Clemente’s Corner: ‘The Hockey 100’ Tries to Rank Best NHL Players
There are few debates that can match the passion of arguing over who are the greatest modern hockey players of all time. Is Wayne Gretzky untouchable at the top? How should we compare a dominant goaltender with a record-breaking scorer? How much weight should we give to championships, individual statistics and longevity?
With “The Hockey 100: The Definitive Ranking of Ice Hockey’s Greatest Players,” The Athletic dives headfirst into those questions, delivering a celebration of the National Hockey League’s greatest players that is as much about the stories behind the legends as it is about the numbers they each put up.
Notes
Title: The Hockey 100: The Definitive Ranking of Ice Hockey’s Greatest Players
Author: Sean McInode & Dan Robson
Pages: 576 pages
Size: 6″ x 9″
Format: Hardcover & Kindle Buy it at Amazon
Publisher: William Morrow
The book, written by hockey writers Sean McIndoe and Dan Robson (with contributions from The Athletic’s NHL writing staff), spans 576 pages (and weights nearly two pounds!) and takes on the ambitious task of ranking 100 of the NHL’s greatest players. The result is a substantial addition to any hockey fan’s bookshelf — and an invitation to debate every decision.
The book’s biggest strength is that it understands what makes hockey history so compelling. Statistics tell us what a player accomplished, but they cannot always explain what made that player special. “The Hockey 100” tries to do just that with a series of short profiles of each player, alongside their ranking. The writers looked beyond career totals and Stanley Cup championships to also explore the personalities, experiences and impact on the sport.
“The Hockey 100” does have its limitations. For example, you won’t see names on the list like Gordie Howe or Howie Morenz. Why not? The editors decided that different eras where difficult to compare, a common theme when compiling such lists. As McIndoe noted in the book’s introduction: “Today’s NHL would be all but unrecognizable to a fan in, say, 1925. So as much as we can respect the stars of those very early days who built the league’s foundation, it hardly felt fair to directly compare them to the version of the game we all grew up watching. So, we drew the line at 1967. That means you won’t see any players on our list who retired before then, obviously — no Rocket Richard, or Eddie Shore, or Howie Morenz. But it also means that you won’t see players such as Gordie Howe or Bobby Hull. They did play past 1967, but their best years came before that, meaning those seasons don’t count for our purposes.”
He added: “That led to some tough calls on players whose primes straddled our cutoff. Legends such as Stan Mikita, Johnny Bucyk and Dave Keon lost some of their best years, but not all. Did they do enough after 1967 to still make the list? Spoiler alert: Not all three of those guys did.”
This is why the book emphasis the word “modern” when describing who made the list. The book’s editors also admitted that the rankings, from almost the very start, was referred to as the “NHL 99 project,” since there was never a doubt that Wayne Gretzky would be ranked top of the list. Yes, The Great One is No. 1 (as if you had any doubt), but the other 99 spots were certainly, as McIndoe put it, “up for grabs.” In 2015, The Hockey News published its own top 100 list – and it’s fun to compare the two lists compiled over a decade apart.
Without giving too much away about “The Hockey 100” rankings, the top 10 spots feature three Pittsburgh Penguins players from the past and present. Some choices seem tough to defend (like Nicklas Lidstrom at No. 9, seems way too high) and Patrick Roy at No. 12, when he should have been ranked up the list higher. Card collectors, for example, wouldn’t look at some of these rankings the same way based on demand on value of their rookie cards.
It was great to see some of my favorite players, like the great Guy Lafluer, make the list at No. 15. Also happy to see Mark Messier (No. 17) and Paul Coffey (No. 18) also make the top 20. Macklin Celebrini, who had only played two full NHL seasons when the book was compiled, did not make the list. Unlike collecting, players who made the book’s list were judged on what they have already done – not what they are expected to do in the future.
Of course, no book built around a ranking system can satisfy everybody. In fact, part of the fun is that it shouldn’t. The inevitable disagreements that come out of this ranking is part of the book’s appeal. Agree or disagree, “The Hockey 100” is worth a read and a must-have for any fan of the game. Now you and your family have something other than politics to argue about this Thanksgiving. Let the debate begin.
Clemente Lisi is a lifelong Rangers fan who first started collecting cards in 1986. He collects both vintage and modern with a focus on rookie cards. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.
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