Your Top Ten Greatest Hockey Players Of All Time (Excluding Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux and Orr

[Podein25]

When I think about these kind of lists I tend to ignore injuries. I generally consider players at their peak, as long as that peak was a reasonable length of time (whatever "reasonable" means).

 

 

Well, in that case I want Doug Wickenheiser on the list! He was close to peaking and then fell off the truck and broke his leg... 

[JagerMeister]

Bill James in his Baseball studies stressed two separate categories:

Career value

Peak value

 

Self explanatory, the career value is the entire body of work. the break in period, the prime years and the inevitable decline phase.

Peak years are the top part of a players career usually the late twenties into the early thirties.

 

When I think of these lists, the best all time at this or that, I think of career value, the entire body of work. I respect the way that you look at it and can see the argument for doing it that way.

 

 Some folks like to combine the two, essentially looking at career value and giving extra points for peak value. Maybe that is the right way, weigh everything with extra points for peak value.

 

That is what cracks me up with the Brett Hull haters, using your method, looking at peak value, Hull scored 72, 86, 70, 54 and 50 goals over a five year period, one of the all time great goal scoring totals for a five year period.

 

Using mine, looking at career value, the whole body of work, he drilled 741 goals, good for 3rd all time behind Howe and Gretzky.

 

So either way, he is at the top of the lists.

 

Hockeyreference.com lists similarity scores, the players who were closest to each other in career value. Hulls top comps are:

 

Sakic

Yzerman

Howe

Dionne

Bobby (surprise)

Selanne

Beliveau

 

In short, the players we are all throwing around.

 

I refuse to sell Brett Hull short, he was a pure goal scorer with deficiencies sure but when it came to scoring goals both peak and career, nobody did it better. Loud mouth little punk, I always wanted someone to knock the smile off his face, even when he played for Detroit. He was Roenick but more talented. The type that people hate if he isn't playing for your team and sometimes you hate him when he is on your team. But he won a couple of cups and a Hart, he was a first team All star 3 times, is second all time in power play goals and third all time in game winners.

Call me a Brett Hull hater, but you have to realize that during his 3 peak seasons, he had a prime Adam Oates feeding him the puck, and after Oates left St Louis? Hull never came close to 70 goals again, while Adam Oates had a career high of 142 without Brett Hull. Leaves you wondering who was the better of the two...

[JagerMeister]

@JagerMeister

 

4th all time in scoring is 4th all time in scoring. Peak value, he might not be in the top 75 or 100, but career value the entire body of work, the Cups, the points, ect... I gotta give him props.

 

Sakic Vs. Yzerman, love that one, I really could go either way with the two of them.

 

Dionne Vs. Lafleur if they switched draft positions (The Flower drafted by the Wings traded to the Kings, Dionne drafted by Montreal) my Gut says the Canadiens would have won at least as many cups if not more.

@Podein25@JackStraw I may have missed it with Clarke and even Sittler, but I still think they are just barely on the outside of the top ten. Both were tremendous players tho. What is your list?

Playing over 1700 games might have also helped....

Some players have almost as much points as him, playing far less games...

[jammer2]

  In many ways, Brett Hull was the ultimate one trick pony. Sure, he could find the soft spot in the defense, and capitalize on that weakness better than anyone else could....but what about ALL the other things that make a player great....like sacrificing your body to maintain possession, like playing defense when your team badly needs to eek out a close win....or being a great teammate when the going got tough....he was way to selfish and ego based to be included in any type of greatest ever list. His dad must have cringed watching him play, cause he would know better than most, hockey is not just about scoring goals.