TSN's CDN All-Time teams

[Axeman33]

So TSN is putting together, for all seven Canadian franchises, their All-time teams. This should be interesting.

Here's the criteria for those who haven't seen this yet.

Each team will have 2Gs, 6D (3L/3R), 12 FWDS (4 full lines), 1 foundation player (defined as someone whos part of the fabric of the franchise, whatever that means), at least one player from the 19/20 roster, and all players will have a minimum of 255 NHL GP with that Canadian team (the player from this yrs roster is the exception there). Some of the other critieria would include the players having to be slotted on this roster in their exact position. In other words, you cant have a guy who's normally a center in as a winger. One of the forward lines will be comprised of nothing but checking/defensive/shutdown (how ever you want to call it) type players. One of the pairs of D must be a shutdown tandem.

Tonight is the first team to be revealed, the Montreal Canadiens. This storied franchise will certainly have some interesting names on it. Here are the names that didn't make the team:

G: Patrick Roy.
D: PK Subban, Jacquest Laperriere
LW: Aurel Joliat
C: Elmer Lach
RW: Yvan Cournoyer

Feel free to start posting your teams. Yikes!

[havanablast21]

I'm no Hab's fan, but if Carey Price makes the team over Patrick Roy??? I guess hardware just doesn't matter.
Not surprised to see Subban not make it. Personality sure deserved some attention but on ice he certainly wasn't an all timer.

[Axeman33]

I'm no Hab's fan, but if Carey Price makes the team over Patrick Roy??? I guess hardware just doesn't matter.
Not surprised to see Subban not make it. Personality sure deserved some attention but on ice he certainly wasn't an all timer.

Im expecting Dryden and Plante.

[Blues_fan1000]

https://www.tsn.ca/the-all-time-7-ts...team-1.1470247

[Axeman33]

https://www.tsn.ca/the-all-time-7-ts...team-1.1470247

They used Plante as their foundation player to get Price in there. Interesting.

Safe to say most on the forums have only seen Price in action in their lifetime. I'm a bit older so I remember the Habs from the late 70s on up. This takes away a lot of argument considering how mediocre the Habs have been since the 80s for the most part, especially the past couple decades.

[LawMan]

My quick shot at the Edmonton Oilers:

Forwards
Kurri – Gretkzy – Draisaitl
Anderson – McDavid – Hall
Smyth – Messier – J. Carson
Tikkanen – Weight – Hemsky


Defencemen
Coffee – Huddy
Pronger – Lowe
Gregg - Niinimaa

Goalies
Joseph
Fuhr
HM: Moog

GM & Coach: Glenn Sather

Foundation:
Dale Hunter- 1st WHA Captain, 1st jersey retired.

[Axeman33]

My quick shot at the Edmonton Oilers:

Forwards
Kurri – Gretkzy – Draisaitl
Anderson – McDavid – Hall
Smyth – Messier – J. Carson
Tikkanen – Weight – Hemsky


Defencemen
Coffee – Huddy
Pronger – Lowe
Gregg - Niinimaa

Goalies
Joseph
Fuhr
HM: Moog

GM & Coach: Glenn Sather

Foundation:
Dale Hunter- 1st WHA Captain, 1st jersey retired.

I dont know if some of your picks would qualify. If I read what TSN has down for Habs to qualify:

Team: two goalies, six defencemen, 12 forwards and one foundational player
□ Members must have played at least 225 games with the Canadiens
□ At least one member of the all-time team must be from the 2019-20 Canadiens
□ Players are slotted in positions they played with the Canadiens
□ One line must be comprised of defensive standouts, aka a checking line
□ One pair must be comprised of suffocating defenders, aka a shutdown pair
□ Lines and pairs are put together because they fit together, not because they are necessarily the first, second and third best at their positions
□ Foundational players are defined as players part of the fabric – the DNA – of a franchise

Pronger wouldnt count seeing as he only played one season with the Oilers. Who is your checking line and who is your Defensive pairing?

[Axeman33]

Here's my Oilers All-time team based on the criteria set out by TSN.

Hunter - Gretzky - Kurri
Hall - Messier - Draisaitl
Simpson - McDavid - Anderson
Tikkanen - MacTavish - Buchberger (checking line)

Coffey - Lowe
Hamilton - Gregg
Fogolin - Huddy (shutdown pair)

Fuhr - Ranford

Foundation Player - Ryan Smyth

Coach and GM - Glen Sather

[LawMan]

I dont know if some of your picks would qualify. If I read what TSN has down for Habs to qualify:

Team: two goalies, six defencemen, 12 forwards and one foundational player
□ Members must have played at least 225 games with the Canadiens
□ At least one member of the all-time team must be from the 2019-20 Canadiens
□ Players are slotted in positions they played with the Canadiens
□ One line must be comprised of defensive standouts, aka a checking line
□ One pair must be comprised of suffocating defenders, aka a shutdown pair
□ Lines and pairs are put together because they fit together, not because they are necessarily the first, second and third best at their positions
□ Foundational players are defined as players part of the fabric – the DNA – of a franchise

Pronger wouldnt count seeing as he only played one season with the Oilers. Who is your checking line and who is your Defensive pairing?

Now to be fair your OP just says 255 GP (no mention of with the team). If it has to be 255 GP with Oilers I lose Pronger, Carson,
Messier line is my checking line.
Pronger - Lowe is my shutdown pairing.

I like your list , Buchberger is an all-time favorite of mine.

[Axeman33]

Now to be fair your OP just says 255 GP (no mention of with the team). If it has to be 255 GP with Oilers I lose Pronger, Carson,
Messier line is my checking line.
Pronger - Lowe is my shutdown pairing.

I like your list , Buchberger is an all-time favorite of mine.

ya, sorry about that, I didnt realize myself that they all had to be with that one team. My bad.

[rataylor22]

Team: two goalies, six defencemen, 12 forwards and one foundational player
□ Members must have played at least 225 games with the Canadiens
□ At least one member of the all-time team must be from the 2019-20 Canadiens
□ Players are slotted in positions they played with the Canadiens
□ One line must be comprised of defensive standouts, aka a checking line
□ One pair must be comprised of suffocating defenders, aka a shutdown pair
□ Lines and pairs are put together because they fit together, not because they are necessarily the first, second and third best at their positions
□ Foundational players are defined as players part of the fabric – the DNA – of a franchise

This is the only reason Price is on over Roy, but it's a pretty silly requirement IMO

[rataylor22]

Team: two goalies, six defencemen, 12 forwards and one foundational player
□ Members must have played at least 225 games with the Canadiens
□ At least one member of the all-time team must be from the 2019-20 Canadiens
□ Players are slotted in positions they played with the Canadiens
□ One line must be comprised of defensive standouts, aka a checking line
□ One pair must be comprised of suffocating defenders, aka a shutdown pair
□ Lines and pairs are put together because they fit together, not because they are necessarily the first, second and third best at their positions
□ Foundational players are defined as players part of the fabric – the DNA – of a franchise

FWIW, these are also dumb requirements, considering the true origin of "checking" lines.

[lucafen4]

The Leafs haven't played defence since the 1960's...
How the hell are they going to find a checking D - pair?

[Axeman33]

FWIW, these are also dumb requirements, considering the true origin of "checking" lines.

Meh, it's their rules. Who am I to question them. Nice to see someone finally focus on the defensive side for a change instead of everyone focusing on the offensive side. Killing penalties and shutdown pairs of D are a huge part of any successful team.

[rataylor22]

Considering I don't consider the Flames to have a rich history of elite players, this is actually prettyy tough. The checking line portion is also pretty difficult because I don't necessarily know how to classify some of the players from the 80s but here goes.

Gaudreau-Nieuwendyk-Iginla
Roberts-Gilmour-Fleury
Tkachuk-Nilsson-Mullen
Patterson-Otto-Peplinski (checking line)

Suter-MacInnis
Reinhart-Hamilton
Giordano-Regehr (shutdown pair)

Kiprusoff
Vernon

Foundation Player - Lanny McDonald

Couple comments. I tried my best to stick to LW, RW, LD, RD, only breaking on the checking line and shutdown pair. If you didn't stick to strict positional designations, can easily argue Loob or Makarov would be ahead of Tkachuk. However, Tkachuk is so good defensively you easily could argue it would be valid to put him on the checking line. Shrug.

Could argue Housley ahead of Hamilton, but he shoots left. Could quibble with Giordano being on the "shutdown" pair, but he's been the best defender on the Flames for multiple seasons so I think it's fine. Regehr, IMO, is the best pure defender the Flames have ever had. Honestly do not know enough about Macoun or McCrimmon to judge whether they deserve to be on the shutdown pair instead.

Stephane Yelle was one of the best shutdown centers in the league, but he was past his prime in Calgary.

Line combos are based on who I think would play best together, as the exercise stated, but could arguably have Monahan over Gilmour. Gilmour was obviously the better player, but he wasn't necessarily the better player in Calgary.