CHL Top 50 list gets people talking
At times it feels like a hockey player’s exploits in the NHL are always remembered, but memories of a player’s junior days seem to evaporate over time outside of the junior community that athlete played in.
On February 10, the Canadian Hockey League announced a promotion listing its top 50 players of the last 50 years. The promotion is being done as part of festivities of the CHL recognizing its 50th anniversary season in the current campaign. The CHL in its current form was created on May 9, 1975 as the umbrella organization that the WHL, OHL and QMJHL play under.
For the CHL’s Top 50 Players List, it was selected by a panel of more than 40 media members who submitted ranked ballots from one to 50, which were guided by a weighted evaluation framework designed to ensure consistency across eras.
Media members considered a player’s impact beyond the CHL – including NHL and international success, major awards and championships and Hall of Fame recognition – alongside on-ice achievement in CHL member leagues. A player’s accomplishments during their time in the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL through production, individual honours, team success and sustained dominance were taken into account.
Selections also accounted for historical significance, recognizing milestones, era-defining influence, generational impact and lasting contributions to CHL history. To be eligible, players must have competed in at least one full season in the WHL, OHL or QMJHL during the CHL’s 50-year history beginning in 1975-76. For players who competed in 1975-76 and also played prior to that season, their entire CHL career was considered when evaluating on-ice accomplishments.
Fans are being asked to formulate the final 1 to 50 ranking voting on who they think are the top 10 of the 50 players listed in the top 50 online at contests.chl.ca/CHL50vote. Voting is open through to March 10.
The top 50 list is who is who in the biggest names in hockey. A pair of Prince Albert Raiders alums made the list in Mike Modano and Leon Draisaitl. Both are deserving of the recognition.
Modano, who is a senior advisor with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, played in 176 regular season games for the Raiders over three campaigns from 1986 to 1989 piling up 118 goals and 176 assists for 294 points. After being selected first overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the then Minnesota North Stars, the skilled centre would play in 1,499 regular season games with North Stars/Dallas Stars organization and the Detroit Red Wings piling up 561 goals and 813 assists for 1,374 points.
Growing up in Livonia, Michigan, Modano, who won a Stanley Cup with the Stars in 1999, was the highest scoring U.S. born player in the history of the NHL until being passed by current Red Wings winger Patrick Kane late last month. Kane is also on the CHL Top 50 list thanks to his spectacular 2006-07 campaign with the OHL’s London Knights.
Draisaitl played two seasons for the Raiders from 2012 to 2014 appearing in 128 regular season games recording 59 goals and 104 assists for 163 points. The slick forward was selected third overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
In 845 regular season contests with the Oilers, Draisaitl has piled up 428 goals and 608 assists for 1,036 points. From Koln, Germany, Draisaitl became the first German born player to score 1,000 career regular season points in the NHL hitting that milestone this past December.
When one goes through the CHL Top 50 list, it refreshes just how great some players were in their major junior days. Arguably, you could make a case that the best junior player was Pittsburgh Penguins icon Mario Lemieux.
Thanks to the fact he was born on October 5, 1965 about three weeks past the traditional September 15 cutoff date to turn 18, Lemieux got to play three junior seasons before being eligible for the NHL Entry Draft. In three seasons with the QMJHL’s now defunct Laval Voisins, Lemieux skated in 200 regular season contests recording an incredible 247 goals, 315 assists for 562 points.
In helping the Voisins win the QMJHL title in the 1983-84 campaign, Lemieux, who was the team’s captain, played in 70 regular season games recording 133 goals and 149 assists for 282 points. His goal and point totals from that campaign are still CHL records for one regular season. Of course, Lemieux’s NHL career was sensational, and it felt like he could put up those God-like totals in any era of the game.
Late Winnipeg Jets icon and skilled centre Dale Hawerchuk has two dream seasons in the major junior ranks with the now defunct Cornwall Royals. In the 1979-80 campaign as a 16-year-old rookie, he appeared in 72 games with the Royals piling up 37 goals and 66 assists for 103 points.
He proceeded to add 20 goals and 25 assists in 18 games in the QMJHL Playoffs as the Royals won the league title. Hawerchuk added one goal and five assists in five games at the Memorial Cup tournament as the Royals captured the biggest prize in major junior hockey.
Hawerchuk had an impressive follow up campaign as a 17-year-old sophomore in 1989-81. Appearing in 72 regular season contests, Hawerchuk piled up 81 goals and 102 assists for 183 points. He added another 15 goals and 20 assists in 19 games in the QMJHL Playoffs as the Royals again won the league title. The Royals proceeded to repeat as Memorial Cup champions with Hawerchuk collecting eight goals and four assists in five games at the Memorial Cup tournament.
In the WHL, it can be argued power forward Jarome Iginla had one of the most storied careers on the circuit. In three seasons skating with the Kamloops Blazers from 1993 to 1996, Iginla appeared in 183 regular season contests recording 102 goals and 134 assists for 236 points. He helped the Blazers win back-to-back WHL and Memorial Cup titles in 1994 and 1995, when the Kamloops franchise iced some of the best teams in the history of the junior ranks.
Iginla then moved on to become an icon for the NHL’s Calgary Flames. In the 2004 NHL Playoffs, Iginla along with all-world goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff dragged the Flames to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, where they dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The CHL did an incredible job compiling a top 50 players list, but there will be people that will note omissions. Medicine Hat Tigers fans will note Trevor Linden is not on the list, and Linden built a reputation as one of hockey’s greatest leaders helping his hometown Tigers win back-to-back WHL and Memorial Cup titles in 1987 and 1988.
Ultimate current day hockey villain Matthew Tkachuk is not on the list. The NHL’s Florida Panthers do not win the Stanley Cup in 2024 or 2025 if Tkachuk is not on their roster.
He carved out his place in CHL history with one legendary campaign in the major junior ranks. While it seems Knights followers recognize Mitch Marner as the team legend that was key in that franchise winning OHL and Memorial Cup titles in 2015-16, those wins wouldn’t have happened without Tkachuk.
In 57 regular season games in 2015-16, Tkachuk recorded 30 goals and 77 assists for 107 points. He proceeded to add 20 goals and 20 assists in 18 games in the OHL Playoffs. At the Memorial Cup tournament in Red Deer, Alta., Tkachuk picked up five goals and three assists in four games. Playing on a sprained ankle, Tkachuk scored the biggest goal in Knights history scoring in overtime to deliver London to a 3-2 victory over the QMJHL champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the title game of the 2016 Memorial Cup tournament.
Tkachuk also might not be on the top 50 player list because he is a villain, but you know Tkachuk is comforted by the sight of his championship rings. At age 28, he might still collect a few more at the NHL level before all is said and done.
Of course, this CHL top 50 list excludes players who were just legends with their junior team. That includes Raiders icon Dan Hodgson, who was the CHL MVP in 1985 and one of the biggest reasons Prince Albert won WHL and Memorial Cup titles that year.
Regina Pats all-time leading scorer Dale Derkatch also falls in that category along with Matt Keetley of the Tigers and Mark Wotton of the Saskatoon Blades, who was announced on Tuesday as inaugural inductee into the newly created Saskatoon Blades Hall of Fame.
Still, the CHL’s Top 50 Players List gets people talking about the history of the major junior game, and that type of interaction will always be priceless.
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer with more than 25 years of experience covering the WHL. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
