NHL Power Rankings: The Greatest Players in NHL History Part Two: 75-51

I have gotten a lot of feedback about my top 50 players of all time slideshow.  However there are players in Hockey's history that seem to be overlooked somehow despite their amazing accomplishments.  

This slideshow is meant to be a prequel if you will for my Top 50 Players of all time Slideshow available to read here:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/630824-nhl-power-rankings-the-50-greatest-players-in-nhl-and-hockeys-history

Call them overlooked, call them under rated call them what you will.

We start off with number 75 and he is: 

 

75. Dale Hawerchuk: Winnipeg Jets, Buffalo Sabres, Blues, Flyers

Under the Radar. 

Playing your most productive years on the Winnipeg Jets and Buffalo Sabres will do that but that does not diminish his overall career. 

Playoff success was something Hawerchuk would not taste in his entire career as the only time a team he played on made it out of the second round was the last in his career with the Flyers when they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996-97. 

His lifetime stats? 

1,188 games played, 518 goals and 891 assists for a grand total of 1,409 points. 

Hawerchuk could dominate games offensively from his first year in the NHL where he won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Injuries may have played a role in his decision to retire at the age of 34.  

74. Brian Leetch: New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins

Brian Leetch was the model of consistency throughout his NHL career and quite possibly is the best American born defenseman in NHL History. 

All people talk about when they mention the Rangers amazing season of 1993-94 is Mark Messier. 

People forget who actually won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Leetch is the only American born player to ever win the coveted trophy and was the main reason for the success of the team that season when the Rangers finally famously ended their 54 year Stanley Cup drought.

He also won the Calder Trophy in his rookie season and his stats are most impressive.

18 years, 247 goals, 781 assists for 1,028 points.

In the playoffs he seemed to take things to an even higher level although he did not get a chance to play in a tremendous amount of games with 95. In those 95 games he scored 97 points.

As an Islander fan I always remember Leetch as the scariest player on the ice for the Rangers especially on the power play.

He was the one guy that Islander fans would not hate on because Leetch is as classy a guy as you could get.   

73. Andy Bathgate: New York Rangers, Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Penguins

Andy Bathgate was the epitome of class when the NHL was a place to play that was far from classy. 

Before TV, before anything could be analyzed by replay and reviewed by league officials the NHL could resemble vigilante justice at its finest. 

Bathgate knew what we know to this day, that hockey was not meant to be played that way. 

Players in the NHL and other sports used to write columns for the media and Bathgate famously openly criticized what he saw as injustices on the ice.

He even called out some of the games great players in Doug Harvey, Pierre Pilote and Ted Linsday saying that they do not seem to care that they could one day be branded as "hockey killers."

He even called out some of his own Ranger team mates in the article.

The NHL in response to this fined Bathgate and instituted a rule that banned players from writing articles of this nature that is still in force today.

I wonder what Bathgate would have said in this Twitter/Facebook era.

On to on ice accomplishments, Bathgate is a Hall of Fame talent with 973 points in only 1,026 NHL games.

He also has a Hart Trophy and a Stanley Cup championship in his first year with the Leafs in 1964. 

72. Mats Sundin: Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks

Consistent. 

Is there anything else you can say about Sundin? 

Mats Sundin was a durable, consistent point scoring machine scoring 1,349 points in 1,346 NHL games.

18 years in the NHL Sundin never played on great teams and only got in 97 playoff games and guess what, he scored 82 points in those games too.

Sundin was also something else, very durable. as his only year he was not healthy was his last in the NHL.  

71. Tim Horton: Toronto Maple Leafs, Rangers, Penguins, Buffalo Sabres

Yeah, the Donut guy. 

Before Tim Horton was the Donut guy, he was one of the best defensive defenseman of all time. 

He was not cut from the mold of a Eddie Shore, who would smash you from behind into the boards without even thinking about it and then do it again the same shift. 

Horton did it with unparalleled strength and skill.

He was called the strongest player in the NHL and when someone would challenge him to a fight, they would soon feel the strength first hand as Horton was famous for squeezing the life out of you bear hug style.

Horton had the respect of the rest of the NHL because he intimidated through strength and skill rather than dirty tactics that were so commonplace back then.

He had a 23 year career in the NHL not counting two cups of coffee earlier in his career until his unfortunate death in a single car crash in 1974. 

Four Stanley Cups and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977 round out a memorable career. 

70. Dave Andreychuck: Sabres, Maple Leafs, Devils, Bruins, Avalanche, Lightning

Stat Compiler? Maybe. 

But what a stat to have. 

Dave Andreychuk finished 13th all time in goals with 640 to go along with his impressive total of 1,338 points. 

Andreychuck is like the Ray Bourque of forwards not tasting a Stanley Cup championship until his 23rd year in the NHL. 

Once he got to Tampa Bay with the team struggling he refused trades to contenders because he famously said "my work here is not finished."

He got to finish his work in 2003-04 when helped the Tampa Bay Lightning capture their only Stanley Cup Championship in thrilling fashion in 7 games over Calgary. 

69. Max Bentley: Blackhawks, Maple Leafs, Rangers

Max Bentley has a Hart Trophy and two Art Ross Trophies on his resume in a time when goals and points were hard to come by.

He had his career interrupted by World War II and came back to the NHL and promptly won the scoring title.

He complies 544 points in only 645 career games with 45 points in 51 playoff games.

A 3 time Stanley Cup winner he also was a classy player, netting himself a Lady Byng Trophy in 1943.

68. Michel Goulet: Quebec Nordiques, Chicago Blackhawks

He shoots, he scores.

Michel Goulet was one of the best scorers in the NHL during the 80's when he scored 50+ goals in four consecutive seasons and it could have been more as he scored 48 and 49 following his four straight 50 goal campaigns. 

That right there puts him up with the best snipers in NHL history. 

His career numbers? 

1,089 games, 548 goals and 1,152 points. 

He unfortunately never got to drink from Lord Stanley's Cup as a player, but that does not diminish his greatness as a player.

Goulet's career was cut short by a severe concussion that limited him to 16 years in the NHL. He would have topped 600 goals if not for injury as he was still averaging well over 20 goals a season with the Blackhawks.

67. Tony Esposito: Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks

Tony Esposito started his career with a bang, winning the Stanley Cup as a member of the 1968-69 Montreal Canadiens, who left him exposed in what was then the waiver draft in the NHL. 

Maybe they should have held on to him. 

All he did in his first season with Chicago was win the Calder Trophy, post a 2.17 goals against average and have 15 shut outs.

He continued his run of dominance until the Blackhawks team fell apart at the end of his career inflating his overall goals against average to 2.92. 

Three Vezina Trophies, six all star games and 76 career shut outs round out an outstanding career. 

66. Red Kelly: Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs

Looking at Red Kelly's lifetime stats will not strike anyone as particularly amazing. 

Look deeper and you will see something truly special. 

He started his career with the Red Wings and was one of the games top defenseman at all aspects of the game. Passing, defense, checking, and chipping in goals and a rate few defenseman reached.

He did it with class winning the Lady Byng Trophy three times.

When Kelly broke his ankle in 1959, the Red Wings kept it a secret and he played through the pain and the Red Wings did not make the playoffs.

When asked why he played so poorly by a reporter Kelly remarked that is could have been his ankle.

Jack Adams then the general manager of the Wings was so incensed he worked out a trade to The Rangers which Kelly refused.

Another trade to the Maple Leafs was brokered and Kelly was on his way to Toronto even though a Toronto scout who saw Kelly play said he would never last 20 games in the NHL still bothered Kelly.

Once he was in Toronto Kelly switches to the Center position and was paired with Frank Mahovolich who became one of the most prolific scorers in NHL history.

Kelly's name is on the Stanley Cup eight times four with each team he played.  

65. Adam Oates: Red Wings, Blues, Bruins, Capitals, Flyers, Ducks, Oilers

Play maker.

Adam Oates was a spectacular passer, maybe one of the best of all time.

He could thread the puck through legs, sticks, bodies, ice chips, cracks in the ice tape to tape with whatever goal scorer he was playing with, and he played with a few.

A lot of people talk about under rated players in the NHL. The fact that Adam Oates is not in the Hall of Fame is a testament to the fact he may be one of the most over looked players ever.

341 goals, 1,079 assists for 1,420 points with 156 playoff points thrown in.

Whats the problem?

Oates on 2 occasions topped 90 assists and on 12 occasions topped 50.

Get him in the Hall.  

64: Pavel Bure: Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, New York Rangers

The "Russian Rocket" Pavel Bure is another in a long line of player who you can always say "what if he didn't get hurt?"

Bure played a criminally low 702 games over his twelve year NHL career always plagued by knee problems.

Out of his twelve seasons, only five he played what could be termed as full seasons which includes the lock out shortened 1994-95 season.

He topped 50 goals five times, and scored 60 goals twice.

In his playoff career he led the Canucks to the finals in the 1994 season where they lost to the Rangers. 

His career numbers are stunning when looked at by a games played ratio. 702 games, 779 points and 437 goals with another 70 points in 64 playoff games. 

Bure is third all time in goals scored per games played with .632 behind only Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy.   

63. Pierre Pilote: Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs

Iron Man. 

No, not the guy who wears a mechanical suit and flies around saving people from terrorists. 

Pilote was as dependable in his own zone as anyone who ever played the game and a fixture on the Chicago power play because of his passing ability.

He won the Norris Trophy on three ocaisions and was runner up another three times.

His NHL totals are 80 goals, 418 assists in only 890 games. 

Pilote was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975. 

62. Al MacInnis: Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues

Al MacInnis for years until the end of his career had one of the most feared slap shots in NHL history sometimes topping 100 M.P.H on the radar gun. 

He was much more of a player than that. 

340 goals, 1,274 points in 1,416 career games with 160 points in 177 playoff games. 

MacInnis was one of the top NHL defenseman over his 21 years NHL career and is one of only five defenseman in NHL history to ever top 100 points in a season netting 103 in 1990-91. 

A perennial NHL all star won the Norris Trophy once and also the Stanley Cup with Calgary. 

61. Cy Denneny: Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins

Denneny is another player from the NHL in its infancy that you can never say how his numbers compare to the players that came after. 

What you can not deny is the eye popping nature of his statistics. 

In the first year of the NHL he scores 36 goals in only 20 games. He would continue to be the backbone of the Senators offense until his skills and goals suddenly dried up in 1927-28 when he scored only 3 goals in 44 games.

He played 328 games and scored 246 goals and 331 points and added another 21 goals in 43 playoff games.

He won five Stanley Cup championships in his career, four with the old Senators and one in his last season as player coach of the Boston Bruins. 

With the great Joe Malone and Newsy Lalonde Denneny is truly one of the fathers of the game and deserves his place with the all time greats.   

60. Bernie Geoffrion: Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers

Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion was as tough as they came back in the hey day of the great Montreal Canadiens teams of the 50's, nicknamed because he is one of the first players to use the slap shot.

He also claims to have invented the slap shot which is why he was called "Boom Boom."  

Geoffrion was constantly overshadowed which is understandable because of who he played with, the great Maurice Richard. 

You think fans today are tough? Richard was serving a suspension and Geoffrion had the "nerve" to score a goal in Richard's absence. The Montreal fans booed Geoffrion unmercifully because he and Richard were in a scoring race, similar to the Maris Mantle home run chase in 1961.  

He was the second player in history to ever score 50 goals in a season, accomplishing the feat in the 1961 season. 

He also has two Art Ross Trophies and a Hart Trophy to his credit to go along with six Stanley Cup Championships.

His lifetime statistics - 883 games, 822 points, with 118 points in 132 playoff games.

59. Milt Schmidt: Boston Bruins

The backbone of the famous "Kraut" line with Hall of Famers Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer, Schmidt put up 575 points in only 776 games in the NHL in an era when offense was not something that was easy to come by in the 1940's. 

One Hart Trophy and two Stanley Cup championships are on his resume as well. 

Schmidt lost three years of his career to World War II when he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1943 and lost, with his fellow line mates Dumart and Bauer 3 years of their careers in the military. 

What a different time we live in these days. 

58. Bill Cook: New York Rangers

Bill Cook may be the best all time New York Ranger player who spent the majority of his career with the Rangers, which he spent all of his 11 NHL seasons beginning in 1926. 

Scoring goals was what Cook did, and he scored many of them. 229 to be exact in only 474 NHL games. 

He also won two Stanley Cups with the Rangers and added 24 playoff points in 46 games.

Cook and his line mates, dubbed the "bread" line scored every Ranger goal in the finals in 1928. 

57. Mike Modano: Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars, Detroit Red WIngs

Talk about a first overall pick working out for you. 

Modano went first overall in 1988 and has become the highest scoring American born player in NHL history with 560 goals, 813 assists and 1,373 points. Add to that 145 points in 175 playoff games. 

Modano is as consistent a performer as you could ask for out of a number one pick. his career continues with Detroit even though his production is way down at age 40 he continues to help the Red Wings remain one of the NHL's elite franchises. 

Modano is an eight time NHL all star and won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999. 

56. Ted Lindsay: Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks

"Terrible" Ted Lindsay is remembered for much more than his immense skill and determination on the ice. 

379 goals and 851 points with 96 points in 133 playoff games are the offensive numbers. 

Add to those numbers 1,808 penalty minutes and your vision of Lindsay will take place. 

Some people say that elbowing and kneeing penalties were established because of Lindsay and to a lesser extent his line mate Gordie Howe. 

Lindsay will also be remembered for standing up for players rights and the formation of the NHL Players Association with star defenseman Doug Harvey of the Canadiens. 

Ownership was so against the idea of players organizing that Harvey and Lindsay had to do it in secret.  

When players were found out to be for forming what they called an "Association" they were benched, sent to the minor leagues or scratched from games. 

Lindsay and Harvey were both traded for this reason, Harvey to the Rangers and Lindsay to the Blackhawks.

How times have changed.  

55. Eric Lindros: Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Maple Leafs, Stars

Novels can be written, and probably have been written about the career of Eric Lindros. 

Lindros famously entered he NHL being drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1991 NHL draft. 

Lindros stated that under no circumstances would he play for the Nordiques well before the draft and even refused to wear the Nordiques jersey at the podium when selected. 

At first the Nordiques said that if Lindros did not agree to play with them he would never play in the NHL until the NHL got involved and press the team to trade Lindros. 

The Nordiques worked out two trades seemingly at the same time one with the Flyers, and one with the Rangers which had to go to a arbitor to see which trade would be upheld.

The Flyers won out in the end and Lindros' career could begin.

He did not disappoint. In eight years in Philadelphia he was the leagues premier power forward and in some cases its premier forward.

Controversy followed Lindros pretty much wherever he went and so did injuries that ultimately led to his retirement in 2007 at the age of 34.

He only played four full seasons as a result of his various injuries which included multiple concussions.

His career stats are 372 goals, 493 assists for 865 points with 1,398 penalty minutes. Add to those totals 57 points in 53 playoff games. 

If the NHL wants to underscore the reasons for banning head shots in the NHL, look no further than than Eric and his brother Brett Lindros, both of whom had major concussion issues.  

54. Ken Dryden: Montreal Canadiens

Short but sweet. 

Ken Dryden's career in the NHL lasted only seven seasons but what an impact he made. 

A late season call up in 1971 he backstopped the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs.

The next season he captured the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year becoming the only player to ever win the Conn Smythe before the Calder. 

In his seven seasons with Montreal Dryden won six Stanley Cup Championships, five Vezina Trophies in addition to his Conn Smythe and Calder trophies.

Dryden does not appear with the greats of the game in goal to often because it is easy to dismiss his career numbers as "not enough" to warrant a place among the greats.

This argument holds no water at all. His record overall is 258-57-74 and had 46 shut outs.

there is no other goaltender in any era that has even close the amount of shutouts as losses.

Maybe its because Dryden played on one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history, but maybe Dryden was just that good. 

53. Peter Stastny: Quebec Nordiques, New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues

"Stosh" as he was called was a ground breaker. Not necessarily in his hockey career but in how his hockey career began. 

Peter Stastny was one of the first of the "Eastern Bloc" nations to defect to Canada to play in the NHL when he came to Canada in 1980 with his brother Anton. 

After Stastny's lead, players from behind the iron curtain started to flood into the NHL showcasing their talents in the best league in the world, the NHL. 

His career numbers are most impressive with 450 goals, 1,239 points in 977 games with another 105 points in 93 playoff games. 

52. Ron Francis: Hartford Whalers/Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Maple Leafs

It killed me to leave Francis off my first list and was one of the main reasons for this "sequel" if you will. 

Ron Francis was as complete a player as you will ever see in the NHL and he could do everything well. 

Scoring, passing, power play, penalty killing, defense, checking, face offs there was nothing he was not good at. 

He was also a great leader. 

Probably the biggest reason he is so over looked when it comes to lists like this and other "greatest player" debates is because he spent the first ten years of his career in relative obscurity in Hartford.

In 1991 he was traded to the Penguins which has to be considered one of the most lop sided trades in NHL history.

His statistics are simply stunning with 549 goals, 1,249 assists, 1,798 points with 143 playoff points tacked on.

That is 4th all time in points scored.  

51. Teemu Selanne: Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks, Avalanche, Sharks

What a splash he made. 

Selanne came into the NHL at the right time indeed coming into the NHL in the scoring happy 1992-93 season shattering Mike Bossy's record of 53 goals by a rookie by potting an amazing 76 goals. 

Although he never topped 60 goals again he has topped 50+ goals three times and is still going strong in the NHL at age 40 with the Ducks with 28 goals and 78 points in 67 games this season.

Who knows how many more productive seasons Selanne has left in him, but it seems he has at least a few more in him.

His career totals now stand at 634 goals, 1,335 points and another 72 playoff points added on.

And counting.

This column is a "prequel" of you will of my 50 greatest players in hockey history article that I had so much fun putting together. There were so many players I had to leave off that list that I was compelled to put together this list.

The original top 50 is here -  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/630824-nhl-power-rankings-the-50-greatest-players-in-nhl-and-hockeys-history

Please leave your comments below.