Top Ten By Position - Finding Our Center

On Monday, we gave the Wheel Of Positions another spin. 

This time it landed on NHL Centers. 

Wait... there are how many Hall of Fame centers? And how many active or recently retired superstar centers? 

A lot of top-tier stars are going to be left off this list. And it's going to be a challenge finding the right ranking for the rest. Here goes nothing...

Just Missed The Cut

This was the toughest part. There were well over 20 post-expansion era centers I considered for the de facto top 15. Even a top 25 list would have left some greats off the list. 

Eventually I narrowed it down to these guys:

The New York Islanders were the only non-Canadian team to capture a Stanley Cup in the 1980s - and they won four in a row thanks to the scoring talents of Bryan Trottier. New York's all-time leading scorer ranks 19th all time in NHL history with 1,425 points. Trottier won a scoring title and an MVP trophy in 1979. He finished runner-up in MVP voting twice ('78 and '82) and retired with six Stanley Cup rings afte earning two with the Pittsburgh Penguins - who broke Canada's chokehold on the Cup in 1991 and '92.*

*Every Stanley Cup champion from 1976 to 1993 was either a Canadian-based team or had Trottier on their roster. 

Sergei Fedorov averaged less than a point per game over his Hall of Fame career, but when adjusted for era he comes out ahead of Trottier. A three-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time winner of the Selke trophy for top defensive forward, Sergei was arguably the most complete player of the 1990s. Many of his ten 30-goal seasons were posted in the low-scoring "dead puck" era, and he undoubtedly sacrificed personal stats to be a key cog in Scotty Bowman's Detroit dynasty. 

While Trottier and Fedorov were both named on the NHL's 100 Greatest Players of All Time list, these guys were somehow overlooked:

Imagine making a list of the top 100 basketball players of all-time and leaving off Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. That's about the same status and ranking that Joe Thornton and Evgeni Malkin have in the post-expansion NHL. Thornton's 1,539 career points are good for 14th on the all time list. The 24-year veteran never won a Stanley Cup but won a Hart trophy as NHL MVP in a year he was traded from the Bruins to the Sharks. (He also led the NHL in assists for the first of three times.)  

The still-active Malkin is averaging a point a game in his 20th NHL season, and is set to pass Jari Kurri for 23rd on the NHL's all time scoring list. He's got an MVP trophy, too, along with two scoring titles and three Stanley Cup rings. If "Geno" does call it a career after this season, he will certainly join "Jumbo Joe" in the Hall of Fame once he's eligible. As long as he stops high-sticking people upside the head. 

If those guys didn't make the cut, then the top ten have got to be iconic.
 

#10 - Ron Francis

The all-time leader in assists among guys not named Gretzky, Ron Francis led the league in helpers just twice over his 23-year career. He posted just three 100-point seasons: two in the high-scoring 1980s, and one in 1995-96 while playing with legends like Lemieux and Jagr. He never won a Hart trophy as NHL MVP or an Art Ross trophy as leading scorer, yet he finished his career with the 5th-most points of any player in the 100+ year history of the league. He was also one of the cleanest players in the expansion era, winning three Lady Byng trophies for gentlemanly play (basically, total points - penalty minutes = 😇 )

#9 - Marcel Dionne

The go-to "Greatest player who never won a Cup", Marcel Dionne ranks sixth on the NHL's all-time scoring list and third among centers (for now). Though he never won a Hart trophy, Dionne was the player's choice for most valuable player in both 1979 and 1980. He's sixth all-time in career goals with 731 - and second among centers behind only you-know-who. As underrated as any Los Angeles (and New York)-based player can be, I'm not demeriting Dionne for his lack of hardware. It's the "adjusted for era" metric that hurrts him, along with a pedestrian plus-minus record. 

#8 - Mark Messier

not actually my *best Messier card

Mark Messier averaged over a point a game throughout his legendary 25-year career, which spanned two distinct eras of hockey: the high-scoring 1980s, where he rode shotgun with the likes of Gretzky and Jari Kurri en route to capturing four Stanley Cups and the low-scoring late 1990s, where he remained producive enough to earn four of his 15 All-Star selections. In between, Mess led the Oilers to their first (and still only) Cup title without Wayne, and broke a 54-year drought on Broadway, leading the Rangers to the title in 1994. Though he's 10th all-time among centers with 1,529 career points, his leadership and longevity give him a slight edge over other higher-scoring stars. 

*I'm breaking my rule and posting this instead of my actual best Messier card - a Finest refractor from his ill-fated Canucks tenure.

Honorable Mention: Stan Mikita

As mentioned in my introductory post, these lists only include athletes who played the majority of their careers after 1967 (or 1947 for baseball stars) That means a legend like Jean Beliveau is excluded but Stan Mikita is eligible, having suited up for 14 seasons in the expanded NHL (his first seven were in the "Original Six" era) Mikita led the NHL in assists three times and total points four times. A Stanley Cup champion with the Blackhawks in 1961, Mikita ranks in the top 25 among all-time scoring centers (he's 21st) and his exemplary two-way play earned him the third-highest plus-minus rating of those top scoring centermen. 

#7 - Phil Esposito

In the 1960s, 100 points and/or 70 goals in one season seemed unreachable. Mikita and his Black Hawks teammate Bobby Hull came close to the first milestone, each notching 97 points in successive campaigns. Hull then potted 58 goals in 74 games during the 1968-69 season, setting a new record. Phil Esposito blew past both milestones as the 1970s dawned. The brother of a legendary goalie, "Espo" led the NHL in goals six consecutive seasons - including a previously unfathomable 76 markers in 1970-71. The two-time NHL MVP won two Stanley Cups and five scoring titles - including a single-season record-setting 152 points (on 550 shots!!) in '70-71. Shortly after his sixth 120-point season, the cheapskate Bruins traded him to the Rangers in a shocking blockbuster swap involving three Hall of Famers. 

#6 - Connor McDavid

Am I crazy for ranking a still-active player - who is several months shy of his 30th birthday, btw - ahead of five centers with over 1,500 career points and two with 700-plus career goals scored? Maybe! Here's why I think Connor McDavid is already a top-six center all-time. He's crossed 1,200 points faster than any player in hockey history except the top two players on this countdown. He's notched at least 100 points in every one of his last ten seasons - except for one Covid-shortened campaign. Five times McDavid has won the scoring title. Three times he's won the Hart trophy as MVP. His points-per-game average is the third highest in NHL history. He can retire right now and his legacy is secure. But he still hasn't won a Stanley Cup. If he does that, and continues to produce at his current pace for five more seasons, he'll be top-three easily. 

 

#5 - Joe Sakic

Baseball fans - think of a really, historically awful team like the 2024 White Sox or 2025 Rockies. Give them one young superstar player, a legendary hall of famer at the end of his career, and .. nothing else. That's the situation Joe Sakic found himself in at the beginning of his career. He routinely posted 100-point seasons for last-place Nordiques teams that had lackluster goaltending for an AHL squad. Somehow Sakic persevered and the Nords' collection of #1 overall picks eventually led to championships in Colorado. Sakic kept on scoring with the Avalanche, winning MVP honors in addition to the Cup in 2001. Though Alex Ovechkin pushed his point total out of the NHL's top ten, Joe Sakic's 1,641 career points and 625 career goals remain the 8th-most among centers. 

#4 - Steve Yzerman

It sounds strange to say this about the captain of a three-time Stanley Cup champion, but once upon a time Steve Yzerman had a reputation similar to that of the aforementioned Alex Ovechkin - a great scorer who doesn't have what it takes to win. After his Red Wings were swept by the Devils in the 1995 final, those hushed critiques became louder, and he was nearly traded to Ottawa. For Alexei Yashin. 😮

Luckily, the Red Wings stuck it out with "Stevie Y" and were rewarded with a dynasty. Yzerman was named playoff MVP in the 1998 Final, and helped build the next great Detroit teams as an executive. His production per 82 games played is very similar to Sakic's - 37 goals, 58-60 assists - and the two legends have a near-equal amount of point shares and power play goals. It was a tough call, but I gave Stevie the edge for playing two more seasons and winning one more Stanley Cup than his Colorado counterpart.

#3 - Sidney Crosby

I'm old enough to remember when the NHL lockout ended in 2005 and there was a weighted lottery to determine which team would have the rights to draft Sidney Crosby. I was fortunate enough to attend his first NHL game (the Devils won :p) And I can recall that there was a year or two when it looked like Crosby's career would be cut short by head injuries similar to that of another "generational" superstar, Eric Lindros. But he kept going. And he's still going, averaging over a point a game in his 21st NHL season. He's lived up to the massive hype, and then some. He's won three Stanley Cups, two MVP trophies, and scored the golden goal in the 2010 Olympics. Sixteen years after that, Crosby's absence from Team Canada's lineup may have cost his country another gold medal (thanks a lot, Radko Gudas!) 

With over 1,750 career points "Sid the Kid" ranks fourth all-time among centers and will easily slide into second place sometime next year. Earlier this year, Sid set the Penguins' franchise record for points surpassing his mentor and former teammate...
 

#2 - Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemeiux ranks ninth in NHL history (and seventh among centers) with 1,723 career points. He's 11th all-time with 690 goals, and five players ahead of him are centers. But if you know anything about "Super Mario", you know why he's widely considered the second-greatest center of all time. Lemieux saved the Penguins franchise twice - first as a player, then as an owner. He scored on his first shift, posted 100 points in his rookie season, and nearly became the second player ever to post a 200-point season in 1988-89. He turned a team on the verge of bankruptcy into a Stanley Cup champion, enduring chronic back pain and Hodgkin's lymphoma. He won a scoring title after a season in which he missed 24 games (and it wasn't close.) He averaged nearly two points per game throughout his career. 

No wonder the Penguins and Devils fought a year-long tank battle to secure his services. Could you imagine Lemeiux in black and red instead of black and yellow? 

#1 - Wayne Gretzky

I didn't add a "dishonorable mention" segment this time, because I would have either had to use it on the 30th best center of all time .. or the greatest hockey player who ever lived. Despite Wayne Gretzky's questionable history with gambling and his association with anti-Canadian politicians, there's nothing egregious enough to overshadow what Wayne accomplished on the ice. (Or is there?!?)

It's a pretty well-known stat, but it's worth repeating here: if Wayne Gretzky never scored a single NHL goal... his assists total alone would still make him the all-time leading scorer.

You can dismiss Gretzky as a product of his high-scoring, defense-optional era. You can make the case that any one of the centers mentioned on this countdown would post equally eye-popping numbers if half their teammates were Hall of Famers. You can scoff at the slight build and special treatment he received in Edmonton, having a bodyguard like Dave Semenko or Marty McSorley ptotecting him from taking hits. But you can't deny that "The Great One" is the greatest one ever to lace up a pair of skates.

Do you have a favorite hockey playing center? Is there one you would rank higher or lower? 

I hope you'll join me for our next position group top ten countdown this weekend.



Thanks for reading!

~