NHL's 20 Best Players by the 2004 lockout
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NHL's 20 Best Players by the 2004 lockout
20. Daniel Sedin, LW
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The scoring half of the Sedin twins, Daniel is also a superb playmaker. He joined the Canucks with his brother, Henrik, in 2000, just before his 20th birthday and established himself as one of the more dynamic players in the league. He now has 307 goals and 805 points in 979 games and was the NHL’s scoring leader in 2011. He also won a gold medal at the 2006 Olympics while playing for Sweden.
19. Henrik Sedin, C
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Known as the playmaking half of the Sedin twins, Henrik has been a superb complement to his goal scoring twin, Daniel, since they joined the Canucks in 2000. He posted the first of his six straight 60-assist seasons the season after lockout and won the Hart Trophy in 2010, after leading the league with 83 assists and 112 points. In 2011, he and Daniel helped Vancouver reach the Stanley Cup Final.
18. Patrice Bergeron, C
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With 39 points in 71 games during his first NHL season, Bergeron was just getting started on a fine career as one of the game’s best two-way players when the NHL locked out. He now has a pair of 30-goal seasons to his credit, but the value of this Stanley-Cup winner and two-time Olympic gold medalist is hard to measure in mere numbers. He's one of the game’s best checking forwards and face-off men and his unselfish play is a reason for the Bruins recent success.
17. Ilya Kovalchuk, LW
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The Russian sniper averaged 36 goals during his three seasons with the Thrashers before the lockout and remained one of the game’s most lethal scorers after the NHL returned. He scored 52 goals in both the 2005-06 and 2007-08 seasons, and though his Russian teams often disappointed at the Olympics, they won the World Ice Hockey Championship in 2008 and 2009. In 2011-12, Kovalchuk set a record for NHL shootout goals in a season with 11.
16. Marian Gaborik, RW
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Gaborik played in the All-Star Game and produced a pair of 30-goal campaigns before the lockout, and he recorded five more afterwards, including two 40-goal campaigns with the Rangers in 2009-10 and 2011-12. He was also MVP of the All-Star Game in his final season with New York. After a brief stint with Columbus, he was traded to Los Angeles at the 2014 trade deadline and immediately fit in. Gaborik led the playoffs with 14 goals and won his first Stanley Cup. As of the 2014-15 season he’d scored 347 regular-season goals.
15. Roberto Luongo, G
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The fourth pick in the 1997 draft, Luongo had been toiling for mediocre teams in Florida at the time of the lockout, but still earned recognition as one of the NHL’s best netminders. In 2003-04, he finished third in the voting for the Vezina Trophy. After being traded to Vancouver in 2006, he blossomed, earning nominations for the 2007 Vezina, Hart and Pearson Trophies, but finishing second for all three. In 2008, the Canucks made him the NHL’s first goalie captain since 1948. He’s also won two Olympic gold medals, one each as a starter and backup, for Canada.
14. Zdeno Chara, D
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The towering 6’-9” defenseman was coming into his own at the time of the lockout, having been named a First Team All-Star with Ottawa the previous season, his seventh in the NHL. He’d finished second in the voting for the 2004 Norris Trophy, an award he later won with Boston in 2009. (He’s been a finalist six times.) Chara has won the league’s hardest-shot competition at the All-Star Game five times. His blast of 108.8 miles-per-hour in 2012 remains the hardest shot on record.
13. Marian Hossa, RW
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At the time of the lockout, Hossa was coming off four straight 30-goal seasons with the Senators and he later posted his first 100-point season with the Thrashers, in 2006-07. He’s also had the unusual distinction of playing in the Stanley Cup Final three years in a row (2008-10) for three different teams, finally winning the prize with Chicago after stints in Pittsburgh and Detroit. He’s now produced 995 points during his fine NHL career.
12. Daniel Alfredsson, RW
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The Swedish star, who won the Calder Trophy in 1996, had produced four straight 70-point seasons and earned four All-Star Game nods with Ottawa when the lockout hit, and he picked up a career-high 103 points in 2005-06. He also won an Olympic gold medal for Sweden in 2006, one of his five appearances at the Games.
11. Pavel Datsyuk, C
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With a breakthrough season of 30 goals and 68 points just before the lockout, Datsyuk was becoming one of the game’s most productive, dynamic and entertaining players. He’d played on Detroit’s 2002 Stanley Cup team, and his best was yet to come. Datsyuk revels in the game’s subtleties, including winning face-offs and swiping pucks with uncommon deftness. Now a two-time Cup winner, he’s won the Selke Trophy three times and the Lady Byng four times.
10. Martin St. Louis, RW
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The season before the lockout, the diminutive winger became a bona fide star by leading the NHL in scoring (94 points), winning the Hart Trophy, and sparking the Lightning to the Stanley Cup. He later posted five straight 80-point campaigns, including a career-high 102, between 2006-07 and 2010-11. He’s also added another Hart, and Art Ross, and three Lady Byngs, and now stands just short of a career milestone with 981 career points.
9. Joe Thornton, C
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By the lockout, the first overall pick in the 1997 draft had established himself as an All-Star forward with Boston, producing 101 points in 2002-03. The season that play resumed, Thornton was traded to San Jose and became the first player in NHL history to win both the Hart and Art Ross Trophies during a season in which he switched teams. He’s often been criticized for his pass-first play and because his NHL teams have never won the Cup, but his career numbers—1,194 regular-season points and 100 in the playoffs—should land him in the Hall of Fame.
8. Jarome Iginla, RW
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A 52-goal scorer and Art Ross Trophy-winner in 2001-02, Iginla led his upstart Flames, who hadn’t reached the playoffs for seven years, to within one win of the Stanley Cup the season before the lockout, winning his second Rocket Richard Trophy In the process. Now 37, the veteran forward remains one of the game’s most respected players. He scored 30 goals for Boston in 2013-14 and his career NHL numbers—560 goals, 607 assists in 1,310 games and counting—will surely land him in the Hall-of-Fame.
7. Chris Pronger, D
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Recognized as one of the fiercest players of his day, Pronger amassed more than 1,900 penalty minutes including regular and postseason games. He won the Norris and Hart Trophies with St. Louis in 2000, a rare accomplishment for a defenseman, especially one known best for rugged play in his own end of the ice. After the lockout, he appeared in Stanley Cup finals with the Oilers, Ducks and Flyers, winning the prize with Anaheim in 2007. He left the game prematurely in 2012 after suffering numerous concussions.
6. Jaromir Jagr, RW
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The now ageless wonder (he was 32 when the lockout hit) seemed to be heading for the downside of his storied career. He’d already produced eight seasons of 90-plus points, won five scoring titles, two Stanley Cups (with Pittsburgh), and the Hart Trophy (1999), but he returned from the NHL's year-long hiatus with a bang: 54 goals and 123 points for the Rangers, earning First Team All-Star honors and the Pearson MVP award. His follow-up in 2006-07 wasn’t too shabby, either: 30 goals and 96 points
5. Scott Niedermayer, D
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The smooth skating defenseman had already won three Stanley Cups with New Jersey before the lockout and he went on to win one more, with Anaheim, taking home Conn Smythe honors as well in 2007. Niedermayer was captain of that team. He also won two Olympic golds and served as captain of Team Canada at the 2010 Games in Vancouver where his team took the gold in his home province. The Devils retired his No. 27 in 2011.
4. Peter Forsberg, C
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The stylish Swedish forward was well on his way to the Hall of Fame by the time of the lockout as a two-time Stanley Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist. Forsberg produced 116 points in 1995-96 when Colorado won its first Cup, but his aggressive style of play caused him numerous injuries throughout his shortened career. He missed the 2001-02 regular season because of a ruptured spleen, returning in time for for the playoffs and recording 27 points in 20 games. The following season, he led the NHL in scoring and won the Hart Trophy.
3. Joe Sakic, C
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By the time of the 2004 lockout, the Avalanche center with the devastating wrist shot had won two Stanley Cups and produced five of his six 100-point seasons. In 2001, he became one of four players in league history, along with Bobby Clarke, Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, to win the Hart Trophy and captain a championship team. The Hall-of-Famer finished his career in 2009 with better than a point-per-game numbers in both the regular season (1,641 in 1,378 games) and playoffs (188 in 172 games).
2. Nicklas Lidstrom, D
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The classy defenseman, referred to as “the perfect player,” was 34 at the time of the 2004 lockout and still had plenty of great hockey left in him. He’d won three of his four Stanley Cups, but only three of his seven Norris Trophies. By the time of his retirement in 2012, the 10-time First Team All-Star had become the career leader in regular and postseason games-played (1,827) for a single team (Detroit). His playoff rating of +61 is the highest of any player in NHL history.
1. Martin Brodeur, G
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The Devils netminder was at the peak of his game by time of the lockout. He’d led the league in wins six times, backstopped New Jersey to three Stanley Cups, and won the Vezina Trophy twice. Imagine what Brodeur’s career records—1,259 games, 688 wins, 124 shutouts—would be now had there not been lengthy work stoppages in 1995, 2004 and 2012.