Most of you know The Athletic is counting down the 99 top NHL players of the modern era.
On January 20th, they selected Steve Yzerman at #15. Since then...
At #14 is Guy Lafleur, 13 Joe Sakic, 12 Mike Bossy, 11 Patrick Roy, 10 Ray Bourque, 9 Phil Esposito, 8 Nick Lidstrom, 7 Dominik Hasek, 6 Alex Ovechkin and at 5 is Jaromir Jagr.
They have already announced Gretzky is #1 and so only 2, 3 and 4 remain and names like Howe, Orr and Lemieux have yet to be ranked. I am not sure about Howe after reading this...
Our thorniest and most complicated choices involved players who straddled the two ends of the spectrum. Some slipped through the cracks because their greatest impacts came prior to 1967. Some, who will eventually qualify, didn’t make the list because they are still in the early stages of their careers.
My question is the ranking of Yzerman. I would have put him ahead of Lafleur and Sakic but I know that is a judgement call.
How do you feel about it. Clicking the link will take you to the player page and remember The Athletic is subscription only.
I think the view or opinion of whether one agrees with such rankings is not as important as the fact that there have been a number of great players in this sport that we have gotten to see and enjoy. Thus, cheers.
Howe won’t be on the list. This is a modern era only ranking.
Orr’s entire career didn’t count.
post-1967 expansion NHL history and beyond only.
There were other qualifications like 400 career games (excludes Cale Maker) too.
Thank you dca. So, its a BS list made up by some Waynes World alumni? Stevie at 15, meh, so Gordie, Orr, Hull and ?? would bump him to low
20's
lol dogshit
Rumbear15 hours ago
Thankyou dca. So, its a BS list made up by some Waynes World alumni? Stevieat 15, meh, so Gordie, Orr, Hull and ?? would bump him to low 20's.
Pfft! IMHO they got Hašek right though! Best ever, an actual, absolute singulartity. The Pavarotti of goaltenders. Minus the Pavarotti drawbacks.
They specifically say in the article that Howe is not included.
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