THN's All Time Top 20 at every position

[BostonAJ]

Not sure if this was posted here before. I really liked the 1997 issue that posted the top 100 players of all time so I was pretty excited to see what this issue brought. It's voted on by journalists, GM's, coaches, and former players and referees.

Top 20 Centers

1. Wayne Gretzky
2. Mario Lemieux
3. Jean Beliveau
4. Mark Messier
5. Howie Morenz
6. Stan Mikita
7. Phil Esposito
8. Steve Yzerman
9. Bobby Clarke
10. Joe Sakic
11. Milt Schmidt
12. Henri Richard
13. Bryan Trottier
14. Newsy Lalonde
15. Syl Apps
16. Marcel Dionne
17. Peter Forsberg
18. Sidney Crosby
19. Joe Malone
20. Gilbert Perreault

/Yzerman over Sakic is debatable. I'd drop Mess out of the top 10. The guy was an amazing winner, but I never thought he was better than the likes of Espo, Clarke, Yzerman, etc.

Top 20 LW

1. Bobby Hull
2. Ted Lindsay
3. Frank Mahovlich
4. Dickie Moore
5. Johnny Bucyk
6. Busher Jackson
7. Luc Robitaille
8. Alex Ovechkin
9. Cy Denneny
10. Aurel Joliat
11. Toe Blake
12. Brendan Shanahan
13. Michel Goulet
14. Doug Bentley
15. Bob Gainey
16. Sweeney Schriner
17. Steve Shutt
18. Bill Barber
19. Ilya Kovalchuk
20. Henrik Zetterberg

/I know it's the weakest position, but Zetterberg and Kovalchuk round out the all time best left wingers?!?!? Bobby Hull was amazing. Got to watch an old game of his recently and that dude could flat out fly. Everyone else looked like they were in slow motion.

Top 20 RW

1. Gordie Howe
2. Maurice Richard
3. Guy Lafleur
4. Jaromir Jagr
5. Mike Bossy
6. Brett Hull
7. Charlie Conacher
8. Bernie Geoffrion
9. Jari Kurri
10. Teemu Selanne
11. Bill Cook
12. Andy Bathgate
13. Pavel Bure
14. Babe Dye
15. Mike Gartner
16. Yvan Cournoyer
17. Jarome Iginla
18. Cam Neely
19. Alex Mogilny
20. Lanny McDonald

/Not bad. I'd probably swap Bure with Geoffrion. And I was never a Mogilny fan. He's a guy that could have been an all time great, but usually wasn't. Kovalevitis.

Top 20 Dmen

1. Bobby Orr
2. Dough Harvey
3. Eddie Shore
4. Ray Bourque
5. Nicklas Lidstrom
6. Denis Potvin
7. Red Kelly
8. Larry Robinson
9. Paul Coffey
10. Chris Chelios
11. Dit Clapper
12. Tim Horton
13. Brad Park
14. Al MacInnis
15. King Clancy
16. Scott Niedermayer
17. Scott Stevens
18. Brian Leetch
19. Pierre Pilote
20. Chris Pronger

/I preferred Potvin's game to Lidstrom's. And Niedermayer over Leetch is a head scratcher. Leetch sgould be up there with Park and MacInnis. Paul Coffey is hockey's ultimate enigma. You could place him almost anywhere on the list and be right. And wrong.

Top 20 Goalies

1. Terry Sawchuk
2. Patrick Roy
3. Martin Brodeur
4. Jacques Plante
5. Dominik Hasek
6. Glenn Hall
7. Ken Dryden
8. Bill Durnan
9. George Hainsworth
10. Turk Broda
11. Bernie Parent
12. Frank Brimsek
13. Grant Fuhr
14. Georges Vezina
15. Chuck Gardiner
16. Clint Benedict
17. Tony Esposito
18. Ed Belfour
19. Billy Smith
20. Lorne Chabot

/Goalies are tough to rank unless you really know what you're talking about. I don't. But for me, Hasek should reign supreme. Brodeur is top 5 for sure, but I can't see him over The Dominator.

Also like to add: Remember when The Hockey News was awesome? Back in its newspaper format? The quality has really dropped since then. Oh, well.

 

[KennyBanyeah]

Trottier should be higher in the centers.

Shanahan needs to be higher than Robitaille.

Otherwise a pretty good list, IMO.

 

[Comeds]

Damphousse shafted again......

Pretty fair list IMO

 

[flyersfan4706]

Top 20 Centers

18. Sidney Crosby


Top 20 LW

8. Alex Ovechkin

Reported

 

[dash]

Was this just for guys who played in the NHL? It must be, otherwise not having Tretiak for the goalies is a huge omission.

Gerry 'Cheesy' Cheevers gets no love (he should be there for best mask)

 

[buffhockey]

I thought this was a different "Top 20 at every position" list.


Carry on.

 

[dash]

I also prefer Potvin's game to Lidstrom (and I really like Lidstrom). Glad to see Al MacInnis as high as he is (Flames should really do something about putting #2 in the rafters)

 

[BostonAJ]

Was this just for guys who played in the NHL? It must be, otherwise not having Tretiak for the goalies is a huge omission.

Has to be NHL-only. Slava Fetisov should make an international top-20 list for dmen. I only saw him when he was older with the Devils and the Wings, but apparently when he was younger he was out of this world. He was amazing in international tournaments.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I'm a big Chelios fan, but I really don't think he's the 10th best D-Man of all time.

 

[dash]

One glaring omission for me is Peter Stastny (only guy who had more points during the 80's is #99). 7 100+ point season folks. No Cups is probably the reason he's not listed.

 

[BostonAJ]

I'm a big Chelios fan, but I really don't think he's the 10th best D-Man of all time.

I'm ok with him there. Guy was a beast back in the day. And that was during the NHL's "Golden Era" for defensemen. Tough to win a Norris with Bourque, Coffey, Leetch, MacInnis, and Chelios in the competition. Compare that with today when you have Lidstrom and...Pronger, I guess, and...I dunno...Chara? This has probably been the NHL's weakest era for dmen. Lids has pretty much been the only great one out there for a long time. Chelios rose to the top against some pretty stiff competition.

 

[BostonAJ]

One glaring omission for me is Peter Stastny (only guy who had more points during the 80's is #99). 7 100+ point season folks. No Cups is probably the reason he's not listed.

Canadian bias. Still too many Don Cherry's up there.

Stastny was a lot of fun to watch. Didn't know he was second to Gretzky for 80s scoring. Not easy to do on the Nordiques. They always seemed to suck.

 

[KennyBanyeah]

Canadian bias. Still too many Don Cherry's up there.

Stastny was a lot of fun to watch. Didn't know he was second to Gretzky for 80s scoring. Not easy to do on the Nordiques. They always seemed to suck.

Speaking of Don Cherry, one of his all-time favourites could easily make the top 20 centers: Doug Gilmour.

 

[BostonAJ]

Speaking of Don Cherry, one of his all-time favourites could easily make the top 20 centers: Doug Gilmour.

It's amazing that he isn't in the HHOF yet. Dino Ciccarelli should not have gotten in before Killer. Gilmour did everything.

 

[dash]

'The Killer' was huge in the Flames '89 Cup run. It was a coin flip between he and Al MacInnis for the Conn Smythe trophy that year.

/That was a fun Flames team to watch, this year's edition, meh, not so much...

 

[KennyBanyeah]

It's amazing that he isn't in the HHOF yet. Dino Ciccarelli should not have gotten in before Killer. Gilmour did everything.

Hear hear.

I always tried to model my game after Dougie in the late 80s early 90s.

He was such as good player I still liked him when he played for the Leafs.

 

[dash]

First things first - Get Pat Burns in, then get Doug Gilmour in, then get Joe Nieuwendyk in.

 

[beantownmaniac]

Nice list. I agree with you all about Potvin. He was a huge force on those great Islander teams. Ovi and Sid on the list already? Really?

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Nice list. I agree with you all about Potvin. He was a huge force on those great Islander teams. Ovi and Sid on the list already? Really?

This.

I can't see including any of the current players unless you're talking about the guys who are winding down their careers (Selanne).

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

anybody.. (like me)... have the urge to post this at the swamp, simply for the joy of watching all hell break loose, unleashing a massive tidal wave of stupid?