Rank top 30 players of all time!! (15 forwards, 10 defenseman, 5 goalies)

Here are mine:

Forwards: (15)
1-Mario Lemieux
2-Wayne Gretzky
3-Rocket Richard
4-Guy Lafleur
5-Gordie Howe
6-Jean Beliveau
7-Mike Bossy
8-Marcel Dionne
9-Bobby Hull
10-Frank Mahovlich
11-Mark Messier
12-Pavel Buré
13-Bob Gainey
14-Ted Lindsay
15-Yvan Cournoyer

Defenseman: (10)

1- Bobby Orr
2- Doug Harvey
3- Paul Coffee
4- Larry Robinson
5- Ray Bouque
6- Denis Potvin
7- Serge Savard
8- Guy Lapointe
9- Marcel Pronovost
10-Al Maccinis

Goalies: (5)

1- Jacques Plante
2- Patrick Roy
3- Terry Sawchuck
4- Dominik Hasek
5- Glen Hall

 

prepare yourself; you have been warned

 

None of those guys should be on your list.


Forwards: (15)
1- Wayne Gretzky
2- Gordie Howe
3- Mario Lemieux
4- Rocket Richard
5- Jean Beliveau
6- Bobby Hull
7- Mark Messier
8- Guy Lafleur
9- Stan Mikita
10- Phil Esposito
11- Howie Morenz
12- Mike Bossy
13- Bobby Clarke
14- Ted Lindsay
15- Bryan Trottier

Defenseman: (10)

1- Bobby Orr
2- Doug Harvey
3- Ray Bourque
4- Eddie Shore
5- Larry Robinson
6- Denis Potvin
7- Red Kelly
8- Paul Coffey
9- Chris Chelios
10- Dit Clapper

Goalies: (5)

1- Jacques Plante
2- Patrick Roy
3- Terry Sawchuck
4- Dominik Hasek
5- Glen Hall

Of course that's an NHL list. A true all-time list would be different with the addition of Fetisov, Makarov, Lalonde and others.

 

I like lists

1 Wayne Gretzky
2 Mario Lemieux
3 Gordie Howe
4 Jean Beliveau
5 Maurice Richard
6 Bobby Hull
7 Ted Lindsay
8 Stan Mikita
9 Mark Messier
10 Howie Morenz
11 Steve Yzerman
12 Brett Hull
13 Guy Lafleur
14 Mike Bossy
15 Phil Esposito

1 Bobby Orr
2 Ray Bourque
3 Doug Harvey
4 Eddie Shore
5 Larry Robinson
6 Denis Potvin
7 Paul Coffey
8 Pierre Pilotte
9 Dit Clapper
10 Nicklas Lidstrom

1 Terry Sawchuck
2 Patrick Roy
3 Jacques Plante
4 Dominek Hasek
5 Glenn Hall

 

Here is the team I would want to go to war with, just from my hockey watching generation:

1. Patrick Roy
2. Billy Smith

1. Bobby Orr
2. Larry Robinson (IMO the 2nd best all time)
3. Denis Potvin
4. Borje Salming
5. Brad Park
6. Ray Bourque
7. Paul Coffey (dressed as a 7th d and PP specialist)

I'd pair Orr with Salming; Robinson and Potvin would play with the first line just to provide a steady presence as well as two guys who move the puck out of their own end well; Bourque and Park reunion as the 3rd pair. Coffey would play with Orr on the first PP (we proably don't have to use a 2nd with Gretzky, Lemieux and Bossy up front)

1. Gretzky
1. Lemieux
1. Hawerchuk
2. Lafleur
2. Sittler
2. McDonald
3. Gainey
3. Goring
3. Yzerman
4. Beliveau (cripes he retired a year before I was born but i couldn't leave him off)
4. Bossy (PP Specialist)

My 3rd line of Yzerman Goring and Gainey would absolutely smother the opposition. Gretzky with Lemieux and Hawerchuk.... It worked before! Sittler McDonald and Lafleur would be a great combination of speed, skill, and 2/3 grit)
Bossy is around for the PP

 

Hawerchuk didn't play with Gretzky and Lemieux much at all during the 87 Canada Cup. He was out to take that face-off, where they went down and scored the game winner, but he was usually playing on the 3rd line.

Gretzky and Lemieux usually had either Bryan Propp or Rick Tocchet riding shot gun.

 

My list, didn't break it down by position:

My criteria - essential cutoff is players that I've watched them play their best years approx. 1980 on.

None of the stars of the Habs Cup wins during the late 70's are included. The stars of the Isles dynasty are included. Most borderline player to make the list, Marcel Dionne.

Next, if a player is currently active I do not try and project the future. For the purposes of this list their careers have ended tonight.

Durability is a factor; therefore I asked myself questions such as: Would I rather have had 580 games of Peter Forsberg or 1,600 games of Larry Murphy ???

Therefore this is not a "Who was best in his prime?" list.

As you'll see very few wingers on my list. IMO the least important position on a hockey team, therefore the least represented on my list. I thought of who would I want to build a team around.

One other point, that I forgot to make. This list only considers playing careers in the NHL, as well as major international best-on-best tournaments. Therefore no Fetisov, Makarov etc. who certainly were good enough to place highly on this list

Enough with the criteria and such, now onto the list:

1. Gretzky
2. Lemieux
3. Bourque
4. Roy
5. Yzerman
6. Messier
7. Potvin
8. Hasek
9. Bossy
10. Trottier
11. Coffey
12. Sakic
13. Jagr
14. MacInnis
15. Chelios
16. Stevens
17. Hull
18. Stastny
19. Hawerchuk
20. Brodeur
21. Kurri
22. Lidstrom
23. Fuhr
24. Smith
25. Leetch
26. Francis
27. Sundin
28. Fedorov
29. Dionne
30. Howe
31. Belfour
32. Gilmour
33. Oates
34. Murphy
35. Shanahan
36. Robitaille
37. Langway
38. Forsberg
39. Pronger
40. Recchi
41. Niedermayer
42. Blake
43. Barasso
44. Richter
45. Roenick
46. Modano
47. Lindros
48. Gartner
49. Nieuwendyk
50. Lafontaine

 

Goalies:
1. Terry Sawchuk
2. Patrick Roy
3. Jacques Plante
4. Glenn Hall
5. Ken Dryden(biased towards Hasek, that's probably only reason he isn't there)

Defencemen:
1. Bobby Orr
2. Doug Harvey
3. Eddie Shore
4. Ray Bourque
5. Denis Potvin
6. Larry Robinson
7. Red Kelly
8. Paul Coffey
9. Dit Clapper
10. Nicklas Lidstrom

Forwards:
1. Wayne Gretzky
2. Mario Lemieux
3. Gordie Howe
4. Maurice Richard
5. Jean Beliveau
6. Bobby Hull
7. Guy Lafleur
8. Mark Messier
9. Howie Morenz
10. Phil Esposito
11. Stan Mikita
12. Mike Bossy
13. Jaromir Jagr
14. Ted Lindsay
15. Bobby Clarke

 

Why the large difference between Sundin and Modano?

 

The difference from 26-50 is minimal for all players.

Personal preference on my part for Sundin over Modano. Also I put this list together in the Spring, and with Modano coming off a very poor year and playoffs, I probably dropped him a bit below where he should have.

 

Forwards:
[1.]Lemieux
[2.]Gretzky
[3.]Richard
[4.]Howe
[5.]Beliveau
[6.]Bossy
[7.]Hull
[8.]Trottier
[9.]Lafluer
[10.]Messier
[11.]Mahovlich
[12.]Schmidt
[13.]Mikita
[14.]Dionne
[15.]Lalonde

Defense: [1.]Orr- IMO #1 overall
[2.]Potvin
[3.]Harvey
[4.]Bourque
[5.]Shore
[6.]Kelly
[7.]Robinson
[8.]Coffey
[9.]Park
[10]MacInnis

Goalies:
[1.]Roy
[2.]Sawchuk
[3.]Hall
[4.]Plante
[5.]Hasek

 

I'm honestly suprised Brodeur is on nobody's list.

Yes, he may be playing in an extremely defensive era, but he still consistently puts up better numbers than all other NHL goalies year after year, and does it without the gargantuan pads.

 

I was so close to putting him on and IMO its kind of a toss up with Hasek. He has that "product of his team" thing going on but so did Plante, Dryden and alot of the great all time goalies. If he had won consecutive championships then I would have bumped him up a notch or two but for right now I'll put him at 5B to Haseks 5A.

 

Pierre McGuire's top D list was featured tonight on TSN:

Orr
Harvey
Shore
Potvin
Robinson
Bourque

Similar to my historical list (not the who i saw list). I liked Robinson slightly better than Potvin.
He also said that Fetisov would be considered in the group with Robinson, Bourque, and Potvin if he had played his whole career on this side of the pond.

 

I'm a die-hard Bruins fan, but I can't consider Bourque a top 5 D-Man all time
He was great for a long time, top 15 I'll understand, but he can't be anywhere near orr or Eddie Shore

 

I'll do 30 players that I've actually seen, so no Howie Morenz, Eddie Shore or Georges Vezina on my list:

Forwards

W. Gretzky
M. Lemieux
G. Lafleur
M. Dionne
S. Yzerman
G. Howe
M. Messier
M. Bossy
V. Kharlamov
B. Trottier
G. Perreault
P. Stastny
J. Kurri
J. Jagr
B. Hull

Honorable Mentions: I. Larionov, P. LaFontaine, D. Savard, R. Middleton, D. Sittler, P. Forsberg, J. Sakic, P. Esposito


Defensemen

R. Bourque
L. Robinson
D. Potvin
V. Fetisov
P. Coffey
N. Lidstrom
R. Langway
C. Chelios
M. Howe
B. Park

Honorable Mentions: S. Savard, A. Kasatonov, R. Blake, A. MacInnis, L. Murphy, S. Stevens


Goaltenders

D. Hasek
V. Tretiak
K. Dryden
P. Roy
G. Fuhr

Honorable Mentions: B. Parent, T. Esposito, M. Brodeur

 

Goalies

Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden, Martin Brodeur

Defence

Bobby Orr, Doug Harvey, Larry Robinson, Denis Potvin, Eddie Shore, Serge Savard, Brad Park, Paul Coffey, Ray Bourque, Rod Langway.

Forwards

Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Rocket Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, Gilbert Perreault, Marcel Dionne, Mark Messier, Howie Morenz, Mike Bossy, Steve Yzerman, Frank Mahovlich, Red Kelly.

 

Warned? For what? Bure was one of the best players ever in the NHL and if he didnt get injured and cut his NHL short he would be on everyones top 15 list in a few years. He could have easily amassed over 600 goals if he played a few more seasons.

 

No he couldn't, he was around 200 goals away. If he had actually tried with the Canucks for a few of those years (damn right I am bitter). Furthermore while he could play great for short spurts of time (see when he first went to New York), he was very injury prone, and as the season progressed he became worse and worse. Add to that the fact that he has played in a total of 4 games in the playoffs since 1995 and I really don't think he deserves any consideration for much of anything when it comes to being on the top 15 forwards of all time, not by a long shot...

He was 33 when he sort of retired getting up to 34, so it is reasonable to state he wason the downside of his career. So if he was able to score 40 goals for a couple of seasons, which is a very good total for an aging player he would still need 80 goals to reach 600. So now you are thinking that a 36 year old player can score 40 goals a year? Not only that you are counting on a 37 year old player to score 40 goals in a year. Well I am sorry to say this but there is no way that Bure would hit the 600 mark, even if he did play another 5 years.

My list.

Forwards:
Gretzky
Lemieux
Howe
Messier
Bossy
Hull (Bobby)
Lafleur
Kharlamov
Trottier
Sakic
Yzerman
Clarke
Esposito
Beliveau
Richard (even though I haven't been able to see much video.. the stories)

Defense
Orr
Chelios
Potvin
Lidstrom
Bourque
Fetisov
Harvey
Will put more later I have a paper to write

Haven't seen some of the older greats, such as Harvey so I favoured more modern players.

Goaltenders:
Roy
Hasek
Tretiak
Parent
Brodeur

Once again with older players.

 

I'd be hard pressed to beat this list. Nice one..

I'd put Jaromir Jagr, Phil Esposito, Bobby Clarke and Stan Mikita in the top 15 forwards ahead of Frank Mahovlich, Steve Yzerman, Howie Morenz and Red Kelly, though. And for now, I'd have placed Hasek ahead of Brodeur in the top five goalies. Can't see any other glaring omissions, though.

 

1. How can you rate anyone over gretzky
2. How can you but Pavel Bure on at top 100 forwards of all time list, never mind at top 15
3. What has pronovost done to get the nod over Phil Housely, Nick Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, and Larry Robinson among others?
4. Hands down, Sawchuk should be the best goalie ever. I also think another guy who should be near the top 5 list is Esposito, not to mention George Hainsworth, or Georgez Vezina.

 

...interesting choice

 

Great List

 

what, no Rob Schremp on any of these lists? (sorry Oil fans, I just had to)

 

This thread is unbelievable! Do you guy's think if you make enough of these stupid
lists that eventually everyone that knows better will die off and you will re-write
history.It's not gonna happen so grow up.Bure :lol Howe at #30-The only way that
is somewhat believable is if you're referring to Mark Howe. I don't know
whether to laugh or cry so maybe I'll just