St. Louis Blues: Ranking the 15 Greatest Players in Franchise History

In their 44-year existence as an NHL team, the St. Louis Blues have had more than 600 players don their blue and gold sweaters.

Many of those players had short tenures with the team, did not make that much of an impact and have long been forgotten, while others spent what seemed like a lifetime in a St. Louis jersey, helped shape the franchise and are permanently cemented in the hearts of Blues fans.

This list features the players that built the biggest legacy as a Blue.

The weight of a name does not solidify a spot on this list; it is what a player has accomplished with the team. You will not see players like Wayne Gretzky, Dickie Moore or Doug Harvey on this list. Even though they are all legends and have all played for the Blues, their stays were brief and unmemorable.

That being said, here are the 15 greatest Blues players in franchise history.

Near Misses

Joe Mullen

The Hall of Famer spent his first five seasons in the league with the Blues, twice recording 40-plus goals and 80-plus points. His points per game average with the club was 1.11.

Brendan Shanahan

Twice surpassed the 50-goal mark, was named a first team All-Star once and played in one All-Star game in the four years he was with the team.

Grant Fuhr

Is the third winningest goalie in franchise history and holds the record for the most games played by a goalie in one season (79), which he set in the 1995-96 season with St. Louis (that year, he finished sixth in Hart Trophy voting).

Honorable Mentions: Bob Plager, Jeff Brown, Jacques Plante, Adam Oates, Wayne Babych, Brad Boyes, Barret Jackman, Jorgen Pettersson, Doug Weight, Rob Ramage, Craig Janney, Roman Turek, Paul Cavallini, Rick Meagher, Scott Young, Blake Dunlop.

15. Curtis Joseph

"Cujo" spent the better part of six seasons with the Blues, playing the second-most games of all goalies in franchise history and recording the second-most wins.

For three straight seasons (1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94), Joseph led the league in saves. In 1992-93, he led the league in save percentage, and that same year, he finished third in Vezina Trophy voting.

His 36 wins in the 1993-94 season are also the second most ever by a St. Louis goaltender.

14. Keith Tkachuk

The power forward played 543 games with the club over nine seasons, amassing 208 goals, the fifth-most in team history.

Tkachuk was a warrior, scoring most of his goals in the dirty areas of the ice and sacrificing his body to win games.

He was an instrumental part of a successful Blues team during the pre-lockout era and was a lone presence of consistency and greatness during the team’s rebuilding years.

"Big Walt" played in two All-Star games during his tenure with St. Louis.

13. Doug Gilmour

Gilmour, one of the greatest two-way forwards in NHL history, spent his first five seasons in the league with the Blues, accumulating 354 points in 384 games.

His best season with St. Louis came in 1986-87, where he scored 105 points, the seventh-highest single-season total in franchise history.

Gilmour was also a force in the playoffs, scoring 55 points in 49 games, which is the fourth-most of all Blues players. He also recorded 21 points in the ‘86 playoffs, which is tied for the most points in a single post-season by a St. Louis player.

12. Glenn Hall

Glenn "Mr. Goalie" Hall was the franchise’s first starting goalie, and he backstopped the club to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in their first year as a team.

They lost in four games to Montreal, but Hall earned a Conn Smythe Trophy because of his spectacular play in the postseason (the only Conn Smythe Trophy ever won by a Blues player and one of only five to be awarded to a player from the losing team).

Hall would play three more seasons with the Blues, helping the team reach the Stanley Cup Finals twice more. He would also go on to win the only Vezina Trophy in team history in 1969 (shared with Jacques Plante).

He ranks first in shutouts and 10th in wins among St. Louis goalies.

11. Pierre Turgeon

Turgeon spent five seasons in St. Louis, where he was an offensive dynamo. He recorded 355 points in 327 regular season games and 45 points in 50 playoff games with the club.

He was a key contributor to St. Louis’ success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, not just offensively, but defensively as well, as his career plus-65 ranks second all-time among St. Louis forwards.

His plus-30 in the 1999-00 season is the fourth highest rating ever recorded by a Blues forward, which accounted for him receiving Selke Trophy votes at the end of that season.

10. Barclay Plager

Plager was a rugged, rock-solid defenseman who played his entire career with the Blues, the majority of the time with a "C" on his chest.

He was the backbone of the Blues defensive core, as he contributed to all aspects of the game, whether it was blocking a shot, scoring a goal, laying out an opponent or engaging in a fight, Plager would invest everything he had into the game he loved and played with a level of dedication and competitiveness unmatched by most.

He spent just over nine seasons with the club (right from its birth as an NHL team), playing 614 games, scoring 44 goals and 231 points, recording a plus/minus rating of plus-58 and receiving 1,115 minutes of penalties.

Among St. Louis defensemen, he ranks second all-time in games played, sixth in goals, fifth in points, fourth in plus/minus and first in penalty minutes.

Plager also represented the team at four All-Star games.

9. Red Berenson

Berenson was a skilled center who spent eight seasons in St. Louis, where he was a five-time 20-goal scorer and a six-time 40-point scorer and played in three All-Star games.

Like Plager, Berenson was with the club in its infancy and served as its No. 1 point producer for quite some time.

His best season came in 1968-69, where he recorded career highs in both goals (35) and points (82). Also during that season, he became just the sixth player in NHL history to score six goals in a single game. More spectacularly, that feat came in a road game, which is a record that still stands to this day.

Berenson ranks in the top 10 in all major offensive categories amongst Blues players past and present.

8. Pavol Demitra

Demitra was one of the most offensively talented players to ever step foot in the St. Louis dressing room.

He amassed 204 goals and 493 points in 494 games with the club and ranks near the top of every statistical category you could imagine.

His offensive proficiency enabled the Blues organization to collect their first President's Trophy (awarded to the No. 1 team in the regular season) in 1999-2000. He led the club in scoring that year and received a Lady Byng trophy at season’s end to commemorate the skill and sportsmanship he had displayed during the season.

He finished in the top 10 in NHL scoring three times and played in three All-Star games, all as a member of the Blues.

Demitra was a class act and will be missed deeply.

7. Mike Liut

As the highest ranked goalie on this list, Liut had six exceptional seasons as a St. Louis starter, accumulating the most games and wins of all Blues netminders.

His first two seasons with the Blues were among the best by any goaltender in the ‘80s.

He led the league in wins in 1979-80 (which also set the single-season record for a St. Louis goalie), and he finished sixth in Hart Trophy voting (awarded to the regular season MVP).

In 1980-81, Liut set a personal best by winning 33 games en route to a division title for the Blues. His performance between the pipes that year earned him an All-Star game appearance, a spot on the first All-Star team, a Pearson Award (awarded to the league MVP as voted by the players’ association) and he finished second in Hart Trophy voting to Wayne Gretzky.

Liut was the best goalie in franchise history, and it’s a travesty that his number is not hanging from the rafters of the Scottrade Center.

6. Garry Unger

Unger spent nine seasons in a Blues jersey, collecting the fourth most goals and points in franchise history.

While with the Blues, Unger had eight cosecutive seasons where he scored at least 30 goals and 50 points, with his season highs being 41 goals and 83 points. He also played in seven consecutive All-Star games.

Unger recorded the second-longest ironman streak in NHL history, playing 914 consecutive games, the majority of which came with the Blues.

He was an extremely dedicated, tough and talented forward who was the model of consistency for a ‘70s Blues squad.

5. Chris Pronger

The 6'6", 220-pound defenseman was a monster for the St. Louis Blues; no defenseman in the organization had ever played with such a mix of defensive competence and offensive awareness, topped off with a dominant and physical presence in both zones, like Pronger did.

Among Blues defensemen, he ranks second all-time in career goals, assists, points and penalty minutes, and among all Blues players of any position, he ranks first in plus/minus.

His best season, and one of the best seasons by a defenseman in NHL history, was in 1999-2000, when he scored a career high 62 points, led the league in plus/minus (plus-52) and captained St. Louis to their best regular season in franchise history.

That year, he played in the midseason All-Star game, was named to the first All-Star team, won a Norris Trophy for best defenseman and a Hart Trophy for best overall player (he was the first defenseman to win the award since Bobby Orr in 1972).

During his tenure in St. Louis, Pronger captained the Blues for five years, played in three other All-Star games and was named to two other All-Star teams (second team).

4. Al MacInnis

MacInnis, one of the greatest defensemen in NHL history, made St. Louis his home for 10 seasons, becoming the highest scoring defenseman in team history.

The Hall of Famer, known for his booming shot and expertise in both ends of the ice, was a Norris Trophy winner and a two-time first team All-Star and participated in six All-Star games while in a Blues uniform.

His number was retired by St. Louis in 2006, and a bronze statue of him was built outside the Scottrade Center in 2009.

3. Brian Sutter

Sutter was a tenacious agitator who was also an extremely gifted goal scorer with an incredible work ethic and possessed exceptional leadership qualities.

He played with the Blues his entire career, all 779 games through 12 seasons, and amassed 303 goals and 636 points, both totals good for third in franchise history, while his 1,786 penalty minutes rank first all-time.

Sutter was the longest serving captain in Blues history, as he wore the "C" on his chest for nine straight years. He also represented the club at three All-Star games.

His No. 11 was retired by the Blues in 1988.

2. Bernie Federko

One of the most talented players in NHL history who flew under the radar for much of his career, Bernie Federko recorded 721 assists and 1,073 points in a Blues sweater, both good for first place in franchise history.

Federko played 927 games over 13 seasons in St. Louis, which makes him the longest tenured player to wear the BlueNote. His consistency while with the club was of legendary proportions, as he scored at least 20 goals and 70 points for 10 straight seasons, and he was the first player in NHL history to record 50 assists for ten straight seasons (to this day, the only other player to accomplish this feat was Wayne Gretzky).

He surpassed 100 points in a season four times and played in two All-Star games while with St. Louis.

His jersey number was retired by the Blues in 1991, and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

1. Brett Hull

"The Golden Brett" is arguably one of the best pure goal scorers in NHL history, and the majority of his goals came with the Blues.

Hull scored 527 goals as a Blue over a 10-year, 744-game period, which ranks first in franchise history. He had three seasons of 70-plus goals, including an 86-goal campaign in 1990-91, which is the highest single season goal total by a player other than Gretzky.

To coincide with his goal-scoring proficiency, Hull had four seasons of 100-plus points with the Blues, including a 131-point season, which came in 1990-91 as well. Only Bernie Federko has more assists and points than Hull among all-time Blues players.

He won a Hart Trophy, Pearson Award and a Lady Byng Trophy, was a three-time first team All-Star, and played in seven All-Star games during his time in St. Louis.

Along with MacInnis and Federko, Hull is both a Hall of Famer and had his jersey number retired by the club.