Moses Doughty]

... Blake was probably my favorite Kings' player of all time, and if not for the injuries in the mid-90s and the years he spent in Colorado, he'd probably be number one on the list. But, as it is, I think he misses the top five for what he did as a King.

I feel like there needs to be SOME Dman on the list, and Blake easily is #1 for now. Him or Taylor is a solid 5

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Dallas

Modano
Zubov
Nieuwendyk
Turco
Belfour

HM: Lehtinen

I left out Hull because he only played 3 years with them

No Derian Hatcher?

Agree here and with a little bit different circumstances in their careers they might have been HHOF guys.

Elias will be in the Hall of Fame. It'll probably take awhile, but it will happen. He's exactly the type of player veterans committees induct.

 

[Hardyvan123]

No Derian Hatcher?



Elias will be in the Hall of Fame. It'll probably take awhile, but it will happen. He's exactly the type of player veterans committees induct.

Under the current format of 4 players per year, there will be too large of a logjam to put him in and aside from his playoff scoring in the 90's his career was good to very good but not excellent or great IMO.

Add that he was never quite the same after his illness it might be hard for him to get in.

 

[DungeonK]

Kovalchuk
Hossa
Enstrom
Savard
Kozlov

Atlanta / Winnipeg

 

[Peter9]

I was thinking the same thing but can you imagine the top10 or 20 list for Florida or Anaheim.

Even for the Canucks, the team I have followed the most closely for my life the list gets pretty thin after the top 5 which is still kind of weak right now and has question marks besides some of the players listed, especially with the current group.

I made my earlier remark--blaming the original poster for creating difficulties over who to exclude because he did not make it a top 10 or 20--somewhat tongue in cheek, hoping my use of an exclamation point would convey that. But I should know that subtlety does not go over on the web. Anyway, with some teams--including the Canadiens, as I know because I've tried a top 20--that would merely produce another quandary, hard decisions over who to exclude lower down the line at 10 or 20. As for teams like Florida or Anaheim, I would include only players I considered worthy and after exhausting those declare the remaining positions vacant and waiting to be filled.

 

[BubbaBoot]

Gretzky
Messier
Dionne
Esposito
Leetch

Lundqvist on his way to the top, already made the list in my mind.

Which franchise is this? The Rangers?

Gretzky and Dionne were way past their prime. Esposito never came close to the numbers he put up with the Bruins and was a -116.

- Messier
- Bathgate
- Leetch
- Howell
- Park

-- Gilbert
-- Ratelle
-- Esposito
-- Giacomin
-- Cook

 

[Peter9]

You try to do a top 20 for the Blue Jackets without crying.

Sorry, I must decline your invitation due to circumstances beyond my control. To state the obvious, not all teams are equal in terms of history and some just don't have a worthy top 20 or even a worthy top 10. But see my response to a similar comment above.

 

[BubbaBoot]

WHA Whalers
- Tom Webster
- Mark Howe
- Larry Pleau
- Gordie Howe
- George Lyle
-- Rick Ley

 

[mja]

Philadelphia Flyers
Bobby Clarke
Bernie Parent
Mark Howe
Eric Lindros
John LeClair

Barber over LeClair, otherwise spot on.

 

[jepjepjoo]

playoff ppg for the decade (which is obviously a bit of an arbitrary cutoff):

Forsberg: 1.11
Sakic: 0.98
Elias: 0.895
Zetterberg: 0.894

Actually Elias is 17th in playoff PPG 00-09... Anyway his 0.85 career playoff PPG or 0.89 for the decade says that he's far from "one of the best playoff scorers in NHL history".

 

[livewell68]

Gretzky
Messier
Dionne
Esposito
Leetch

Lundqvist on his way to the top, already made the list in my mind.

If you're going to put Esposito and Dionne, you might as well put Jagr.

Jagr was flat out dominant for the first 2 seasons as a Ranger and had a dominant playoff the 3rd season.

He owns single season goals, points and powerplay records for the Rangers.

Just saying.

However the best Rangers are Leetch, Ratelle, Howell, Bathgate, Gilbert, Messier.

 

[Hardyvan123]

Actually Elias is 17th in playoff PPG 00-09... Anyway his 0.85 career playoff PPG or 0.89 for the decade says that he's far from "one of the best playoff scorers in NHL history".

Well he is 17th in PPG and 1st in total overall points.

Logic would dictate that some of the players ahead of him on the PPG list would fall below him as they played more games.

In fact only 3 players ahead of him played more than 80 games and the next highest total is 63 which is quite a drop form the 114 that Elias played.

IMO, the point TDMM made is still vlaid.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Actually Elias is 17th in playoff PPG 00-09... Anyway his 0.85 career playoff PPG or 0.89 for the decade says that he's far from "one of the best playoff scorers in NHL history".

First in playoff points for the decade among all players. Sorry, honey, Selanne can't hold Elias's jock when it comes to the playoffs.

 

[BraveCanadian]

First in playoff points for the decade among all players. Sorry, honey, Selanne can't hold Elias's jock when it comes to the playoffs.

Selanne.. playoffs..

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

oh no, someone mentioned selanne. WWIII

 

[jepjepjoo]

First in playoff points for the decade among all players. Sorry, honey, Selanne can't hold Elias's jock when it comes to the playoffs.

Well there's no way in hell anyone else, but you could state "Elias is one of the best playoff scorers in the history of hockey". I dare you to find 1 person who agrees with that statement.

Nice touch bringing up Selanne. Argumentum ad hominem saves the day when you got nothing else.

While we are on the subject: Selanne's shortcomings in the playoffs are greatly exaggerated, but your blind hatred for him is so much greater than my fanboyism that you can't see it.

 

[Johnny Engine]

The last Rangers list at least had Bill Cook on it, but still no mention of Frank Boucher.

In my estimation:

1. Cook
2. Boucher
3. Leetch
4. Messier
5. Park

 

[BraveCanadian]

Well there's no way in hell anyone else, but you could state "Elias is one of the best playoff scorers in the history of hockey". I dare you to find 1 person who agrees with that statement.

Nice touch bringing up Selanne. Argumentum ad hominem saves the day when you got nothing else.

While we are on the subject: Selanne's shortcomings in the playoffs are greatly exaggerated, but your blind hatred for him is so much greater than my fanboyism that you can't see it.

Waiting for TDMM to respond to this one but in the meantime..

Elias leading the NHL over a decade stretch in playoff points is quite an accomplishment considering the league itself is less than 100 years old. Sure it is a little cherrypicked but..

Even over the span of his entire career (of full seasons, 97-2011), Elias is 4th in points and highest among players who are primarily wingers.

 

[Darrelle Lundqvist]

The last Rangers list at least had Bill Cook on it, but still no mention of Frank Boucher.

In my estimation:

1. Cook
2. Boucher
3. Leetch
4. Messier
5. Park

Good list. However I would have Gilbert ahead of Boucher possibly.

 

[jepjepjoo]

Waiting for TDMM to respond to this one but in the meantime..

Elias leading the NHL over a decade stretch in playoff points is quite an accomplishment considering the league itself is less than 100 years old. Sure it is a little cherrypicked but..

Even over the span of his entire career (of full seasons, 97-2011), Elias is 4th in points and highest among players who are primarily wingers.

Total playoff points is highly team dependant.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Total playoff points is highly team dependant.

Of course it is.. doing anything in the playoffs is highly team dependent.

Being productive over a lot of playoff games is an impressive feat in the NHL.

Elias does ok in PPG too as we saw earlier in the thread.