Top-100 Hockey Players of All-Time

The following is the final list of the top hockey players of all-time as determined by 32 voting members of the History of Hockey community.

Report any errors to @quoipourquoi

Rank	Player	Position	Born	Nation	Birth City
1	Wayne Gretzky	C	1961	Canada	Brantford, Ontario
2	Gordie Howe	RW	1928	Canada	Floral, Saskatchewan
3	Bobby Orr	D	1948	Canada	Parry Sound, Ontario
4	Mario Lemieux	C	1965	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
5	Bobby Hull	LW	1939	Canada	Point Anne, Ontario
6	Jean Beliveau	C	1931	Canada	Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
7	Patrick Roy	G	1965	Canada	Quebec City, Quebec
8	Doug Harvey	D	1924	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
9	Maurice Richard	RW	1921	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
10	Ray Bourque	D	1960	Canada	Saint-Laurent, Quebec
11	Howie Morenz	C	1902	Canada	Mitchell, Ontario
12	Sidney Crosby	C	1987	Canada	Halifax, Nova Scotia
13	Dominik Hasek	G	1965	Czech Republic	Pardubice, Czechoslovakia
14	Eddie Shore	D	1902	Canada	Fort Qu'Appelle, Northwest Territories
15	Nicklas Lidstrom	D	1970	Sweden	Krylbo, Sweden
16	Jaromir Jagr	RW	1972	Czech Republic	Kladno, Czechoslovakia
17	Red Kelly	D / C	1927	Canada	Simcoe, Ontario
18	Denis Potvin	D	1953	Canada	Vanier, Ontario
19	Jacques Plante	G	1929	Canada	Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Quebec
20	Frank Nighbor	C	1893	Canada	Pembroke, Ontario
21	Mark Messier	LW / C	1961	Canada	Edmonton, Alberta
22	Alex Ovechkin	LW / RW	1985	Russia	Moscow, Soviet Union
23	Guy Lafleur	RW	1951	Canada	Thurso, Quebec
24	Stan Mikita	C	1940	Canada	Sokolce, Slovak Republic
25	Viacheslav Fetisov	D	1958	Russia	Moscow, Soviet Union
26	Sergei Makarov	RW	1958	Russia	Chelyabinsk, Soviet Union
27	Phil Esposito	C	1942	Canada	Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
28	Glenn Hall	G	1931	Canada	Humboldt, Saskatchewan
29	Bobby Clarke	C	1949	Canada	Flin Flon, Manitoba
30	Martin Brodeur	G	1972	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
31	Bryan Trottier	C	1956	Canada	Val Marie, Saskatchewan
32	Joe Sakic	C	1969	Canada	Burnaby, British Columbia
33	Cyclone Taylor	D / R	1884	Canada	Tara, Ontario
34	Bill Cook	RW	1895	Canada	Brantford, Ontario
35	Terry Sawchuk	G	1929	Canada	Winnipeg, Manitoba
36	Mike Bossy	RW	1957	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
37	Larry Robinson	D	1951	Canada	Winchester, Ontario
38	Ted Lindsay	LW	1925	Canada	Renfrew, Ontario
39	Newsy Lalonde	C	1887	Canada	Cornwall, Ontario
40	Steve Yzerman	C	1965	Canada	Cranbrook, British Columbia
41	Chris Chelios	D	1962	United States	Chicago, Illinois
42	Frank Boucher	C	1901	Canada	Ottawa, Ontario
43	Valeri Kharlamov	LW	1948	Russia	Moscow, Soviet Union
44	King Clancy	D	1902	Canada	Ottawa, Ontario
45	Syl Apps	C	1915	Canada	Paris, Ontario
46	Ken Dryden	G	1947	Canada	Hamilton, Ontario
47	Brad Park	D	1948	Canada	Toronto, Ontario
48	Paul Coffey	D	1961	Canada	Weston, Ontario
49	Henri Richard	C	1936	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
50	Vladislav Tretiak	G	1952	Russia	Orudyevo, Soviet Union
51	Peter Forsberg	C	1973	Sweden	Ornskoldsvik, Sweden
52	Evgeni Malkin	C	1986	Russia	Magnitogorsk, Soviet Union
53	Milt Schmidt	C	1918	Canada	Kitchener, Ontario
54	Pierre Pilote	D	1931	Canada	Kenogami, Quebec
55	Charlie Conacher	RW	1909	Canada	Toronto, Ontario
56	Frank Brimsek	G	1915	United States	Eveleth, Minnesota
57	Sprague Cleghorn	D	1890	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
58	Ted Kennedy	C	1925	Canada	Port Colborne, Ontario
59	Chris Pronger	D	1974	Canada	Dryden, Ontario
60	Bernie Geoffrion	RW	1931	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
61	Earl Seibert	D	1911	Canada	Berlin, Ontario
62	Andy Bathgate	RW	1932	Canada	Winnipeg, Manitoba
63	Marcel Dionne	C	1951	Canada	Drummondville, Quebec
64	Scott Stevens	D	1964	Canada	Kitchener, Ontario
65	Tim Horton	D	1930	Canada	Cochrane, Ontario
66	Georges Vezina	G	1887	Canada	Chicoutimi, Quebec
67	Al MacInnis	D	1963	Canada	Inverness, Nova Scotia
68	Dickie Moore	LW	1931	Canada	Montreal, Quebec
69	Teemu Selanne	RW	1970	Finland	Helsinki, Finland
70	Anatoli Firsov	LW	1941	Russia	Moscow, Soviet Union
71	Frank Mahovlich	LW	1938	Canada	Timmins, Ontario
72	Joe Malone	C	1890	Canada	Quebec City, Quebec
73	Dit Clapper	RW / D	1907	Canada	Newmarket, Ontario
74	Clint Benedict	G	1892	Canada	Ottawa, Ontario
75	Charlie Gardiner	G	1904	Canada	Edinburgh, Scotland
76	Jari Kurri	RW	1960	Finland	Helsinki, Finland
77	Max Bentley	C	1920	Canada	Delisle, Saskatchewan
78	Aurele Joliat	LW	1901	Canada	Ottawa, Ontario
79	Cy Denneny	LW	1891	Canada	Farran's Point, Ontario
80	Brett Hull	RW	1964	United States	Belleville, Ontario
81	Elmer Lach	C	1918	Canada	Nokomis, Saskatchewan
82	Bill Durnan	G	1916	Canada	Toronto, Ontario
83	Turk Broda	G	1914	Canada	Brandon, Manitoba
84	Borje Salming	D	1951	Sweden	Kiruna, Sweden
85	Ed Belfour	G	1965	Canada	Carman, Manitoba
86	Boris Mikhailov	RW	1944	Russia	Moscow, Soviet Union
87	Bill Cowley	C	1912	Canada	Bristol, Quebec
88	Sergei Fedorov	C / D	1969	Russia	Pskov, Soviet Union
89	Zdeno Chara	D	1977	Slovakia	Trencin, Czechoslovakia

Discussion Threads


Preliminary Discussion Threads


Round 1 Process


Individual Voting Records

 

Glad this is open for business. It'll be interesting to track the big risers and fallers since this list was last done 10 years ago.

 

Quebec bias

 

Hasek 13th and Roy 16th here.

 

And Plante 12th

 

Thanks for this, will be nice to follow as our list develops over the next few weeks.

 

We all know 6 of the top 10 are Quebecers, eh?

 

No...because we don't know who the 10th player is yet.

Is this meant as a complaint? There is a very good reason why Montreal as a city would have significant representation, considering that is where the sport itself developed.

 

Playing for just Montreal

Regular Season 76 goals in 890 games = 0.09 goals/game
Playoffs: 8 goals in 123 games = 0.06 goals/game

You didn't give a stat, the drop off isn't super significant. It's not like he was a big time goal scorer.

 

The picture of Roy is clearly after he had just given up a goal in the Stanley Cup Final...that seems like good enough grounds to move him below Harvey so I can sleep a little better at night...

- Thank You

 

Probably my favorite hockey photo. I don’t envy any mind readers in the moments following a GA when a goaltender is mentally composing a list of all ten skaters on the ice and what they can do with themselves. Add in plastic rats and that might be the angriest a person can get without going off the deep end and just decimating bystanders with the paddle.

 

LOL u mad about that?

It's normal to have a lot of Quebecers considering the Montreal Canadiens is the greatest and most historical team ever. And some of the greatest players of all time (The Rocket, Mario, Roy, Lafleur, Bourque, Brodeur and more and more) are Quebecers.

 

Funny because I've seen Roy before Hasek on other lists.

 

Indeed it's a great hockey photo of Roy but his best and most iconic one is the wink.

 

Curious: does anybody have a "Perfecta" on board so far, either from their Original List or their Vote? [I.e.: all nine in the current order?] I have a "boxed" nine-fecta (i.e.: these are my first nine... but I don't have 'em in THAT order).

I will lose my "X-fecta" next round when Crosby gets in.

 

You know who he winked at though?

 

Tomas Sandstrom, right?

 

Of course, Tomas Sandstrom.

*Mike Farkas beat me to it.

 

Congrats? ... this is not about guessing and cheering voting to match prior lists. Too many closed ears. Hope you didn't vote Crosby first this round just to have the list be the same as your original list.

Info on the threads changed my mind and votes about Howe and Roy (up) and Richard (down).

I had Cyclone Taylor on my original list. When he becomes eligible for discussion we'll see if I change my mind on his relative greatness.

 

Oh, Hell NO. Nobody has to worry about that happening.

I already said that I know my streak's coming to an end...

 

Let me say I’m a keen observer of this list because for years I maintained a spreadsheet which attempted to calibrate a top-1000 list, purely for my own amusement, using an amalgamation of every possible subjective & objective criteria out there, and it neared 2000 in the end.

It began with Stan Fischler’s Top-100 Players book, and it’s several revisions; continued with THN’s Top-100 of the Century list; brought in others such as a 1973 Superstars book listing ‘Hockey’s Greatest Players’, offset by the recent ‘Top 60 since 1967’ book; and eventually included all trophies, awards, records, retired numbers, all-star & HHOF selections, and anything else I could possibly throw into the mix - all weighed as I thought most appropriate. (10pts for topping a 100 list, 0.1pts for #100; 8pts for a Hart Trophy, 4pts as runner-up; 5pts for a Smythe Trophy, 2pts for a retro; 5pts for a HHOF induction; 2pts for a 1st-team all-star, 1pt for a 2nd; 5pts for a Stanley Cup, 4pts for a 2nd, 3pts for a 3rd; etc, etc, etc)

I used books such as Total Hockey and Ultimate Hockey, the latter including retro-Trophy winners back to 1887; lists & stats from being on SIHR’s email group for years, including All-Star selections/games from pre-consolidation days (PCHA, etc) as well as the list of retro-Smythe trophies. I gave some international consideration (medals & IIHF HOF), plus some WHA acknowledgments. I even included things such as Jim Gregory’s ‘all-time all-star team’, Morenz’s player-of-the-half-century awarding, any TSN all-time lists, and even points, games played, and other stats bringing it to the 1000th decimal point.

Bottom line, here’s the way the points fell around 2010:

1. Wayne Gretzky (766.222)
2. Gordie Howe (491.811)
3. Bobby Orr (452.531)
4. Mario Lemieux (444.451)
5. Bobby Hull (363.936)
6. Rocket Richard (358.418)
7. Jean Beliveau (306.432)
8. Patrick Roy (292.636)
9. Doug Harvey (280.616)

Note that, apart from Richard at 6th instead of 9th, the list is so far completely identical to your current list.

Also, Shore was 16th (256.977) beating Morenz by a hair at 17th (256.739). And Non-NHLers Tretiak @ 70, Cyclone Taylor @ 72, Frank McGee @ 98, Kharlamov @ 106, Russell Bowie @ 114, Moose Johnson @ 118, and Danny Bain @ 139.

(Recent players such as Jagr, Hasek, Brodeur, Lidstrom, Forsberg, Selanne, Ovechkin, Niedermayer, Pronger, Fedorov, Crosby, & Kariya are limited to spots #24 to #127 due to my abandonment of the project. But the lists are sure to deviate after #9 since Sawchuk, Esposito, Lafleur, Coffey, Hall & Bossy made my top 20, while Potvin was #22, and Mikita #28.)

 

That's creepy - I literally just queued up that Roy photo for my #TeamTenMonday contest coming up.

 

So you do not see any Canadiens bias? Neither does your spreadsheet?

 

Not sure what you’re questioning, but my spreadsheet of course doesn’t hold biases. Was the weight I gave to any of the lists/awards subjective? Of course, but the sheer multitude of factors I introduced into the ultimate equation was intended to limit any bias altogether.

I remember cringing a little when Hull eventually eclipsed Richard at #5, as the Rocket was, for a lot of lists & people, the recognized ‘next one’ outside of the Big 4. But sheer volume can’t be denied.

No, the Canadiens have the longest history, and the most championships of any team. Of course we’ll see more Habs near the top, and in a top 100. It isn’t bias that sees 4 players of one dynasty make it in a top 15; it’s 4 (& more) of the greatest players ever that made that team the greatest dynasty. And Morenz, Lafleur, Dryden, Robinson, Vezina, Blake, Durnan, and Joliat weren’t on that dynasty, but they better start appearing soon.

 

I'll be damned surprised if Flower isn't a nominee next round. I think he should be. Won't break my heart if he isn't... but I would be surprised if he isn't.