But then again... Considering he was outplayed by Tony Demers year after year (and during Carnegie's best years), I cannot place Carnegie in this list at all.
For those who do not know a whole lot about Tony Demers at this point, well, the Habs considered him worth 1/5th of one season of Phil Watson(or so), but Demers was never a regular for the Rags.
While I never saw Tony Demers play, I think I know a little more about him than you do, having spoken about him with many men who suited up alongside or opposite him.
Demers didn't stick with either the Habs, Rangers or any other team except Sherbrooke of the QSHL, not due to a lack of talent but, like many others before and since, because his life away from the rink was out of control and dominated by his affection for alcohol.
Gerry McNeil told me about the night Demers scored five times on him while he was with the Royals, twice from outside the blue line. In the pre-slapshot era, he was reputed to have the hardest shot around. Red Storey, who refereed innumerable QSHL games featuring Demers, claimed he once saw him shoot the puck the length of the ice, keeping it eight inches above the surface the whole way.
By the time he signed with Sherbrooke he had become a reclaimation project for team owner Ivan Dugre, who figured he's be able to keep Demers under tight enough scrutiny that his innate personality wouldn't surface too often. It worked for a few seasons, the longest he'd ever stayed with one team, with Demers becoming a major crowd favorite on a team that had, as Ivan Irwin said in a CBC radio nterview, " An English line, a French line and a coloured line."
Carnegie centred the melanin-enhanced trio, not that it was the team's third line. In his autobiography he claims that Demers, as popular with the scorekeeper as with the local fans got credit for assists in games thet he wasn't in uniform for.
While I would imagine it would be awful difficult to prove the claim, one way or the other, the manner in which Tony Demers and Herb Carnegie lived their lives after leaving the ice would indicate that Carnegie has a fair bit more credibility overall.
Demers left the game suddenly and under more than one cloud. He had finished the season (I forget the year and am too lazy to look it up. 1948-49?) under suspension for telling his team he was injured and unable to play but managed to suit up for an exhibition game in Valleyfield, where the outcome of the game resulted in large sums of money changing hands. The name he played under that day? Billy Taylor, which I guess shows a certain sense of humour.
That summer Demers was arrrested after slugging his girlfriend during a drunken arguement on the side of the road. She fell, hitting her head on the car's mirror, and automobiles being built a lot more solidly in those days, lost conciousness and never regained it. Demers was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to somewhere in the vicinity of 10-15 years.
Carnegie went on to a successful business career and gave back to the community, founding The Future Aces in the 1950s and bringing it's message promoting inclusion, scholastic effort and social service to hundreds of thousands of children, both in the Toronto area and around the world.
On the ice, Carnegie was among the best of his era, no matter what the level, according to the men who played with and against him. Jean Beliveau's opinions were backed up by Red Storey in a 2003 interview when he said "The Coloured Line (Carnegie, his brother Ossie and Manny McIntyre) could have made any team, anytime, anywhere and there are guys in the Hall of Fame who don't deserve to carry Herb Carnegie's skates."
I've met Mr. Carnegie in social settings and the respect he receives from both former teammates and opponents leave no doubt about their feelings about him as a player and as a person.
Athletes aren't supposed to be role models to anyone other than their own kids but Jean Beliveau deserves to be placed on a pedestal. So does Herb Carnegie. Everyone else stands on the ground alongside me.
While he may not rate a spot on your list, Herb Carnegie tops mine.
