The Greatest Ever... (Leaf, Ranger, Predator, Senator, Hab, Soviet, etc)

JackSlater

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Apr 27, 2010
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It's really not close.

Brodeur is easy #1 for NJ, since he spent his whole career there. Stevens easy #2. I actually prefer Elias over Niedermayer for #3, but I'm probably in the minority.

Have Devils fans collectively agreed to block this out?

martin-brodeur-featured.jpg
 
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VanIslander

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Since Weber left Nashville, Rinne led the NHL in playoff wins to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The following two years he backstopped the Preds to back-to-back divisional titles.

Rinne is top 5 in career wins among NHL goalies today, all in Nashville, and he could pass Hasek and Fuhr in all-time regular season wins with two more great years.
 

tony d

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Jun 23, 2007
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Behind A Tree
Leaf- Syl Apps
Ranger- Bill Cook
Predator - Shea Weber
Canadien - Jean Beliveau
Senator- Daniel Alfredsson
Soviet- Slava Fetisov

Shark- Joe Thornton

This will get people wondering, best Minnesota Wild ever? Gaborik? Or someone else?
 
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GMR

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Am I the only person on this forum who thinks Richard was the best Montreal player ever? I feel like Beliveau has him beaten comfortably for most posters here. I have no issue with that, just feel like I'm in the minority. I wonder if 20 or 30 years ago, that would still be the case among voters.
 

The Panther

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Am I the only person on this forum who thinks Richard was the best Montreal player ever? I feel like Beliveau has him beaten comfortably for most posters here. I have no issue with that, just feel like I'm in the minority. I wonder if 20 or 30 years ago, that would still be the case among voters.
To me, the big 3 Montreal forwards are Richard, Beliveau, and Lafleur. I think no player has gone down in the 'consensus rankings' more than Guy Lafleur in the past couple of decades. I can think of a few reasons why, including his old-man comeback with NYR/Quebec being some fans' (like mine) only memory of him, or today's general opinion of the mid-to-late 1970s as a relatively weaker era in the NHL and Lafleur's team as being great with or without him (Dryden gets under-rated for the same reason).

I think Lafleur is up there, but the main issue with his legacy is his longevity wasn't comparable to Richard's or Beliveau's.

And no, I don't think you're necessarily wrong in naming Richard as the greatest Canadien. He was 1st or 2nd in goals-per-game ten times (that's more than Gordie Howe, btw), was 1st or 2nd-team All Star at right wing fourteen times, was 1st or 2nd in points-per-game five times, and for many years in late career and after retirement was the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer by a country kilometer. He was also arguably the greatest playoff performer ever. So, it's not bad.
 
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quoipourquoi

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Jan 26, 2009
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Am I the only person on this forum who thinks Richard was the best Montreal player ever? I feel like Beliveau has him beaten comfortably for most posters here. I have no issue with that, just feel like I'm in the minority. I wonder if 20 or 30 years ago, that would still be the case among voters.

In terms of strictly looking at Montreal, I would also rate Maurice Richard as the best Montreal Canadiens player.
 

Dennis Bonvie

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Am I the only person on this forum who thinks Richard was the best Montreal player ever? I feel like Beliveau has him beaten comfortably for most posters here. I have no issue with that, just feel like I'm in the minority. I wonder if 20 or 30 years ago, that would still be the case among voters.

I've always ranked Richard ahead of Beliveau.
 

GMR

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The difference between BEST and GREATEST has to do with big play moments and overall appreciation from fans and the media.

Beliveau may be the BEST Hab, but Richard was the GREATEST!
It's a hard distinction to make. Especially since Richard never played anywhere else. A better comparison would be Mikita and Hull. Hull was the best player ever to play for the Blackhawks, but Mikita is frequently considered the best Blackhawk player. Largely because he played there longer while Hull went to another league.

Beliveau and Richard spent their entire careers in Montreal. If you want to talk about big play moments, Richard had more big playoff moments than arguably anybody in league history.

I'm guessing Richard's personality is why many Montreal fans look at Beliveau more fondly. More likable and gentlemanly player.
 

VanIslander

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I'm guessing Richard's personality is why many Montreal fans look at Beliveau more fondly. More likable and gentlemanly player.
1. Do MOST Habs fans look at Beliveau more fondly than Richard. Certainly many do, but most?

2. Richard is a playoff warrior not a gentlemanly player. This is the franchise that captains Lalonde and Cleghorn built. Only twice (a mere 2 times) has a Hab ever won the Lady Byng (compared to 52 times for the other 5 of the O6 franchises). Claude Lemieux is appreciated. So, let's nix talk of Montreal fans appreciating gentlemanly play more than fierce win-at-all-costs nasty competitiveness.
 

GMR

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1. Do MOST Habs fans look at Beliveau more fondly than Richard. Certainly many do, but most?

2. Richard is a playoff warrior not a gentlemanly player. This is the franchise that captains Lalonde and Cleghorn built. Only twice (a mere 2 times) has a Hab ever won the Lady Byng (compared to 52 times for the other 5 of the O6 franchises). Claude Lemieux is appreciated. So, let's nix talk of Montreal fans appreciating gentlemanly play more than fierce win-at-all-costs nasty competitiveness.
I wasn't making a broad generalization of Montreal fans. I was referring specifically to how Montreal fans view these two players. It would be the same for any fanbase if they had to choose between these two players.
 

Beef Invictus

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For the Flyers:

Overall, best is gonna be Clarke. Bernie Parent gives him a run for pure peak but doesn't have the longevity.

HMs: Howe, Lindros...though going by body of work over peak, Giroux will supplant Lindros if he hasn't already.
 

ESH

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Jun 19, 2011
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Doughty is up there (4th?), but I think the greatest L.A. King is a three-way race between Dionne, Robitaille, and Gretzky. I could see a case for each of those three, for sure.

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I've started to think that Mats Sundin is the greatest Maple Leaf ever. There are a few guys (Broda? Gilmour?) who peaked higher, but no one I see had 13 great seasons in a row for the blue & white. We've shown before that Sundin was probably the most consistent scoring forward ever (like, in NHL history) over a long period, and doing that with a not-very-talented Leafs team, while also performing as team captain for a long time, is very impressive (and he had two 2nd-team All Stars at center). The only thing Sundin missed was playoff success, but that goes for every Leaf since 1967.

There are good debates on this for other Canadien teams, notably the Canucks, Flames, and Canadiens (I call Hawerchuk for Jets, and Stastny for NHL Nordiques, though you can quibble about young Sakic).

For the Canucks, I think Bure was the the most talented and most exciting player they ever had... but he was limited in what he could do, and he didn't play at a peak level for that long (or that consistently). The Sedins for sure (but are they one human?), Naslund, Linden, and even Smyl have their supporters.

The Flames seem to come down to MacInnis, Fleury, Iginla, and Kiprusoff (some might even name Kent Nilsson or Joe Nieuwendyk). A case can be made for all four.

The Canadiens had a wealth of tremendous players from the 1940s through 1980s. We tend to focus on the 'big three' forwards -- M. Richard, Beliveau, and Lafleur -- but then again, there's Plante, Dryden, Roy in net, and Harvey (nine 1st-team All Stars, six Norrises), Robinson, etc., etc. on defence.

Rangers is another interesting one...

No chance. I doubt there’s many Flames fans who wouldn’t say Iginla. I think MacInnis has an argument as “best” player in franchise history, but Iginla is the greatest. Fleury has 0 arguments to made over Iginla. Kiprusoff was great, but Iginla was a better player for a longer period of time.
 
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Staniowski

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Am I the only person on this forum who thinks Richard was the best Montreal player ever? I feel like Beliveau has him beaten comfortably for most posters here. I have no issue with that, just feel like I'm in the minority. I wonder if 20 or 30 years ago, that would still be the case among voters.
I don't think much has changed over the past 20 or 30 years.

I think most long-time Habs observers believe Beliveau is the all-time greatest Habs player. At least among serious fans.

There is also some support for Harvey and Rocket, and very small support for a couple others, maybe.

But Rocket is the biggest legend in team history, by far. Rocket was also called "Mr. Hockey" when he played.
 

VanIslander

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Staniowski said:
But Rocket is the biggest legend in team history, by far. Rocket was also called "Mr. Hockey" when he played.
Lol.

I have never read about anyone other than Gordie called Mr. Hockey in the 150+ hockey history books I've read. Maybe in French publications.

Reference, please Staniowski.
 

Dennis Bonvie

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I don't think much has changed over the past 20 or 30 years.

I think most long-time Habs observers believe Beliveau is the all-time greatest Habs player. At least among serious fans.

There is also some support for Harvey and Rocket, and very small support for a couple others, maybe.

But Rocket is the biggest legend in team history, by far. Rocket was also called "Mr. Hockey" when he played.

For Richards' generation of Montreal fans, no one ever came close to him. Even the next generation, who heard all the stories about the Rocket.

Richard played when simply "being French" was still an issue. For French Canadians he may have been the most revered individual, let alone hockey player, of his time.
 
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Staniowski

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Lol.

I have never read about anyone other than Gordie called Mr. Hockey in the 150+ hockey history books I've read. Maybe in French publications.

Reference, please Staniowski.
The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search

The article is from 1957, it references the Forum public address announcer calling Maurice "Mr. Hockey". The writer of the article, himself, refers to him as Mr. Hockey also. The article on the opposite page refers to Richard as The Babe Ruth of Hockey, which was also quite common, I think. He was also called "monsieur hockey" in French.
 
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VanIslander

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Howie Morenz was the Babe Ruth of hockey.

Gordie Howe was Mr. Hockey.

Other attributions are half-hearted, ill-timed attempts to stick.
 
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Neutrinos

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Bourque or Roy are the greatest players to have ever played for the Avs

Sakic has the best career as an Av, however, I'd argue that the highest peak while a member of the Avs belongs to Forsberg
 
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57special

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Beliveau was highly respected and admired. Richard was beloved, and captured the people's hearts. Lafleur was similar, just a bit less.
 

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