Top-100 Hockey Players of All-Time (The Third)

[wetcoast]

Thought I'd take a stab at categorizing the list by era. I'm including players who were in their prime in a certain era. The edge cases were basically quick judgement calls

Rankings	Pre-Expansion (Pre-1967)	Post-Expansion (Post-1967)	Pre-Merger (Pre-1927)	Original Six (1942-1967)	International Era (Post-1992)
1	Gordie Howe	Wayne Gretzky	Frank Nighbor	Gordie Howe	Mario Lemieux
2	Bobby Hull	Bobby Orr	Cyclone Taylor	Bobby Hull	Patrick Roy
3	Jean Beliveau	Mario Lemieux	Newsy Lalonde	Jean Beliveau	Ray Bourque
4	Doug Harvey	Patrick Roy	Sprague Cleghorn	Doug Harvey	Sidney Crosby
5	Maurice Richard	Ray Bourque	Georges Vezina	Maurice Richard	Dominik Hasek
6	Howie Morenz	Sidney Crosby	Joe Malone	Red Kelly	Nicklas Lidstrom
7	Eddie Shore	Dominik Hasek	Clint Benedict	Jacques Plante	Jaromir Jagr
8	Red Kelly	Nicklas Lidstrom	Cy Denneny	Stan Mikita	Alex Ovechkin
9	Jacques Plante	Jaromir Jagr	Eddie Gerard	Glenn Hall	Martin Brodeur
10	Frank Nighbor	Denis Potvin	Russell Bowie	Terry Sawchuk	Joe Sakic
11	Stan Mikita	Mark Messier	Hugh Lehman	Ted Lindsay	Steve Yzerman
12	Glenn Hall	Alex Ovechkin	Tommy Philips	Syl Apps	Chris Chelios
13	Cyclone Taylor	Guy Lafleur	Hod Stuart	Henri Richard	Peter Forsberg
14	Bill Cook	Viacheslav Fetisov	Mickey MacKay	Milt Schmidt	Evgeni Malkin
15	Terry Sawchuk	Sergei Makarov	Georges Boucher	Pierre Pilote	Chris Pronger
16	Ted Lindsay	Phil Esposito	Moose Johnson	Frank Brimsek	Scott Stevens
17	Newsy Lalonde	Bobby Clarke	Frank Fredrickson	Ted Kennedy	Al MacInnis
18	Frank Boucher	Martin Brodeur	Babe Dye	Andy Bathgate	Teemu Selanne
19	King Clancy	Bryan Trottier	Duke Keats	Tim Horton	Brett Hull
20	Syl Apps	Joe Sakic	Lester Patrick	Dickie Moore	Ed Belfour
21	Henri Richard	Mike Bossy		Frank Mahovlich	Sergei Fedorov
22	Milt Schmidt	Larry Robinson		Max Bentley	Zdeno Chara
23	Pierre Pilote	Steve Yzerman		Elmer Lach	Joe Thornton
24	Charlie Conacher	Chris Chelios		Bill Durnan	Patrick Kane
25	Frank Brimsek	Valeri Kharlamov		Turk Broda	Duncan Keith

And by region raised in

Rank	Ontario	Quebec	Western Canada	USA	Europe
1	Wayne Gretzky	Mario Lemieux	Gordie Howe	Chris Chelios	Dominik Hasek
2	Bobby Orr	Jean Beliveau	Eddie Shore	Frank Brimsek	Nicklas Lidstrom
3	Bobby Hull	Patrick Roy	Mark Messier	Patrick Kane	Jaromir Jagr
4	Howie Morenz	Doug Harvey	Glenn Hall	Mark Howe	Alex Ovechkin
5	Red Kelly	Maurice Richard	Bobby Clarke	Brian Leetch	Viacheslav Fetisov
6	Denis Potvin	Ray Bourque	Bryan Trottier	Rod Langway	Sergei Makarov
7	Frank Nighbor	Jacques Plante	Joe Sakic	Mike Modano	Valeri Kharlamov
8	Stan Mikita	Guy Lafleur	Terry Sawchuk	John Leclair	Vladislav Tretiak
9	Phil Esposito	Martin Brodeur	Steve Yzerman		Peter Forsberg
10	Cyclone Taylor	Mike Bossy	Andy Bathgate		Evgeni Malkin
11	Bill Cook	Henri Richard	Max Bentley		Teemu Selanne
12	Larry Robinson	Pierre Pilote	Elmer Lach		Anatoli Firsov
13	Ted Lindsay	Sprague Cleghorn	Turk Broda		Jari Kurri
14	Newsy Lalonde	Bernie Geoffrion	Ed Belfour		Borje Salming
15	Frank Boucher	Marcel Dionne	Bill Gadsby		Boris Mikhailov
16	King Clancy	Georges Vezina	Duncan Keith		Sergei Fedorov
17	Syl Apps	Dickie Moore	Sid Abel		Zdeno Chara
18	Ken Dryden	Joe Malone	Jarome Iginla		Alexander Maltsev
19	Brad Park	Bill Cowley	Johnny Bower		Vladimir Martinec
20	Paul Coffey	Nels Stewart	Ching Johnson		Henrik Lundqvist
21	Milt Schmidt	Martin St. Louis	Jack Stewart		Erik Karlsson
22	Charlie Conacher	Dave Keon	Scott Niedermayer		Jiri Holocek
23	Ted Kennedy	Russell Bowie	Doug Bentley		Valeri Vasiliev
24	Chris Pronger	Serge Savard	Cecil Thompson		Peter Stastny
25	Earl Seibert	Roberto Luongo	Paul Kariya		Vladimir Krutov

Agree with the gist of the entire post although might quibble a bit here and there.

Also noted that while Yzerman was born in BC he moved to Ontario at age 3 or something.

Also Brett hull isn't on the last list either and while he was born in the States he is a North shore product in Vancouver at the age of 15 after having spent some time in Winnipeg and before that Chicago..

 

[jcs0218]

This may seem an unpopular opinion.

But Connor McDavid is making a strong case for himself as deserving a high ranking.

3 Hart, 5 Art Ross, etc. Very high per-game numbers.

He doesn't have a Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe, like some other players do.

But his trophy case is starting to look very impressive.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

This may seem an unpopular opinion.

But Connor McDavid is making a strong case for himself as deserving a high ranking.

3 Hart, 5 Art Ross, etc. Very high per-game numbers.

He doesn't have a Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe, like some other players do.

But his trophy case is starting to look very impressive.

Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone agreeing that McDavid belong anywhere near the top 100.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone agreeing that McDavid belong anywhere near the top 100.

I'm not sure if this is a joke, or assuming everyone holds your opinion, or possibly a typo that says the opposite of what you mean. He placed 130th in the 2021 project (that was built upon an older top 100 so no one could have argued him for anything higher than 101st), and led the league in scoring twice in the meantime, one of which was the highest scoring individual season in nearly 30 years. That's...getting up there and very easy to see even a relatively conservative voter bumping him 35 spots or so for that 2 years of work.
I'm all for playing the waiting game, but sometimes you get to the point where it's just denying the passage of time.
Sid the Kid's 36 now, and that's just offensive to me.

 

[jigglysquishy]

It was very clearly a joke.

McDavid's placement in the top 200 was always going to be weird. The top 100 was at the start of the 2018-19 season so McDavid had some 200ish NHL games including 2 Art Rosses. Very difficult to rank and he didn't end up in the top 100.

His placement in the follow-up was weird. Several posters excluded him on their initial list because they thought he moved into the top 100 and the list was 101-200.

If we were to redo the project today he would quite comfortably finish top 50 and probably closer to 25.

It's the inherent problem with ranking players in the middle of their primes.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

I'm not sure if this is a joke, or assuming everyone holds your opinion, or possibly a typo that says the opposite of what you mean. He placed 130th in the 2021 project (that was built upon an older top 100 so no one could have argued him for anything higher than 101st), and led the league in scoring twice in the meantime, one of which was the highest scoring individual season in nearly 30 years. That's...getting up there and very easy to see even a relatively conservative voter bumping him 35 spots or so for that 2 years of work.
I'm all for playing the waiting game, but sometimes you get to the point where it's just denying the passage of time.
Sid the Kid's 36 now, and that's just offensive to me.

Yeah, it was a joke, could have made it more clear. I wasn’t around for the top 100 project (though I have read a lot of the discussions afterwards), however I followed the top 200 closely and I understand how it came to be that McDavid received that odd and lowly ranking considering his age, considering the participants weren’t redoing the top 100, and considering that at the time of the project his playoff resume in particular was an utter non-factor as compared to players with more complete careers (then he had that magnificent CF run the following spring).

My point being, it was impossible to get McDavid’s ranking right then, but it’s undeniable he’s well into the top 100 by now.

 

[WarriorofTime]

It was very clearly a joke.

McDavid's placement in the top 200 was always going to be weird. The top 100 was at the start of the 2018-19 season so McDavid had some 200ish NHL games including 2 Art Rosses. Very difficult to rank and he didn't end up in the top 100.

His placement in the follow-up was weird. Several posters excluded him on their initial list because they thought he moved into the top 100 and the list was 101-200.

If we were to redo the project today he would quite comfortably finish top 50 and probably closer to 25.

It's the inherent problem with ranking players in the middle of their primes.

You almost need a cutoff, like > age 30 or something, to make it make sense, and even then it kinda cuts things a bit unfairly for players that are 30/31/32, but it's more margins at that point.

McDavid if he retired here and now? I'm not so sure. 144th in career points, but 5 Art Ross Trophies, only Gretzky (10), Lemieux and Howie (6 each) have more, with Esposito and Jagr also at 5. Also 3 Hart Trophies, only Gretzky (9), Howe (6) and Shore (4) with more, and tied with a crowded but elite tier at 3 with Ovechkin, Lemieux, Clarke, Orr and Morenz.

The lack of Cups kinda is what it is, but I think 32-team, hard salary cap era helps bring some context to it as well. Peak value is always going to matter more than longevity compiler totals.

Even if McDavid retired today, I'd have a really hard time leaving him out of the top 15.

 

[Jets4Life]

Good list.

I disagree with Orr being ahead of Lemieux, simply because Orr's NHL career was pretty much over in 1975, after 9 seasons. Lemieux had health and injury problems in his prime, but managed to come back and lead the Pens to two Stanley Cups and a Presidents Trophy. He also had two great seasons in his early 30s, and after returning in 2000, Lemieux was arguably the best player in the game from the second half of 2000-01, to the Olympic break 2002.