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Top 100 Players of All-Time
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
31 BILLY SMITH
1993 BILLY SMITH is known more for his stick than his stats, but one number sure sticks out – four straight Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders (1980 to ’83). He never put up gaudy numbers, but he was as clutch a goaltender as any, making the big save when needed. Smith was a prototypical playoff goalie with a sparkling .667 winning percentage in the post-season and picking up the Conn Smythe in ’83. Aside from five games with the Kings in his first season, he spent his entire career with the Islanders, guarding his crease with a liberal use of lumber. GOALIE 1971-1989 BORN DEC. 12, 1950 PERTH, ONT. HT 5-10 WT 185 CATCHES LEFT TOTALS W-L-T 305-233-105 GAA 3.17 SO 22 AWARDS & HONORS 1981-82 VEZINA TROPHY 1982-83 JENNINGS TROPHY CONN SMYTHE TROPHY NHL FIRST ALL-STAR TEAM 1982…
A CAREER OF STUNNING ACHIEVEMENTS
MARTIN BRODEUR’S NHL career has turned into a Shakespearian play – Much Ado About Nothing. No one in the history of netminding has thrown up as many zeroes as the New Jersey Devils netminder, who enters 2010-11 with 110 shutouts. He’s also the NHL’s career wins leader with 602. Those numbers have caused many to catapult Brodeur to the top of history’s netminding heap, but that’s a lofty height the Devils stalwart finds difficult to comprehend. “It’s never comfortable to hear that,” Brodeur said. “When people tell you stuff like that, you don’t like to believe it. I don’t think as an athlete you can see yourself like that. I think if you do, it’s not the right way to approach who you are, where you want to be. I think you…
BOSTON BRUINS
IT WORKS OUT well that the second-best center, left winger and right winger in the history of the Boston Bruins all played together on a unit under the moniker the ‘Kraut Line,’ mainly in the 1940s. Milt Schmidt at center, Woody Dumart at left wing and Bobby Bauer at right wing were childhood friends who grew up together, played together in the NHL and even bravely fought together in the Second World War. The three were youngsters when Boston won its second Stanley Cup in 1939 and leaders when they won it again in 1941. While serving in the Canadian military in the middle of their careers, they missed three NHL seasons. Boston has been a home to many great defensemen over the years, as well. Besides Bobby Orr at the head…
99 Wayne Gretzky
1999 LONG BEFORE he became the best player in hockey history, Wayne Gretzky already had carved out a myth and mystique for himself. “I’d heard the name Wayne Gretzky for a number of years,” said Cliff Fletcher, GM of the Calgary Flames when Gretzky was in his heyday with the Edmonton Oilers. “He was famous for the number of points he’d accumulated at all levels. But the first time I ever saw him was playing major junior – and from the first time I saw him, you could see he was going to be something special.” More than a decade after Gretzky’s final game, Fletcher’s thought seems like an understatement for a childhood prodigy-turned-teenage-leviathan-turned-NHL-demigod. Gretzky earned a quartet of Stanley Cup titles, all of which came with him leading the way as Oilers captain.…
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