100 Greatest NHL Players

Of the players on the list, 39 are centremen, 21 are defencemen, 15 are goaltenders, 15 are right wingers and 10 are left wingers.^[3] There are 21 players who started their NHL career in the decade of the 1980s, and 22 who last played in the NHL during the decade of the 2000s, the most by decade for each category. The player on the list with the shortest NHL career is goaltender Bill Durnan, who played for seven seasons – winning the Vezina Trophy and selected to the NHL First All-Star team in six of his seasons. The two players on the list with the longest NHL career, at 26 seasons each, are right winger Gordie Howe and defenceman Chris Chelios. At the time of the list's publication, six players on it were still active in the NHL (Jaromir Jagr, Duncan Keith, Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane).^[3]

The inclusion of Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews^[3][5][6] and Patrick Kane,^[3][5][6] all of them then-active players and three-time Stanley Cup champions, was considered controversial. Evgeni Malkin,^[5][6][7] Ed Belfour,^[5][7][8] Dale Hawerchuk,^[5][7][8] Joe Thornton,^[6][7] Jarome Iginla,^[6][7] Zdeno Chara,^[6][7] Pierre Pilote^[6][7] and Michel Goulet^[5][8] were considered to be notable players omitted from the list. Malkin responded to his omission by joking that he could be the 101st best player, and remarked that all who were featured on the list earned the honour.^[9]

• The Top 100 NHL Players of All Time – a 1998 book created by The Hockey News