The Puck Stops Here

Since there is no on ice hockey action, let's look back at the past. Here are the best players of all time with the 5 franchises in the northwest division. I am only including games played with the franchise (so for example, Gretzky's days in LA don't count with the Oilers). I am including all previous incarnations of the franchise (ie the Quebec Nordiques/ Colorado Avalanche are included together along with Quebec's WHA days).

Calgary Flames (including Atlanta) : Al MacInnis. The Flames had several very good players in the days of their '89 cup win. Theo Fleury and Joe Nieuwendyk are in this group along with MacInnis. The days before that team offered Kent Nilsson and Dan Bouchard. Today's team offers Jarome Iginla. MacInnis has career offensive numbers that are as good as any of them - and he did it playing defence. Also, MacInnis won the Conn Smythe trophy in their cup win. In the future, if Iginla stays with the franchise, it won't be too long before he takes over the spot.

Colorado Avalanche (including Quebec) : Joe Sakic leads the team in career seasons, games, goals, assists and points. He won a Hart trophy. He is the man here. Before Sakic come Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet. Real Cloutier and JC Tremblay are stars from their WHA years. Patrick Roy was very important for their cup wins. If he stays healthy and can be convinced to stay in the NHL with Colorado, one day Peter Forsberg will be the best player in their history.

Edmonton Oilers: Wayne Gretzky wins easily. Many other great names from their cup days. Mark Messier, Kevin Lowe, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr lead the list. Nobody from the WHA years or the current years comes close. I guess Curtis Joseph and Ryan Smyth are the best of the more current years. Maybe Al Hamilton from the WHA years.

Minnesota Wild: Marian Gaborik. Not a very long history for the franchise yet. I think Dwayne Roloson would be number two on the list.

Vancouver Canucks: Pavel Bure. One day, Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and/or Ed Jovanovski will take this spot if they stay with the franchise. Trevor Linden and Kirk McLean are other candidates from Bure's day. Stan Smyl, Richard Brodeur and Harold Snepsts lead the earlier bunch. Bure had 2 60 goal seasons with the Canucks and was important in a run to the cup finals. That gets him the edge over Naslund right now.

Over the next few days, I bet you can guess 5 other posts I might make.