All-Time Ontario Provincial Team

[ScottM]

 

Six of the ten Canadian provinces can claim literally hundreds of NHL players as natives. The amount of hockey talent that has been produced by the Great White North is so staggering that it could be split into several teams and still have those teams be at worst competitive in international play.

 

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to make a complimentary series to the All-Time Franchise Teams series. I'll put together a roster of the top players from each of those provinces beginning with Ontario, which is the birthplace of the most NHL'ers and ending with British Columbia which ranks sixth. Anyway, let's get to it. Here's my All-Time Ontario Team.

 

First Line: Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull

Second Line: Ted Lindsay, Phil Esposito, Charlie Conacher

Third Line: Frank Mahovlich, Howie Morenz, Bill Cook

Fourth Line: Brendan Shanahan, Milt Schmidt, Dit Clapper

 

First Defensive Pair: Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin

Second Defensive Pair: Larry Robinson, Red Kelly

Third Defensive Pair: Brad Park, Paul Coffey

 

Goaltenders: Ken Dryden, Bill Durnan, Clint Benedict

[flyercanuck]

@ScottM

 

Tough list to settle on...Ron Francis...Scott Stevens...Doug Gilmour...Nieuwendyk...Lindros...Pronger...Thornton...Barber...Oates...McDavid   (he'll end up on it)

 

That D....

 

edit: Sittler...Brindamour...Hawerchuk...Gartner...Andreychuk...Seguin....

[ScottM]

There were a ton of worthy candidates. I used my top 10 lists from a while back as a start. I looked over them again, and I'm still willing to stand by them, so that helped. The top four left wingers on that list are all from Ontario. That was impressive, in my opinion.

 

And yeah, the defense... That would be brutal to play against.

[jammer2]

@ScottM   It just blows my mind that Larry Robinson, Paul Coffey, Scott Stevens and Al McInniss all played for the Kitchener Rangers.....that is awesome, to have one team spit out that kind of mind blowing talent. Bill Barber also a Ranger.

[ScottM]

@ScottM   It just blows my mind that Larry Robinson, Paul Coffey, Scott Stevens and Al McInniss all played for the Kitchener Rangers.....that is awesome, to have one team spit out that kind of mind blowing talent. Bill Barber also a Ranger.

 

There must be something in the water. Maybe I should go hang out there for a while.

 

In all seriousness though, five HOF'ers from one junior team isn't a half bad record. There's a long list of other very recognizable names on their alumni list as well. I think it goes to show how useful junior hockey has been for the development of talent in Canada.