Most Revered NHL Players of All Time
When I think of players that are liked by NHL fans, I most often think of players that show class on and off the ice. Players are not only liked but respected throughout the league by fans and their peers. Some of these players are respected and even feared on the ice, but at the same time, they are loved for their intensity, passion, and devotion to the game of hockey.
Paradoxically some of these players are disliked for the same attributes that others like them for. They all bring something special to the game that sets them apart from the average player, whether it be gentlemanly conduct, electrifying fans, or simply being tough. This is my top ten list of players that best represent the aforementioned qualities.
#10 Wendel Clark
Clark made an immediate impact on the Toronto Maple Leafs; he combined toughness and scoring prowess with a fearless playing style that endeared him to Maple Leaf fans. He was a ferocious competitor, never backing down from a challenge and always coming to the aid of teammates. His best year as a Maple Leaf was his last year with the team, when he scored career highs in goals (46) and points (76). He is remembered for fighting Los Angeles Kings enforcer Marty McSorley during Game 1 of the Campbell Conference Finals after McSorley laid a devastating hit on Leaf’s star Doug Gilmour.
#9 Doug Gilmour
Doug Gilmour made an immediate impact on the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was part of a ten-player package, the largest trade in NHL history. In his first year in Toronto, he used his feisty tenacious style of play to transform the lowly Maple Leafs into a perennial playoff contender, helping the team reach game seven of the Conference Finals only to lose on a controversial game six noncalls by referee Kerry Fraser, after being cut for eight stitches by a Wayne Gretzky high stick that should have resulted in a five-minute penalty. Gretzky would score the game-winner mere seconds later.
#8 Steve Yzerman
Steve Yzerman was drafted 4th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 1983 and would captain the team for the next 21 years. He retired as the longest-serving team captain of any team sport in North American major league sports history. He would go on to win four Stanley Cups with Detroit, three as a player (1997, 1998, 2002) and one as an executive in 2008. He holds many team records and has won many league accolades, as well as appearing in several international tournaments. Steve Yzerman ranks second in nearly every Red Wings statistical category behind Gordie Howe. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. Yzerman currently serves as the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.
#7 Bobby Hull
Bobby Hull is one of the most revered NHL players of All Time. Known for his powerful slapshot and dazzling end-to-end rushes with his blonde hair flowing in the wind, he earned the moniker “The Golden Jet.” He has won numerous awards during his 23-year NHL career, including his only Stanley Cup championship in 1961. His slapshot was once clocked at 118.3 mph (190.5 km/h), and he could skate like the wind at 29.7 mph (47.8 km/h).
He became hockey’s first million-dollar man when he jumped to the Winnipeg Jets of the rival WHA in 1972.
Hull is remembered as a player who always took time out to acknowledge his fans. Fans would wait outside the small door (Gate 3) on the west side of Chicago Stadium to get autographs. It didn’t matter if he was hurt or tired. He would sign autographs, pose for pictures and shake hands; the bus would always accommodate Hull’s interaction with fans, never leaving until the last fan had been satisfied.
Hull once said, “Fans who pay good money to watch us play hockey deserve to be royally entertained, This is show business, and we’re here to put on a show.”
#6 Joe Sakic
Burnaby Joe as he is known by the Colorado Avalanche faithful is a two-time Stanley Cup winner who played his entire 21-year NHL career with the Quebec Nordiques and later with the Colorado Avalanche when they relocated to the mile-high city in 1995. He was a highly respected player among his peers and a potent scorer throughout his entire career. He holds nearly all of the Quebec/Colorado franchise scoring records, including most goals (625), assists (1016), and points (1641). He is the franchise leader in games played (1363) and holds NHL records for most All-star game assists (16) and most playoff overtime goals (8).
Joe Sakic was demure in nature and preferred to lead by example. One of the classiest things he did was to defy the NHL tradition of the team captain being the first to carry the Stanley Cup over his head. When the Avalanche won the 2001 title, he instead passed it off to long-tenured Ray Bourque to take the first skate with the cup. Ray Bourque holds the NHL record for most games played without winning a championship.
#5 Jerome Iginla
Jerome Iginla played in the NHL for 22 seasons with five different teams, 17 of those years with the Calgary Flames. he twice scored 50 goals or more and captained the team to a remarkable game-seven Stanley Cup Finals appearance against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Iggy is the Flame’s all-time leader in goals, points, and games. He is in the top 20 in goals scored in league history with 625 and is one of only 34 players in NHL history to register 1300 points. In addition, he is one of seven players in league history to record 30 goals or more in 11 consecutive seasons. In recognition of his exemplary leadership qualities, he was honored with the Mark Messier award for leadership in 2008-09.
Jerome Iginla was heavily involved in community work while playing with the Calgary Flames, donating $2,000 for every goal scored to the children’s charity Kidsport. I attended a Flames vs. Dallas game in Calgary in 2007, and while there, I heard many stories of how beloved Iginla is in Calgary.
#4 Mario Lemieux
The Magnificent one is considered to be one of hockey’s greatest talents. He has won numerous awards, including 5 Stanley Cups, two as a player and three as an owner. He is the only man to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup as a player and an owner. Mario Lemieux, along with Wayne Gretzky holds all of the top ten positions in the NHL for points and assists in a season. He is the only player to have scored five goals in a game in five different ways.
If not for many health ailments such as Hodgkins’ Lymphoma and chronic back pain, he is the only player that could have challenged Wayne Gretzky’s records.
Of the ice, Lemieux is known for saving the financially struggling Penguins franchise. He put in a bid to buy the team and pay back creditors $32.5 million, $20 million of which was his own deferred salary while promising to keep the team in Pittsburgh.
#3 Jean Beliveau
Jean Beliveau is widely regarded as one of the NHL’s top ten best players of all time. No individual has won the Stanley Cup more times than Beliveau, having won the trophy 17 times, ten as a player and seven as an executive, all with the Montreal Canadians. He was so highly sought after that Canadian general manager Frank Selke bought an entire league (QSHL) Quebec Senior Hockey league and transformed it from an amateur league to a minor pro league, thus forcing Beliveau to become a Montreal Canadian if he hoped to further his hockey career.
The Hockey News named Beliveau the seventh greatest NHL player of all time. On the ice, he was a smooth skater who exemplified class and grace and was held in high regard by both teammates and opponents. Off the ice, he was so well respected that Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney twice offered him a Senate appointment which he rejected both times as he felt that legislators should be elected. later in 1994, Prime Minister Jean Chretien offered him the position of Governor-General of Canada. He again declined the offer in order to be with his daughter and two grandchildren as their father, a police officer, had recently committed suicide.
In 1971 Beliveau set up his own charity, the Jean Beliveau Foundation, which later became the Society for Disabled Children in 1993. Beliveau holds several doctorates from Canadian Universities. His name is on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and he even had a postage stamp made in his honor.
#2 Gordie Howe
Mr. Hockey epitomized the role of the power forward, a player who is big, strong, and highly skilled. Gordie Howe could do it all. Having played professional hockey for 32 years and accomplished everything that could be accomplished in pro hockey, Mr. Howe set a standard of excellence that stood the test of time. If not for the arrival of Wayne Gretzky, many of Howe’s records would have remained intact. Until recently, his 1,767 games played was the record for an NHL career until Patrick Marleau surpassed it in 2021. Nobody played longer and maintained such a high standard of play over as many years as Howe. On the ice, he was a fierce competitor, not somebody you would want to challenge, of the ice, he was a gentleman and one of the game’s greatest ambassadors. He was known for the “Gordie Howe hat trick”: a goal, an assist, and a fight. He is considered the most complete hockey player of all time, combing physical strength and a nose for the net along with a mean streak to go with it. it made him a feared and respected competitor on the ice.
Off the ice, Howe became involved in charitable endeavors following the death of his wife, Colleen, in 2009. He founded the Gordie and Colleen Howe Fund for Alzheimer’s.
#1 Wayne Gretzky
No player in NHL history has impacted the game of hockey the way Wayne Gretzky did. From the very beginning of his career, he was told that he was too small, not strong enough couldn’t compete at the NHL level. He proved them all wrong. He revolutionized the way the game was played. Instead of chasing the puck, he would use his keen sense of awareness to anticipate where the puck was going to be and find the open ice just in time to receive it before anyone else had time to react. He was an exceptional skater who could turn on a dime, frequently embarrassing defenders.
Before Gretzky, many defenders could get by in the NHL even if they lacked mobility. When Gretzky arrived, he exposed their deficiencies. When they tried to hit him, he would stop on a dime pivoting from one side to the other, making him nearly impossible to hit; he created chaos for opposition defenders. No longer was it acceptable to be a slow-footed lumbering defenseman; you now had to have speed, agility, and a greater sense of on-ice awareness than ever before; Wayne Gretzky had upped the ante. By the time Gretzky finished his career, he would rewrite the record books, holding or sharing 61 NHL records.
With the arrival of the Great One in Los Angeles, a new era began. Gretzky turned California into a thriving hockey hotbed; he helped transform the Kings from a perennial loser into a contending team overnight, Hollywood celebrities would flock to sold-out games, and everyone wanted to see the hockey phenom in action. It is said that without Wayne Gretzky’s trade to southern California, the ensuing interest in NHL hockey would never have transpired, and we probably would never have had enough interest in hockey to have established teams in such places as Anaheim, San Jose, or even in places like Florida, Tampa Bay, and even Nashville.
As with all top ten lists, the players on it are always debatable, and that is what makes it so fun, but because there are so many worthy players to consider, many are left out. The following is a list of honorable mentions.
Keep your stick on the Ice.
Most Revered NHL Players of All Time
- Ray Bourque
- Mike Modano
- Nicklas Lidstrom
- Ron Francis
- Marcel Dionne
- Guy Lafleur
- Trevor Linden
- Mark Messier
- Mike Bossy
- Cam Neely
- Dave Keon
- Pat Lafontaine
- Bobby Orr
- Maurice Richard
- Gerry Cheevers
- Lanny McDonald
- Luc Robitaille
