NHL Celebrates Top Players Of The Past 25 Years In Multi-Part Voting Process Of Experts And Fans

The NHL announced Saturday a novel concept – a Quarter-Century Team selection and celebration from players over the past 25 years. The roll-out of the idea includes a reveal of each NHL team’s First and Second Quarter-Century Teams – three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender per franchise, for each of the First and Second Teams in each of the league’s 33 markets (with Arizona and Utah both getting their own team selections).

The picks for each Quarter-Century First and Second Team are going to be selected by a panel of media, former players and executives tied to each franchise. And the basic idea is that the players picked for each team have to have appeared in at least one game for their respective team since Jan. 1, 2000.

Like the rest of the teams, the first 10 teams to have their First and Second Teams revealed will each get their own day to celebrate their teams' selections – in this case, starting Dec. 30 and running through Jan. 8. Those first 10 teams are, in order, St. Louis, Chicago, Arizona, Columbus, Florida, Toronto, Anaheim, Seattle, Minnesota and Los Angeles.

After that, the next 10 teams to be revealed will appear from Jan. 9 through Jan. 18. They are Pittsburgh, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vegas, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Dallas, Carolina and Washington. Then, finally, from Jan. 19 through Jan. 31, the final 13 teams to be revealed will be Montreal, Colorado, Vancouver, New Jersey, Detroit, the New York Islanders, Ottawa, the New York Rangers, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Nashville, Edmonton, and Utah.

Following the full reveal of each of the league’s 33 First and Second Teams (66 teams in total), the league will conduct a league-wide fan vote from Feb. 12-26 to determine the top 25 players of the past 25 years, regardless of position. Voting will take place on NHL.com and X (formerly Twitter), and will comprise 100 percent of the final vote for the top 25 players. Only players named to a team’s First Quarter-Century Team will be eligible for selection in the fan vote.

To be sure, the debate and discussion for each team will be highly intriguing. The input of media, former players and executives will shape the early portion of the top players’ selection, but after that takes place, the fans will drive the bus, so to speak, the rest of the way. Voting is not a sheer popularity contest, of course, and the focus and selections of expert observers will ensure there’s no type of strange vote-getter the way there has been at previous league events such as an all-star game (see John Scott in 2016).

Instead, we’re going to get healthy debate over players who’ve earned the right to be considered an all-time great in the past two-and-a-half decades. Fans in each market will be able to see how organically the discussion grows, and from there, only the players who’ve been voted to their team’s First Quarter-Century Team will be eligible for the fan vote.

All in all, it’s going to be quite the exercise and it’s a fantastic move by the NHL to tap into the passion each of the 33 hockey markets have when it comes to their all-time great performers in the past 25 years.

Time will tell who ultimately becomes one of the league’s top-25 players of the past quarter-century, but at the start of the selection process, there’s plenty of room for discussion. The voting won’t start just yet, but the debate can begin right now.

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