NHL
The Hurricanes retired Eric Staal’s number on Sunday, a well-deserved moment for one of the most popular players in franchise history. Sending a player’s number to the rafters can be tricky business, and some teams handle it better than others, but that’s part of the fun. At the end of the day, these honors are as much about the fans as the players, as they get a chance to celebrate a guy who was important to them.
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Next up for Staal’s legacy: The Hall of Fame debate, which will be a tough one. We won’t hash it out here, but it’s fair to say that you could see it going either way depending on which way the wind is blowing whenever the secretive committee gets together. My gut says he doesn’t get in, but my gut has been wrong about this stuff before.
Either way, seeing Staal get his flowers in Carolina got me thinking about a question: Who is each team’s all-time leader in games played among players who didn’t make the Hall of Fame? Lots of fans could tell you their team’s all-time leader in games played, because it’s somebody like Gordie Howe, Ray Bourque, Mike Modano, Sidney Crosby … you get the idea. But what about the player who stuck around forever, but wasn’t a superstar? Some of those players have interesting stories, while others fall into that category of “you had to be there to truly appreciate it” for a fan base that watched them forever.
Today, let’s go through every team and see which player answers our question. (Well, almost every team — there’s not much point using Vegas or Seattle here, since they haven’t been around long enough to have a true lifer in the books. Sorry, newbs, check back in another generation or two.)
Do you know who your team’s guy will be? How many of the 30 teams do you think you’ll be able to guess? Lock in your answers now, because we’re about to find out.
Ryan Getzlaf is the franchise’s all-time leader with 1,157 games, and it’s not an especially close call. What will be a close call is his Hall of Famer candidacy, given he’s pretty much the definition of a borderline pick. He was a legitimate star at his peak, though, so just to be on the safe side let’s say he might get in and keep moving down the franchise list.
We end up not having to go very far because while we run into another borderline case in Corey Perry (988 games) and a first-ballot slam dunk in Teemu Selanne (966), there’s one name ahead of both players. That would be Cam Fowler, recently traded away in the midst of his 15th season in Anaheim. He made it to 991 games as a Duck before heading to the Blues a month ago.
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We already mentioned Bourque as the Bruins’ all-time leader, although fellow Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk isn’t far behind. Next up is Patrice Bergeron, who’s going to get in. After that it’s two names that will be familiar to today’s fans, starting with borderline candidate Brad Marchand. If he makes it, that will clear the way for current GM Don Sweeney, who played 1,052 games for Boston before moving up to the front office, putting him just ahead of David Krejci, a guy he probably wishes would come back for a few more games right about now.
The Sabres are a fun example because their games-played leader is probably the greatest player in franchise history, Gilbert Perreault. But after that, the list gets weird. It starts with Craig Ramsay (1,070 games) and Mike Ramsey (911 games), two ’80s mainstays who I spent my childhood thinking were brothers because attention to detail was not my strong suit.
Next up is Rob Ray, one of history’s longest-serving enforcers. And the fifth spot is defenseman Bill Hajt. Dave Andreychuk shows up to briefly ruin the journeyman party before we go back to top-10 names like Don Luce, Jason Pominville and (somehow) Zemgus Girgensons.
Current captain Mikael Backlund is our guy here, and might even stick around long enough to pass Jarome Iginla for the all-time lead. Mark Giordano is next, and he won’t make the Hall despite a Norris, while fourth-place Robyn Regehr will have to take solace in narrowly holding the lead for players born in Brazil.
You might have assumed from the setup here that the answer would be Staal. But his 909 games actually rank him third in franchise history when you factor in the Hartford years, trailing Hall of Famer Ron Francis and then a guy who fits our theme perfectly: Glen Wesley, the good-but-not-great defenseman who also holds the distinction of being, along with Wayne Gretzky, the only player ever traded for three first-round picks.
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The franchise leader is a Hall of Famer, Stan Mikita, and then two players who’ll join him in the Hall someday, Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane. That leads us to Brent Seabrook and his 1,114 games, a classic example of the dependable, hard-nosed blueliner archetype that will show up often on this list. By the way, Seabrook joins Getzlaf and Staal as 2003 draft alumni, and we’ll meet at least one more in a few entries.
This felt like prime territory for yet another defensive defenseman, but Adam Foote’s 967 games fall just short. Instead, the honor goes to history’s most forgotten Rocket Richard winner, Milan Hejduk. His 1,020 games trail only Joe Sakic on the franchise list, and if we don’t count the Nordiques days then Hejduk is actually first.
The Blue Jackets are one of a few teams whose all-time list is, shall we say, not especially cluttered by Hall of Famers. (Sergei Fedorov is tied for 64th with Scott Harrington, in case you were wondering.) So no surprise here, as our answer is the same as the one to the question: “Who is the most Blue Jacket-y Blue Jacket of all time?” Boone Jenner.
Wait, is Jamie Benn a Hall of Famer? I’m pretty sure he’s not, but with an Art Ross and a long career spent with one team, I guess we can’t completely rule it out. Next man up is Neal Broten, almost entirely on the strength of his time as a North Star. If you want to limit it to time in Dallas, that would take us to Jere Lehtinen and bring out the weirdos who think he should be in the Hall of Fame — yes, they’re out there — and I don’t want to do that, so Broten it is.
I kind of love the Red Wings’ all-time top five, which starts with four all-time greats in Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio and Nicklas Lidstrom, before winding up at pretty much the perfect archetype for today’s list: checking line legend Kris Draper, whose 1,137-game stint in Detroit included a Selke, four Stanley Cups and the launch of a legendary rivalry. Not a bad value for a dollar.
The franchise leader is Kevin Lowe, and he’s (grits teeth) in the Hall of Fame, so … yeah. That’s fine, because it means we can give our honors to a guy who fits the vibe we’re looking for: Ryan Smyth. Captain Canada was somehow never actually captain in Edmonton, but he was the face of the team for the better part of two decades. Were they good decades? Don’t be mean.
By the way, Smyth shouldn’t get too comfortable with this crown, because Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will pass him early next season unless the Oilers randomly trade him at the deadline and make him cry.
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I just kind of assumed that our answer would be Scott Mellanby, but he only ranks 10th on their games played list. The leaders are two players from the current team, and since Aleksander Barkov has a good shot at the Hall someday, I think we’re looking at Aaron Ekblad as our guy. If you want someone who isn’t active, we get to some very Panthers-esque names in Stephen Weiss, Radek Dvorak and Robert Svehla.
Anze Kopitar will be an interesting Hall case, and I’m betting he gets in. That means it’s back to that 2003 draft and Dustin Brown, who spent his entire 1,296-game career with the Kings. Shout out to Dave Taylor, who spent all 17 of his seasons in Los Angeles and also very much fits the spirit of the thing.
The Wild have famously managed to never have a single Hall of Famer in their 24-year history, although Marc-Andre Fleury will mercifully snap that streak. For now, it makes our task easy, and I’m guessing everyone had this one already on their scorecard: Mikko Koivu’s 1,028 career games.
Side note: Does Koivu hold the record for the highest percentage of games played for one NHL team among players who dressed for more than one? With just seven games in Columbus, that puts him at 99.3 percent of his career action coming with the Wild. Not counting guys like Henrik Lundqvist or Pavel Datsyuk who belonged to other teams but never played for them, can anyone beat Koivu’s number?
The top four players on the Habs’ all-time games list are all in the Hall of Fame, leaving us with nine-time Cup winner Claude Provost and his 1,005 games. The winger played his entire 15-year career in Montreal and was a first-team all-star in 1965. He ends up just ahead of two modern-day Canadiens, Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec. The latter ended up just 19 games back of Provost, meaning he could have passed him if it weren’t for the 2018 deadline trade that sent him to Toronto for a few weeks. As always, the Maple Leafs ruin everything.
No surprise here, as our Nashville winner is the team’s first-ever draft pick, David Legwand. He spent parts of 15 seasons with the Predators and will be the franchise’s all-time leader in games played for another few weeks before Roman Josi passes him.
I was briefly terrified that we were going to have to do the whole “Should Patrik Elias be in the Hall of Fame” dance for the millionth time, but despite an impressive 1,240 games as a Devil, we managed to avoid that fate. And as you’d probably expect, it’s yet another hard-nosed defenseman who saves us, as Ken Daneyko’s 1,283 games top the list. (And also narrowly prevents Martin Brodeur from being the only goalie in league history to reign as a franchise’s all-time games played leader.)
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Only three Islanders have played 1,000 games with the franchise. The first two are Denis Potvin and Bryan Trottier. The third is Josh Bailey, who spent every one of his 1,057 games with the team. He’ll hold that mark for at least a few more years; Brock Nelson, Casey Cizikas and Matt Martin would each need a couple more seasons to catch him.
It’s another defenseman, although this time one with some offensive flair. Ron Greschner had four 20-goal seasons in his 16-season career, including a career-high 27 in 1980-81. He finished 14th in Norris voting, in case you’d forgotten how wild offensive stats got back in that era.
Do you think it bothers Daniel Alfredsson that Chris Phillips finished ahead of him by exactly one game for the Senators’ all-time lead? Probably not. Phillips takes this one ahead of a fellow Chris, as Neil also crossed the 1,000-game mark for the Senators but doesn’t come all that close to Phillips’ 1,179.
Do you think Claude Giroux makes the Hall of Fame? It’s another interesting case, and it’s still being built, so let’s skip past him and his (exactly) 1,000 games as a Flyer. Our next option is Sean Couturier, just ahead of a guy who’s used to being the runner-up: five-time Cup Final loser Brian Propp.
The franchise’s top-five for games played features four slam-dunk Hall of Famers plus Kris Letang, who’ll be an interesting debate someday. Next up is Jean Pronovost, who played 753 games for the Penguins and was once a Lady Byng finalist, but didn’t get invited to join his big brother Marcel in the Hall.
We all know that Patrick Marleau is the games-played leader, not just for the Sharks but the entire league, and we can imagine that HHOF debate will get contentious. But I’ll admit to being surprised at who’s sitting in second place in the Sharks’ record book. It’s not Joe Thornton, who’s sixth on the all-time list but played “only” 1,104 games in San Jose. That ranks him behind defensive defenseman Marc-Édouard Vlasic, who’ll be a first-ballot inductee into the Hall of Fame for worst contracts but isn’t going to make the real thing.
Nobody has ever played 1,000 games for the Blues, which seems weird for a team that’s been around since the dawn of the expansion era. The leader is Bernie Federko, who is in the Hall of Fame no matter what that one old guy you know thinks. That leaves us with — say it with me — defensive defenseman Barret Jackman, the team’s first-round pick in 1999 who stuck around until 2015.
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If we assume Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos will get the call, and we should, then the next man up is Vincent Lecavalier. He certainly seemed to be on a HHOF track early on, going first overall in the 1998 draft and winning a Rocket Richard in 2007. He ended up hitting milestones like 400 goals and 900 points, which won’t get you into the Hall but still make for an impressive career.
I went into this thinking it would be Tomas Kaberle, but I forgot about Ballard-era stalwart Ron Ellis, who was part of the 1967 Cup winner and then stuck around until 1981. Ellis, who died last year, finished his career with 1,034 games that were all played with Toronto.
If we’re still pretending they’re a brand new team, then they’ll have to join the Knights and Kraken on the sidelines. But we don’t, because we know that they’re the Coyotes, which means the answer here is Shane Doan, by a mile. If you want to pretend Doan has an outside shot at the Hall, Teppo Numminen is the next man up, but let’s be real. By the way, if Marleau does eventually get in, Doan will become the league’s all-time leader among non-HHOF players.
This is another easy one. With both of the Sedin brothers already in the Hall, our guy ends up being longtime captain Trevor Linden, whose 1,140 games allow him to outlast Alex Edler and Stan Smyl. Linden would have even had a shot at surpassing the twins at the very top of the list if he hadn’t had to go live at a nice farm with a big field for a few years.
It’s probably just going to be Nicklas Backstrom or John Carlson. But there might not be a game that’s more fun for hockey fans of a certain age than “remember some random Capitals from the early 90s,” and the rest of the list serves up a ton. We’ve got Calle Johansson, Peter Bondra, Kelly Miller and even Dale Hunter. Michal Pivonka even shows up. If we didn’t have to scroll so far to get to Mike Ridley and Kevin Hatcher, it would be Capitals heaven.
Seriously, what was better than those early 90s teams? OK, sure, probably watching your team win the Stanley Cup in 2018, but I’m a Leafs fan so I’ll have to take your word on it.
Our list ends with the Jets, so let’s go out with some double duty. If we go by strict franchise lineage, the answer here would simply be Jets 2.0 all-time leader Blake Wheeler and his 897 games. But if we invoke the longstanding “the Jets are the Jets” clause, then the longest-serving Winnipeg player who didn’t make the Hall is actually Thomas Steen, whose 950 games over 14 seasons earns the crown for the only team he ever played for.
(Top photo of Brent Seabrook hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2013: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Sean McIndoe has been a senior NHL writer with The Athletic since 2018. He launched Down Goes Brown in 2008 and has been writing about hockey ever since, with stops including Grantland, Sportsnet and Vice Sports. His book, “The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL,” is available in book stores now. Follow Sean on Twitter @DownGoesBrown
