NBCSN is your home for all things NHL throughout the season and that won’t stop during the All-Star break. On Friday, we’ll provide full coverage of the NHL 100 unveiling, which gets going at 9:00 p.m. ET. You can watch the event online by clicking here.
As part of the festivities for the NHL’s centennial season, hockey minds around the league (media, executives and alumni) have help put together a list of the top 100 players of all-time. The panel that came up with this list is made up of 58 people who have over 1800 years of experience in hockey.
Earlier this month, the NHL gave us a preview by naming 33 of the 100. Included on the initial list (in no particular order) were Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe, Tim Horton, Johnny Bucyk, Doug Harvey, Maurice Richard and many others.
Every hockey fan can immediately point to players they know will be on the list. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mark Messier (I can keep going and going) will be on the list. But how about the great players that don’t make it?
The actual list will be the most interesting part of the night, obviously, but when you’re looking over 100 years of hockey history, it’s inevitable that there will be snubs. Analyzing which players failed to make the list will almost be as interesting as seeing the names on it.
Also, how many active NHLers will hear their names announced tonight? Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin should be slam dunks, but it’ll be interesting to see if names like Jarome Iginla, Evgeni Malkin, Carey Price, Erik Karlsson, Jonathan Toews and other current players find themselves receiving this great honor.