Who are the NHL's all-time franchise players?

Question

I decided to go the way of controversey when I asked this question: If you were to go up and down the rosters of NHL history, what players could be truly called franchise players? What players could a team simply build around and win? The inspiration of this question comes from a baseball magazine I bought ten years ago. This mag outlined the league's franchise players for each team (up to 1996). I decided to come up with my own team-by team list...let the debates begin!

Anaheim- None
Boston- Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque
Buffalo- Gilbert Perrault
Calgary- Brett Hull
Chicago- Phil Esposito, Dominik Hasek, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito
Columbus- c'mon now...
Colorado- Joe Sakic, Peter Statsny
Detroit- Gordie Howe, Terry Sawchuk, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom
Dallas- None
Edmonton- Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri
Florida- None
Los Angeles- None
Montreal- Maurice Richard, Georges Vezina, Jean Beliveau, Patrick Roy, Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden

more...

Carolina- Ron Francis
Atlanta- Dany Heatley
Minnesota- None
Nashville- None
New Jersey- Martin Brodeur, Scott Niedermayer
New York Islanders- Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Pat Lafontaine
New York Rangers- Brian Leetch
Ottawa Senators- Marian Hossa
Phoenix Coyotes- Dale Hawerchuk
Philadelphia Flyers- Bobby Clarke,
Pittsburgh Penguins- Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr (too early for Sidney Crosby)
St. Louis Blues- None
San Jose Sharks- None
Tampa Bay Lightning-
Toronto Maple Leafs- Darryl Sittler, Charlie Conacher, Tim Horton
Vacouver Canucks- Pavel Bure
Washington Capitals- None

Players I accidentally left out:

Boston- Joe Thornton, Eddie Shore, Gerry Cheevers
Montreal- Newsie Lalonde, Jacques Plante

With some players, I included the teams that they started out with, as opposed with the teams they became famous with.

Bob and Richard C: I did forget about Marcel Dionne, but I would not put him under Los Angeles (I would put him in Detroit's list because that's where he began).

Add: I didn't add Mike Modano to the list only because I would not consider him a franchise player. Why? He just doesn't seem like an explosive player to build a team around. A good player, of course, but just not one I would start a team with. Same thing with Mats Sundin, a good player, but one I wouldn't build a team around.

As far as Bernie Nicholls, I just don't really consider him a franchise player. If I had to compare him to another athlete, it would be Don Mattingly. Like Nicholls, Mattingly was a good player, but happened to be a good player in an era of great players.

Hypothetically:

Colorado Avalanche- Mats Sundin
Dallas Stars- Mike Modano
Philadelphia Flyers- Peter Forsberg, Pelle Lindbergh

Bob- Forgot about Tony Esposito being part of the Habs farm. Thank you for pointing that out. It slipped my mind.

Everyone, I debated putting Sergei Fedorov on my list. For starters, he was a dominant player, but for only five seasons (1992-93 through 1996-97). It seems as though he hit a huge wall when he signed that offer sheet from the Hurricanes. After missing the majority of the 1997-98 season because of that, he just wasn't the same player. As far as Brendan Shanahan, there is some thought about designating him as a franchise player. A hell of a goal scorer for four teams (not so much with New Jersey of course).

Addendum:

Washington- Scott Stevens, Mike Gartner
New Jersey- Brendan Shanahan

I left out Tampa Bay's franchise player (and this pick will for certain cause controversey, as it will make me out to be a hypocrite): Vincent Lecavalier. If I were a general manager, I would build a team around him, but not Paul Kariya. Kariya is a good player, but there is no way in hell I would put pieces around him.

Addendum:

Phoenix- Teemu Selanne (goal scorers are at a premium).

Again, my main criterium for the franchise players is the team that they started with, hence Teemu Selanne being listed with Phoenix (Winnipeg).

Addendum:

Calgary- Al MacInnis, Joe Niewendyck

I left out a ton of players, only because there is no way they would be the first players I would start a team with (Rick Nash at this point is the 21st century version of Ray Sheppard). Eric Lindros comes to mind right away. Potential-wise, he would have been much better than Joe Sakic. However, Super Joe had the better skill set (as we know now), the better attitude, and health than Lindros. Guys like Rob Blake, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, Luc Robitaille, Jarome Iginla (and it pains me to list him here), Bernie Federko, Jean Ratalle, Brad Park, etc. are more complimentary pieces than franchise cornerstones.

Addendum:

Edmonton- Grant Fuhr (I put him here because you must have goaltending to do anything in the NHL).
Chicago- Ed Belfour

Roberto Luongo is too soon to list.

Answer 1

Before I answer
To Cold Steel on Ice...Hasek played subpar as a Black Hawk? In his two year (24 games) tenure with the Hawks, for all goalies who played a minimum of 20 games over those two seasons he led the NHL in goals against average 2.59, winning percentage AND save percentage. The only other goalie with a goals against average under 3.00 in those two years combined was Ed Belfour at 2.64. This doesn't sound sub-par to me. I can only imagine what would have been had he not demanded a trade.

I started answering this, but having scouted almost all of these people, it is hard to be totally fair. So, I'll leave some feedback about guys I scouted.

1969 Chicago took Jean-Pierre Bordeleau 13th overall. The punk drafted 17th overall is in the Hall of Fame............but we liked Bordeleau a LOT better than Bobby Clarke. Yes we did!

1970 The Gilbert Perreault sweepstakes. Buffalo won the spin. Chicago took Dan Maloney 14th overall. It should be noted, Vancouver picked current Black Hawk GM Dale Tallon second overall. Maloney had a better career!

1971 Chicago had a bad draft. 6 picks, only made it to the NHL, and is best known as a Washington Capital (David Kryskow). Montreal had 4 selections in the top 20 that year. Guy Lafleur, Chuck Arnason (father of Chicago 98 draft pick Tyler), Murray Oliver, and Lawrence Robinson.

1972 We picked up Phil Russell 13th overall and we needed D. The only HOF's from this draft are Steve Shutt and Bill Barber and both were gone by our turn. As we all know...Shutt looked good in red

1973 We chose Darcy Rota with the 13th pick (by this point you can understand that 13 was unlucky for us). Three HOF's taken ahead of us....Denis Potvin, Lanny McDonald, and Bob Gainey. This draft also produced several NHL execs......McDonald, John Davidson, Bob Gainey, Colin Campbell and Dave Lewis

1974 We took future 40 goal scorer Grant Mulvey with the 16th pick. Four other picks had NHL careers of substance (Alain Daigle, Bob Murray, Terry Ruskowski, and Ed Mio). Again, we could have had a HOF player as Bryan Trottier was chosen 22nd.

1975 We drafted the amazing Greg Vaydik 7th overall. (The Phoenix Roadrunners of the WHA thought he was the 9th best player). He played a whopping total of 5 games. I loved this kid.....too bad he didn't love me back! This is one of the weakest drafts in history. Dave Taylor drafted 210th overall had the best career.

1976 With the 9th pick overall, we drafted Real Cloutier. That same year the Quebec Nordiques picked him 9th over all. Over the next 5 years, Cloutier had goal seasons of 26, 66, 60, 56, and 75...all with the Nordiques, who paid him $300K a year. We offered $45K. Bernie Federkop was the only HOF drafted ahead of him. Our 3rd pick was Thomas Gradin, who starred for Vancouver.

1977 We needed D, so we went out a got one of the best.....Doug Wilson. 6th overall. Of course, you can argue that Mike Bossy MAY HAVE BEEN a better choice.......but Chicago loved Doug (as does San Jose) and who needs a 60 goal scorer when you have Grant Mulvey? We also drafted 1980 US Olympian Jackl O'Callaghan that year.

1978 With the 10th pick we took Tim Higgins, a solid NHLer. With the 179th pick we took my guy...Darryl Sutter...a solid hard-nosed NHLer.

1979 We chose former WHL rookie of the year Keith Brown in the 6th position. A solid NHL defenseman for years. Our last pick that year was Doug Crossman. By the way, a defencemen was chosen 7th overall in 1979 as well.....hos name was Bourque...Raymond Jean Bourque. He was third on our list...we had Paul Reinhart 2nd. Let me see here...Reinhart and Bourque both played in the Canada Cup....Brown did not. Okay, we may have missed that one too

1980 We were planning on taking Doug Wickenheiser with our first pick (third overall) because everybody and their grandmother knew Montreal was taking Denis Savard and Winterpeg was taking Dave Babych. Everybody that is but Irving Grundman. So, we got Denis (and we still have Denis). With the 120th position we took Steve Larmer. The only year we drafted two guys who would become point a game players (and I believe that Larmer's higher ppg than Ciccarelli, G. Anderson, and L. Robitaille deserves a place in the HOF). we also drafted Steve Ludzik, Carey Wilson, Troy Murray and future Penguin captain Dan Frawley.

1981 Chicago takes, with the 12th pick...Antonio Tanti. Unfortunately, he didn't fit into out culture so we traded him for Curt Fraser. Another bad draft year, Tanti was lowest drafted forward who played 500 games. Five HOFs in this draft. Hawerchuk (1st), Francis (4th), Fuhr (8th), MacInnis (15th) and Chelios (40th)

1982 We supposedly drafted that year. Ken Yaremchuk was our first pick at 7th overall. Players we missed out on? Dave Andreychuk (16th), Pat V erbeek (43rd), Doug Gilmour (134th). I'm surprised we still had jobs.

1983 Bruce Cassidy was our pick at 18th. No relation to David or Shaun (I hope somebody else eher is old enough to know them). We did get Wayne Presley, Marc Bergevin, Brian Noonan and Hasek out of this draft. Players we cold have used? Claude Lemieux (26th), Rick Tocchet (125th)

1984 We had the 3rd pick, and we chose Ed Olczyk. Keep in mind he was a Chicago kid and not picking him would have created riots. We also drafted Trent Yawney in round three. We could have drafted Luc Robitaille (171st) instead or Bobby's son (Brett went 117th).

1985 We took Dave Manson with the 11th pick. He did what we wanted him to do, and did it well. 1985 was a year where the 2nd round players had better careers than the 1st rounders.

1986 We chose Everett Sanipass with the 14th pick. He was a big bruising left winger....and a native Indian. Mike Hudson and Frantisek Kucera were the only players with careers of note that we drafted. No franchise players taken below us.

1987 We took Jimmy Waite the 8th pick. We didn;t project him to be the dud he turned out to be. Have no fear..........we drafted Ryan McGill and Cam Russell afterwards...yeah...more duds. With the 15th pick, Quebec took Joe Sakic. We liked Joe.....we liked Jimmy better. We were wrong!

1988 Our draft picks this year went on to play in 1252 games scoring 495 goals and 675 assists. 11 players we drafted that year. ONE made it. The 8th pick of the 1988 draft was Jeremy Roenick. And he was the only one who made it. Mark Recchi was drafted 67th...Anthony Amonte was drafted 68th. We could have had a line of Savard, Amonte and Roenick!

1989 This was almost as bad a year as 1988. Ten players drafted, TWO made it. The two of them combined for 91 NHL games....only 34 were with the Hawks. Adam Bennett was our first choice at 6th overall. We needed a D that year. The only notables I can think of that we missed out on were Pavel Bure (113th), Sergei Fedorov (74th), Niklas Lidstrom (53rd), and Adam Foote (22nd)....but who needs them anyway.

In 1990 I got sick of travelling, and became one of Bob Pulford's many advisors where I stayed until I retired in 1997. In 2002 I became a consultant to Central Scouting.

Answer 2

I'll choose 2 franchise players for each current franchise:

(random order)

Toronto: Mats Sundin, Tim Horton
Sharks: Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton (had to pick someone)
Avalanche: Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy (how could you forget him?)
Penguins: Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr
Flyers: Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent
Rangers: Brian Leetch, Jean Ratelle
Bruins: Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque
Senators: Daniel Alfredsson, Marian Hossa
Devils: Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens
Lightning: Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier
Flames: Jarome Iginla, Lanny McDonald
Stars: Mike Modano, Ed Belfour
Canucks: Mats Naslund, Pavel Bure
Ducks: Teemu Selanne, J.S. Giguere
Hurricanes: Ron Francis, Rod Brind'amour
Coyotes: ???? Hawerchuk?
Capitals: Peter Bondra
Panthers: Olli Jokinen
Thrashers: Ilya Kovalchuk
Wild: Marian Gaborik
Blackhawks: Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull
Blues: Bernie Federko, Brett Hull
Kings: Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille
Blue Jackets: Rick Nash
Predators: ???
Red Wings: Steve Yzerman, Gordie Howe
Sabres: Dominik Hasek, Gilbert Perreault
Islanders: Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier
Oilers: Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri
Canadiens: Maurice Richard, Guy Lafleur

Oh man, that took me 53 minutes to complete, I'm so tired *yaaaaaawn*, hope it's good enough.

Answer 3

Anaheim- Teemu Selanne
Atlanta- Ilya Kovalchuk
Boston- Bobby Orr
Buffalo- Dominic Hasek
Calgary- Lanny Mcdonald/Jarome Iginla
Carolina- Rod Brind A'mour
Chicago-Bobby Hull
Colorado- Joe Sakic
Columbus -Rick Nash
Dallas - Mike Modano
Detroit- Steve Yzerman
Edmonton- Gretzky/Messier/Smyth
Florida- Olli Jokinen
Los Angeles- Rob Blake/Luc Robataille
Minnesota- Marian Gaborik
Montreal - Saku Koivu/Maurice Richard/Guy Lafleur
Nashville -Shea Weber??
New Jersey - Scott Stevens/Martin Brodeur
Ney York Islanders- Mike Bossy
New York Rangers - Brian Leetch
Ottawa- Daniel Alfredsson
Philadelphia - Reggie Leach
Phoenix- Shane Doan
Pittsburgh- Mario Lemieux
San Jose- Patrick Marleau
St.Louis- Al Macinnis
Tampa Bay- Vincent Lecavier
Toronto - Darryl Sitler/Mats Sundin
Vancouver- Trevor Linden
Washington-Olaf Kolzig

Answer 4

I'm going with just one player from each team:

1 Rangers- Jaromir Jagr
2 Avalanche- Joe Sakic
3 Coyotes- Jeremy Roenick
4 Maple Leafs- Mats Sundin
5 Canucks- Roberto Luongo
6 Sharks- Joe Thornton
7 Bruins- Bobby Orr
8 Oilers- #99
9 Blues- Brett Hull
10 Predators- Paul Kariya
11 Ducks- Chris Pronger
12 Flames- Jarome Iglinla
13 Lightning- Vinny Lacavier
14 Devils- Martin Brodeur
15 Senators- Dany Heatley
16 Capitals- Alex Ovechkin
17 Canadiens- Maurice Richard
18 Penguins- #66
19 Thrashers- Kovalchuk
20 Kings- Luc Robitaille
21 Blackhawks- Bobby Hull
22 Blue Jackets- Rick Nash
23 Wild- none (maybe Gaborik)
24 Hurricanes- Ron Francis
25 Panthers- Pavel Bure
26 Flyers- Eric Lindros
27 Sabres- Dominic Hasek
28 Stars- Ed Belfour
29 Red Wings- Steve Yzerman
30 Islanders- Mike Bossy

(i stole the list from , so these aren't rankings)

Answer 5

Here are mine: One per actual team:

Anaheim-Paul Kariya
Atlanta-Ilya Kovalchuk
Boston-Bobby Orr
Buffalo-Gilbert Perreault
Calgary-Al MacInnis
Carolina-Rod Brind'Amour
Chicago-Stan Mikita
Columbus-Rick Nash
Colorado-Joe Sakic
Dallas-Mike Modano
Detroit-Gordie Howe
Edmonton-Wayne Gretzky
Florida-John Vanbisebrouck
Los Angeles-Marcel Dionne
Minnesota-Bill Goldsworthy
Montreal-Maurice Richard
Nashville-Tomas Vokoun
New Jersey-Martin Brodeur
New York Islanders-Mike Bossy
New York Rangers-Andy Bathgate
Ottawa-Daniel Alfredsson
Philadelphia-Bobby Clarke
Phoenix-Keith Tkachuk
Pittsburgh-Mario Lemieux
St. Louis-Brett Hull
San Jose-Patrick Marleau
Tampa Bay-Vincent Lecavalier
Toronto-Ted Kennedy
Vancouver-Trevor Linden
Washington-Mike Gartner

Answer 6

Born and raised a Hawks fan. In total disagreement about Hasek being a franchise player with the Hawks. When he was here there was a quote by Chelios..." that guy couldn't stop a beach ball...." Not to say Hasek hasn't proved him wrong now but he definitely played(when he did) sub par at best for the Blackhawks. I like most of your other picks but would add Bernie Nicholls of the L.A. Kings to your list....2 time 70 goal plus seasons and a city favorite.....How about Modano on the Stars?????? Grant Fuhr, Jarmir Jagr to name a few others..ANY YOU COULD HAVE BUILT AROUND IN THEIR PRIME...That's how I read the question...excellent question though..I don't think there could be any right or wrong answers..We all grew up in different towns and different eras of hockey...It's nice to hear others thoughts on this...Guys I wouldn't consider and vice versa ended up on our own lists. I guess this just goes to show we all have our own personal favorites throughout the years...

Answer 7

Nothing to add except when I think Calgary Flames franchise players, I think of guys like Al MacInnis, Mike Vernon and Lanny MacDonald over Brett Hull.
Hard to not say Modano for Dallas. None for LA? Marcel Dionne?

Answer 8

Washington-Peter Bondra, Olie Kolzig, Rod Langway
NYR-Gretzky, Messier
Pittsburgh-Lemieux
Los Angeles-Gretzky

Answer 9

Los Angeles - Marcel Dionne how soon we forget!

Answer 10

None in L.A.? How about Luc Robitaille
, or Blake?

Answer 11

Ron Francis, Hartford Whalers (and I guess you can throw in that toilet bowl looking team called the Hurricanes)