Puck Lists: Who should have been in and out of the NHL 100?

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The NHL did that thing where they just make everyone mad by doing a thing that is ostensibly well-meaning. This time they let a bunch of chuckleheads including Gary Bettman, Keith Jones, and world-famous hockey talent evaluator Mike Milbury pick the 100 best NHL players of all time.

So of course they made a bunch of mistakes and unforgivable omissions. Of course they did. How could they have done anything else?

Obviously when you’re putting together a list like this you’re going to piss people off. But what really did it was the fact that, as was rumored for months, they inexplicably only had six current players as being among the 100 best of all time, a list that included Mike Modano for some reason.

But to say only six of today’s players are good enough to be considered part of this group is both insulting and wrong. Especially when three of those players are on the list solely because they happened to be the three best players on the best team in seven or eight years. This is “recency bias” in action, and also “voters being dumb” in action.

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The other three, hey, what can you say? Crosby, Ovechkin, and Jagr? Yeah, clearly three of the best players in league history. But hey, let’s try to create some elbow room for five current players who actually deserve to be on the list instead.

I bet you can think of three guys on the “kick out” list without trying all that hard.

Five guys who should be in

5. Zdeno Chara

Look man, if you’re gonna put Duncan Keith on the list (and you shouldn’t!) how about maybe chipping in the guy who was the most dominant defenseman of his generation.

Chara’s big mistake here was being somewhat useful but not Norris Trophy-worthy the past two or three seasons. What an idiot! Should have retired in 2013 and preserved his legacy. Instead he tarnished it by merely being a No. 1/2 guy at age (I think) 179.

It’s very weird — and even dumber than it is weird — that Chara only has one Norris in his career but he made the first or second All-Star team seven times. Another time Chara deserved to win the Norris they gave Nick Lidstrom a “well he’s good for being old” award instead.

A huge argument for Chara is that longevity. It’s one thing to be one of the four or five best defensemen in the league (and occasionally the actual best one as well) for like five or six years. Chara did it for more than a decade. If we’re defining “Dominant Chara” as his last three years in Ottawa up until he got his last Norris vote for the Bruins, that’s 11 seasons. In that time, he finished top-five in Norris voting eight times.

The fact that he didn’t make it speaks to, a) Lingering around being merely good and not other-worldly, and b) Milbury.

4. Jarome Iginla

I don’t know what you can even say about this. Iginla’s argument is self-evident.

How about 617 goals in a career that spanned the entirety of two separate Dead Puck Eras? How about another 668 assists despite the fact that he very rarely had help at all in his prime scoring days? How about 15 straight full seasons with at least 28 goals, including seven straight with at least 35? How about the fact that he also lost 116 to lockouts, including one that wiped out the entire season after he won the Rocket Richard?

The fact that he didn’t make the list is absurd. Maybe he, too, stuck around too long for voters’ liking. But this guy has just three seasons in his career without 20 goals. One when he was 20, one when they didn’t let him play 34 games because of owner greed, and one when he was 39.

Iginla is going to end his career with 17 seasons of 20-plus goals. Ties him for sixth all-time with Dionne, Gartner, Brett Hull, Messier, Sakic, Selanne, and Sundin. Oh and some guy called Gretzky??? Without the lockouts he’d be tied for third at 19 with Andreychuk, Jagr, and Shanahan.

Iginla’s 12 seasons of 30 goals? Ties him for 10th ever, and 14 would have bumped him to a tie for second.

Why, it’s almost like he’s…………. easily one of the 100 best players ever.

3. Joe Thornton

Again, extremely self-explanatory. This is a guy with two separate seasons of 90-plus assists. Like, first of all, only 11 guys have done that once, ever.

Only five have done it more than once. Orr, Oates, Lemieux, Gretzky. Hmm, something stands out about those guys to differentiate them from Thornton. Ah yes, they all played in a video game era when it was very easy to score a lot of goals. And Thornton did it playing with Glen Murray and Jonathan Cheechoo!

We all know for sure that Thornton was one of the premier playmakers in league history. His omission from this list is irresponsible.

2. Evgeni Malkin

Okay, so the big argument against Iginla and Thornton is that they don’t have the Cups, right?

Obviously that’s what separates them from Toews and Kane, who are very good players but also horribly overrated because of the circumstances surrounding their success over which they had no control. And believe me, if the Bruins had beaten Chicago in 2013, Chara makes the list over Keith every day of the week.

Anyway, the argument for Toews over Malkin is flimsy as hell. It shouldn’t exist because it is blown apart by the slightest scrutiny.

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Malkin has two 100-point seasons. He was rookie of the year. He won two MVPs. He won a playoff MVP. He won a scoring title. He had three seasons in the top 10 in goals. He’s been a first-team All-Star three times. He’s currently fourth among active players in goals per game. And third in assists per game. And wouldn’t you know it, that makes him second in points per game.

Oh yeah, and two Cups. He has two Cups.

1. Henrik Lundqvist

Here’s the number of goalies with at least 500 games played since 2005-06: Eight.

Here’s the number of goalies with at least a .920 career save percentage in that time: Nine.

Here’s the number of goalies with at least 500 games played and a .920 career save percentage: Henrik Lundqvist.

That’s not a number but you see the goddamn point.

Five guys to kick out

5. Mike Modano

I think even Mike Modano knows this was a bit silly.

4. Pavel Datsyuk

This is like the more defensible version of the Jonathan Toews pick, but let’s not kid ourselves: Datsyuk was very overrated for the same reason. His team was good and he played in front of the second-best defenseman ever.

His skill level was phenomenal and he had four straight seasons of 87 or 97 points (oddly specific numbers, but there you go). Here’s the thing, though: He ended his career with 918 points in 953 games, neither of which are like ground-breaking milestone numbers. And it’s not like his career was cut short due to injury. His career was cut short due to “he didn’t enter the league until he was 23.”

And that’s not his fault, really. But while he had an awesome peak and was still quite productive afterward, he couldn’t stay healthy.

He won seven individual awards. Four of them were Lady Byngs. Three more were Selkes. Only one All-Star team appearance. Two Cups. Only one season finishing top-three in Hart voting.

Datsyuk would be a borderline case for me if not for the fact that Malkin and Thornton got left out. He’s not on their level and, frankly, never was in terms of peak performance.

But again: Cups.

3. Duncan Keith

Duncan Keith is a really good defenseman. Has been for a long time. But he’s also 33 and showing signs of slowing down already. Keith has two Norrises (it helps to be when you’re on a good team) which is the argument over Chara but you can tell he’s not going to have that level of long-time menace Chara did.

2. Patrick Kane

Immensely talented, obviously. He had 100 points last season. He had 88 in 2009-10. He also went 73 in 73 in 2010-11 and 69 in 69 in 2013-14. These are strong credentials, except he’s only 28.

That’s the big beef with the Kane pick, as far as I’m concerned. If he does this for another four, five, six years? Yeah, he’s in the conversation. But while they’re different players at the same position, you can’t make a cogent argument for Kane while saying Iginla doesn’t belong.

Production-wise, Iginla is the idealized version of what Kane brings to the table. BUT HE DOESN’T HAVE THE CUPS!!!!!!!!

1. Jonathan Toews

My man’s not even the second-best player on his own team. It’s an absurdity.

He’s got a Selke, and a Conn Smythe he barely deserved. He’s never been all that close to a point a game over a full 82 (he went 57 in 599 in 2011-12) and he’s in the midst of his worst year ever at just 28.

Why not just put Rogie Vachon on the list 100 times?

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.