NHL first-, second- and third-team all-stars (1968-2023)

[Rabid Ranger]

Interesting stuff. What this emphasizes to me is how thin down the middle the U.S. has historically been. Yes, there have been some bright lights (Lafontaine, Modano, Weight) but not much depth. Also, maybe it missed it-but did Tony Amonte not register at RW?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Ah Cup counting. You tell me, what makes Bobby Hull's 1 Cup in a 6 team league so much more impressive than Ovechkin's playoff record?

Is it a binary thing? Once you win the Cup (any number of them), you can check that off your resume and be considered great? Because otherwise we might need to start talking about Lindsay's 4-1 advantage in Cups over Bobby Hull.

to be fair, bobby hull does have a significantly fuller playoff resume than ovechkin. more high end runs, led the playoffs in goals three times.

that said, i do of course disagree with sentinel, which was i think your larger point: ovechkin is closer to hull than he is to dionne.

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Great to have these all in one spot, thanks for the pre-expansion additions. Just a head's up, Bathgate was a 2 time First Team All-Star (1959 and 1962).

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Great to have these all in one spot, thanks for the pre-expansion additions. Just a head's up, Bathgate was a 2 time First Team All-Star (1959 and 1962).

Thanks. Looks like I was getting a little sloppy by the time I got to RW. I gave one of Bathgate's 1st Teams to Bernie Geoffrion for no good reason... both of them are fixed now. Also missed that Gordie Drillon and Cecil Dillon were tied for the 1st Team in 1938; that has been fixed now.

On the centers list, I also got confused by the missing votes in 1935 and had Joliat and Gottselig switched between 2nd and 3rd team. That is also fixed.

Everything has been double checked now.

 

[pappyline]

NHL all-star data (1931-1967): right wing

I was able to award a 3rd Team All Star in every season but 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1955. 1955 was probably Gordie Howe though (see notes below).

Player | First | Second | Third | Total
Gordie Howe | 9 | 9 | 1 | 19
Maurice Richard | 7 | 7 | 1 | 15
Andy Bathgate | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8
Charlie Conacher** | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6
Bernie Geoffrion | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6
Bill Cook* | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5
Gordie Drillon | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5
Bill Monsienko | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5
Bryan Hextall | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4
Larry Aurie | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4
Bobby Bauer | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4
Lorne Carr | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3
Cecil Dillon | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3
Dit Clapper** | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3
Ken Wharram | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2
Claude Provost | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2
Rod Gilbert | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2
Bud Poile | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1
Bob Rousseau | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1
Jimmy Ward** | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Johnny Gagnon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Charlie Sands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Alex Shibicky | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Eddie Wiseman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Joe Benoit | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Don Gallinger | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Johnny Peirson | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Jerry Toppazzini | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1
Bob Nevin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1

Notes

• *Bill Cook was 34 years old in 1931 and still managed to amass 5 All-Star nods from that age on. Pretty incredible.
• **Dit Clapper likely had an AS-calibre year in 1930. Charlie Conacher and Jimmy Ward played some hockey before 1931 too.
• By my system for figuring out rankings in the 1930s (2 points for a 1st Team; 1 point for a 2nd Team), Hooley Smith would have beaten Dit Clapper out 4 points to 3 for the 3rd Team in 1932. But Smith was an official 2nd Team All Star at Center, so I gave the 3rd Team to Clapper.
• There are discrepancies in the 1935 data, but it appears that Bill Cook and Larry Aurie tied for 3rd Team All Star that season.
• If our data is correct, in 1943, 1st Teamer Lorne Carr had 8 1st place votes and 10 2nd place votes and 2nd Teamer Bryan Hextall had 6 1st place and 7 2nd place votes. Joe Benoit had 9 1st place and 4 2nd place votes. No idea how Bryan Hextall finished ahead of Benoit on the official teams, but I gave Benoit the 3rd Team.
• Gordie Howe was a 1st or 2nd Team AS every season from 1949-1970, except for 1955 when he lost out to Maurice Richard and Bernie Geoffrion! He was also a 3rd Teamer in 1948 and was probably a 3rd Teamer in 1955.
• Maurice Richard was a 1st or 2nd Team AS every season from 1944-1957 and was a 3rd Team All Star in 1958!
• People talk about how impossible it was to win an All-Star nod at center in the time of Gretzky and Lemieux. Howe and Richard literally owned the RW AS spot every year from 1949-1957, except for 1955 when Howe had an "off" year, finishing 5th in points and Geoffrion won the Art Ross.
• Unfortunately, we don't have data for 3rd Team All Stars in 1951, 1952, or 1953, so we don't know who finished behind the Howe/Richard duo those years. In 1951, no other RW finished close to them, so it's impossible to tell who it probably would have been. In 1952, it was almost certainly Bernie Geoffrion (6th in scoring) or Bill Monsienko (7th in scoring). In 1953, it was almost certainly Wally Hergesheimer (4th in scoring in by far the best season of his career).
• We also don't have data for 3rd Team All Star in 1955, but it was almost certainly Howe, who finished 5th in overall league scoring. I did not, however, give Howe the official 3rd Team in the table above.

Litzenberger sure got screwed by the first half voting in 57-58 and 58-59. Logically, based on points, he should have made the third team both years. Beat out by Richard in 57-58 even though Richard only played half a season. Beaten by both Geoffrion & Richard in 58-59 even though both players missed a significant number of games.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Litzenberger sure got screwed by the first half voting in 57-58 and 58-59. Logically, based on points, he should have made the third team both years. Beat out by Richard in 57-58 even though Richard only played half a season. Beaten by both Geoffrion & Richard in 58-59 even though both players missed a significant number of games.

Yeah, the first half/second half voting sure seems to have favored players who were great one half of a season and did nothing in the other half, over guys who were consistently good for the whole season. Amazing they stuck with it so long.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Hmm really interesting. Good read

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Thanks for the comments everyone (sorry for taking five months to reply to my own thread).

Excellent research, TDMM. I fully intended to do that research in the future, but you beat me to it (and did a great job).

Interesting stuff. What this emphasizes to me is how thin down the middle the U.S. has historically been. Yes, there have been some bright lights (Lafontaine, Modano, Weight) but not much depth. Also, maybe it missed it-but did Tony Amonte not register at RW?

Correct, Amonte never placed in the top three in all-star voting.

In 1997, he was a distant fourth (behind Selanne, Jagr and Palffy). In 1999, he was a distant fourth again (behind Jagr, Selanne and Fleury). 2000 was clearly the best season of his career but he barely received any votes, largely because so many Rws had excellent seasons (six of the top seven scorers were RW). Amonte finished 5th behind Jagr, Bure, Nolan and Recchi that year. (He also received a trivial number of votes in a few other seasons).

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

Agreed about Ovechkin. If he was Canadian, he would held in much higher esteem.

Clearly, these selections are based on offensive statistics. However, its a mystery to me how Bob Gainey never got at least one 3rd team AS for his play. As I said in another thread, they created a trophy after his play.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Correct, defensive forwards don't seem to get much support when it comes to all-star voting. Here's a list (from post #7) about defensive forwards who never finished in the top three: Gainey, Carbonneau, Lehtinen, Ramsay, Peca, Jarvis, etc.

Gainey finished fourth in consecutive years. In 1979 he finished behind Gillies, Barber and Shutt, and in 1980 he finished behind Simmer, Shutt and Payne. It's remarkable that he was even close to them in voting given that he finished 53, 42 and 39 points behind his competitors in 1979, and 68, 56 and 52 points behind in 1980. You could possibly argue that his defensive play offsets the gap in offense, but I don't think that's a given.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2014 results

First centre: Sidney Crosby (3 first, 1 second, 2 third; 6 total)
Second centre: Ryan Getzlaf (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third centre: Claude Giroux (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First LW: Jamie Benn (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second LW: Joe Pavelski (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third LW: Patrick Sharp (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First RW: Corey Perry (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second RW: Alexander Ovechkin (6 first (five LW, one RW), 2 second (one LW, one RW), 0 third; 8 total)
Third RW: Phil Kessel (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First defense: Duncan Keith (2 first, 0 second, 1 third; 3 total)
First defense: Zdeno Chara (3 first, 4 second, 1 third; 8 total)
Second defense: Shea Weber (2 first, 1 second, 1 third; 4 total)
Second defense: Alex Pietrangelo (0 first, 2 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third defense: Ryan Suter (1 first, 0 second, 2 third; 3 total)
Third defense: Drew Doughty (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

First goalie: Tuukka Rask (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second goalie: Semyon Varlamov (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third goalie: Ben Bishop (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

Observations

- Fortunately there were no weird results this year (i.e. a player getting nominated to more than one team) which means no need for a lengthy essay like last year.

- We have eight players making their first-ever appearance on an all-star team this season. Interestingly, this applies to all three LWs, all three goalies, one RW (Kessel) and one centre (Getzlaf - I was somewhat surprised, but competition is tough).

- Consolidating his record at both wings, Ovechkin has more all-star seasons than any winger except Bossy (tied with Jagr and Robitaille).

- Chara continues to move up the defensemen list. Incredibly, only five defensemen (Bourque, Lidstrom, Coffey, Park and Chelios) have more years as an all-star.

- Weber and Keith are both probably a few good years away from being Hall of Fame locks. Suter, despite having a fairly similar all-star record, is a bit behind both IMO.

- Crosby now has an all-star record ranking between Clarke and Sakic. I know that it's a big "if", but should he earn four more all-star nods, he'd be the only forward other than Gretzky to become a ten-time all-star. Ovechkin could get there as well (in fact, he's ahead 8-6 at the moment).

- Giroux, Perry, Pietrangelo and Doughty are all two-time all-stars. There are a number of two-time all-stars with fairly unremarkable careers, but they`re also in a position to push themselves into HOF territory with several more strong seasons. Time will tell.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

2014 results

First centre: Sidney Crosby (3 first, 1 second, 2 third; 6 total)
Second centre: Ryan Getzlaf (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third centre: Claude Giroux (0 first, 0 second, 2 third; 2 total)

First LW: Jamie Benn (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second LW: Joe Pavelski (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third LW: Patrick Sharp (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First RW: Corey Perry (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second RW: Alexander Ovechkin (6 first (five LW, one RW), 2 second (one LW, one RW), 0 third; 8 total)
Third RW: Phil Kessel (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First defense: Duncan Keith (2 first, 0 second, 1 third; 3 total)
First defense: Zdeno Chara (3 first, 4 second, 1 third; 8 total)
Second defense: Shea Weber (2 first, 1 second, 1 third; 4 total)
Second defense: Alex Pietrangelo (0 first, 2 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third defense: Ryan Suter (1 first, 0 second, 2 third; 3 total)
Third defense: Drew Doughty (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

First goalie: Tuukka Rask (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second goalie: Semyon Varlamov (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third goalie: Ben Bishop (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

Observations

- Fortunately there were no weird results this year (i.e. a player getting nominated to more than one team) which means no need for a lengthy essay like last year.

- We have eight players making their first-ever appearance on an all-star team this season. Interestingly, this applies to all three LWs, all three goalies, one RW (Kessel) and one centre (Getzlaf - I was somewhat surprised, but competition is tough).

- Consolidating his record at both wings, Ovechkin has more all-star seasons than any winger except Bossy (tied with Jagr and Robitaille).

- Chara continues to move up the defensemen list. Incredibly, only five defensemen (Bourque, Lidstrom, Coffey, Park and Chelios) have more years as an all-star.

- Weber and Keith are both probably a few good years away from being Hall of Fame locks. Suter, despite having a fairly similar all-star record, is a bit behind both IMO.

- Crosby now has an all-star record ranking between Clarke and Sakic. I know that it's a big "if", but should he earn four more all-star nods, he'd be the only forward other than Gretzky to become a ten-time all-star. Ovechkin could get there as well (in fact, he's ahead 8-6 at the moment).

- Giroux, Perry, Pietrangelo and Doughty are all two-time all-stars. There are a number of two-time all-stars with fairly unremarkable careers, but they`re also in a position to push themselves into HOF territory with several more strong seasons. Time will tell.

I was taken aback by some of this, then remembered you are only talking post expansion. Crazy that Ovechkin is that close to being #1 among postexpansion wingers in all star nods

 

[Plural]

Am I missing something here HO? You say Ovechkin has more all-star selections than anyone except Bossy? Maurice Richard and Gordie Howe are ahead of him too, right?

Edit: TDMM explained this.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Yes, sorry for the confusion, my posts are looking at 1968-present. I don`t mean to discard all of the hard work TDMM did filling in previous years, but I haven`t had time to do a full update either.

In the context of the posts I`ve written, keep in mind that everything is in reference to post-expansion only. TDMM`s posts should be referred to for all-time rankings.

 

[canuck2010]

Great stuff, HO



This doesn't surprise me. Stastny's offensive production was extremely similar to Hawerchuk and Savard, and a big reason he was the 2nd highest scorer of the 80s is because his prime perfectly corresponded to the 1980s. Dale Hawerchuk, for example, is the second highest scorer for the decade starting with his rookie year (1981-82). So I'm not surprised to see not all that much difference between the all-star records of the three of them.

- I'd bet that all 18 centres with three all-star selections will one day earn a spot in the Hall of Fame (even youngsters like Malkin and Stamkos, and the notorious Lindros).

I think Ovechkin is clearly on pace to become the second best LW in hockey history, but he can't fall off the face of the earth again.[/QUOTE]

He would have to come back in another life to be the second best LW in hockey history.

 

[begbeee]

He would have to come back in another life to be the second best LW in hockey history.

And who is his competition? OK, Hull is the best one. Whose the second best better than Ovechkin? Really curious, cause from top of my head, I can't recall anybody else, so I think Ovechkin has a strong case.

 

[Sprague Cleghorn]

And who is his competition? OK, Hull is the best one. Whose the second best better than Ovechkin? Really curious, cause from top of my head, I can't recall anybody else, so I think Ovechkin has a strong case.

Ted Lindsay? Definite argument can be made that Ovechkin hasn't surpassed Lindsay yet.

 

[begbeee]

Ok, I would love to hear it, because he really has not much more than SCs on him.

 

[Beau Knows]

Ted Lindsay? Definite argument can be made that Ovechkin hasn't surpassed Lindsay yet.

I don't see it.

 

[Hardyvan123]

Ted Lindsay? Definite argument can be made that Ovechkin hasn't surpassed Lindsay yet.

would love to hear it.

AO has his faults but his scoring resume is probably good enough to be the 2nd best LW of all time and probably a top 10 winger as well.

His peak and prime offensively is easily top 3-5.

 

[Sprague Cleghorn]

Ok, I would love to hear it, because he really has not much more than SCs on him.

I don't see it.

would love to hear it.

AO has his faults but his scoring resume is probably good enough to be the 2nd best LW of all time and probably a top 10 winger as well.

His peak and prime offensively is easily top 3-5.

I'm not advocating myself that Lindsay is better, in fact I think Ovechkin has surpassed him (by a slim margin). One could say that Lindsay has the superior playoff resume, while Ovechkin slightly edges out Lindsay is RS but it's not enough to close the gap?

 

[Hockey Outsider]

2015 results

First centre: John Tavares (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second centre: Sidney Crosby (3 first, 2 second, 2 third; 7 total)
Third centre: Ryan Getzlaf (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)

First LW: Alexander Ovechkin (7 first (six LW, one RW), 2 second (one LW, one RW), 0 third; 9 total)
Second LW: Jamie Benn (1 first, 1 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Third LW: Rick Nash (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First RW: Jakub Voracek (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second RW: Vladimir Tasarenko (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third RW: Jiri Hudler (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First defense: Erik Karlsson (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
First defense: P.K. Subban (2 first, 0 second, 0 third; 2 total)
Second defense: Drew Doughty (0 first, 1 second, 1 third; 2 total)
Second defense: Shea Weber (2 first, 2 second, 1 third; 5 total)
Third defense: Roman Josi (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)
Third defense: Mark Giordano (0 first, 0 second, 1 third; 1 total)

First goalie: Carey Price (1 first, 0 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Second goalie: Devan Dubnyk (0 first, 1 second, 0 third; 1 total)
Third goalie: Pekka Rinne (0 first, 1 second, 2 third; 3 total)

Observations

- At age 27, Sidney Crosby is already in fourth place among centres - behind only Gretzky, Lemieux and Esposito - with seven selections.

- Ovechkin has now been named an all-star in nine of the first ten years of his career (though the record books show that he has ten selections in ten years thanks to the voting debacle in 2013 that resulted in him somehow being to both the first and second team). The only players to match this are Gretzky (7-3-0 through his first ten seasons), Bourque (6-4-0) and Bossy (5-3-1).

- Shea Weber keeps adding to his resume. He`s very close to being a HOF lock based on historical precedents.

- Carey Price was extremely close to a unanimous selection in 2015 - he was named to the first team on 151 of 152 ballots, and was second place on that last ballot. Believe it or not, even during Hasek's prime, he never had such a decisive victory in all-star voting.

- Nine players made their first-ever appearance on the all-star team this year (all three RWs, two defensemen, two goalies, one centre and one LW).

- I had Rick Nash on my list of "best players to never make the all-star team". (It was a long list). He's been removed thanks to his sport on the third team in 2015.

- Duncan Keith had an outstanding spring - maybe the best playoffs by a skater since Malkin and Crosby in 2009. Once again he misses a spot on the all-star team by a fairly narrow margin (he was 7th in voting, as he was in 2009 as well).

 

[Voight]

- I had Rick Nash on my list of "best players to never make the all-star team". (It was a long list). He's been removed thanks to his sport on the third team in 2015.

Technically he still hasn't made one in the NHL

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Technically he still hasn't made one in the NHL

Haha, true, I like to pretend these third all-star teams count for something. (If not, then players like Ron Francis and Peter Stastny are so far ahead of Nash that he doesn't even enter the conversation).

 

[Voight]

Haha, true, I like to pretend these third all-star teams count for something. (If not, then players like Ron Francis and Peter Stastny are so far ahead of Nash that he doesn't even enter the conversation).

They should have them like the NBA does, but NHL gon' NHL.