Who was your first favourite hockey player?

[SealsFan]

Goalie: Ed Giacomin on the 69-70 Rangers.

Skater: Glen Sather when he joined the Rangers the following year. He cut the palms out of his gloves so he could grab opponents and slow them down. For awhile I adopted his "Slats" nickname among my hockey buddies.

 

[DannyGallivan]

At seven years old I asked "who scores the most goals in the NHL?" The answer I received was "Phil Esposito".

Okay I said, Phil Esposito will be my favorite hockey player and Boston will be my favorite team.

... a couple years later, it was all Montreal and Guy Lafleur, though.

 

[HHHH]

Terry O' Reilly...

 

[rfournier103]

At seven years old I asked "who scores the most goals in the NHL?" The answer I received was "Phil Esposito".

Okay I said, Phil Esposito will be my favorite hockey player and Boston will be my favorite team.

... a couple years later, it was all Montreal and Guy Lafleur, though.

Both were great players.

From Boston to Montreal to Winnipeg (I presume) - quite the hockey odyssey.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Both were great players.

From Boston to Montreal to Winnipeg (I presume) - quite the hockey odyssey.

Yep. Esposito to Lafleur (who I consider my childhood idol) to Morris Lukowich to Dale Hawerchuk.

 

[DannyGallivan]

The first who impressed you as a kid, growing up or whenever you started following hockey. I was born in the USSR so no NHL in my childhood and the first player i liked was Andrei Khomutov. He was a very skilled and talented player a beast one on one and after the KLM was in the NHL one of the best players on the National Team.
I don't temember Bykov much, since they always played together, maybe because Khomutov was much more flashy.

 

[Flamer12]

Bobbie Clarke, Darryl Sittler, Bobby Orr and Bill Barber, George Ferguson. I liked too many as a kid to name just one.

 

[Whaleafs]

Gretzky then Paul Kariya

 

[MXD]

Mats Naslund

 

[TheAngryHank]

#16 Vladdy.

 

[82Ninety42011]

Bobby Clarke for me as Captain of the Broad Street Bullies !! As a kid they were just fun to watch.

 

[rfournier103]

Pelle Lindbergh / Ron Hextall
Mario Lemieux
Joe Sakic

I guess that would explain the avatar. Good one!

 

[Killion]

... Bill Gadsby the first guy I really liked then equally so.... Moose Vasko, Leo Boivin,
Johnny Bucyk, Ron Stewart, Bob Baun, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard & Claude Provost...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i was lucky to start paying attention just as the greatest goalie of all time was at his statistical peak

 

[Boxscore]

My first favorite was Bobby Clarke.

Then it became Pelle Lindbergh, Mats Naslund before Mario Lemieux. Ultimately Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg, who became my favorite player until Erik Karlsson.

As for players I haven't "grown up watching" but learned to absolutely love after much research, footage, reading, they are... Bobby Orr, Doug Harvey, Maurice Richard, Slava Fetisov and Vladislav Tretiak.

 

[Goleafsgo95]

Mats Sundin

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Cheechoo

 

[GlitchMarner]

Not sure who my first favorite player was... I liked Gilmour, Gartner, Andreychuk back in the day. By 1998 Sundin was my favorite.

 

[FerrisRox]

Yeah i was born in 1983 and my first game i remember was from the Izvestya Cup in 89 where the USSR crushed Team Canada 8:0.

And you were too young to realize that the Izvestia, outside of the USSR, was a largely ignored tournament and the "Team Canada" that you saw in those tournaments was made up of journeymen, cast-offs, has-beens and never-beens.

The first time that tournament really hit my radar was Team Canada somehow went into Russia and beat the Red Army in 1987 at the Izvestia.

 

[thomaspalmer]

Markus Naslund was my "first" favourite and remains my favourite of all-time to this day.

 

[BigDucky]

Konstantinov was my first favorite player. As a kid I got real kick out of watching him lay out opposing players.

 

[jj cale]

Hands down this guy, even to this very day.

 

[mbhhofr]

Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

I got to meet him, shake his hand and see him score the last goal of his fabulous career.

 

[Killion]

Goalie: Ed Giacomin on the 69-70 Rangers.

Skater: Glen Sather when he joined the Rangers the following year. He cut the palms out of his gloves so he could grab opponents and slow them down. For awhile I adopted his "Slats" nickname among my hockey buddies.

Oh ya, thats a good one, "The Wanderer". Fast Eddie. One of my All Time Favorite Goalies who interestingly.... almost never had a career at all if not for his older brother Rollie Giacomin.... In 1954 Ed invited to tryout for the Jr. Red Wings, Cut, told he'd "never make it as a Goalie in the NHL or Pro, give it up kid" but persevered none the less, returning home to Sudbury,.... then in 58/59 the Washington Eagles of the EAHL put out a call for Rollie the Goalie. a Backup in the NOHA with the Sudbury Wolves to get down there tout sweet for their final 4 games of the season having lost their one & only to injury.....

Only Rollie, he didnt wanna go to Washington so instead, sends Eddy... Eddy'll do it.... And he did, winning all 4 games. That next fall he was signed as a Backup/Practice Goalie and Assistant Trainer however the regular got injured and... the rest as they say history..... Cant recall exactly, but was it 69/70, last half of the season he started wearing a mask or was it 70/71? Believe he did try a Plante Fibrosport model but didnt like it, his first worn in-game looks a bit like a Lefty Wilson model but at the same doesnt, actually quite bizarre, worn briefly then replaced with an Ernie Higgins model that he then used for the rest of his career.... Claimed even post career though that he didnt much care for masks. Better vision & awareness without.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

theo fleury when he was a ranger