Best Player for each team who spent his entire career with that team

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
If we're excluding active players, I think there have only been five players who have played in 100+ games for Tampa Bay, without playing for any other team:

- Martin Cibak (154)
- Stan Drulia (126)
- Sheldon Keefe (125)
- Matt Smaby (122)
- Jimmie Olvestad (111)

That's a shockingly bad list.
Thanks for that. Makes me glad I wasn't forgetting someone obvious and I'm not a bad fan (tm).

Obviously that list is going to get a lot better in about ten years, but as of now... yikers.
 
Wow, is it difficult to find an exclusive Seal! Not counting guys who only played a handful of games, here are candidates where the Seals were the only NHL team they played on but they also had some games in the WHA:

Morris Mott - 199 games 18 goals
Mike Laughton - 189 games, 39 goals
Don O'Donoghue - 125 games, 19 goals
George Pesut - 92 games, 3 goals
Joe Szura - 90 games, 10 goals
Ron Huston - 79 games, 15 goals
Joe Hardy - 63 games, 9 goals
Gary Kurt - 16 games in goal

Players who only appeared on the Seals and never in the WHA:
Wayne King - 73 games, 5 goals
Tim Jacobs - 46 games, 0 goals
Paul Shakes - 21 games, 0 goals

I was only 9 years old but for some reason I thought George Pesut would turn out to be a really good NHL player.

 
If we're excluding active players, I think there have only been five players who have played in 100+ games for Tampa Bay, without playing for any other team:

- Martin Cibak (154)
- Stan Drulia (126)
- Sheldon Keefe (125)
- Matt Smaby (122)
- Jimmie Olvestad (111)

That's a shockingly bad list.

I'm surprised Ölvestad even got 111 games in the NHL. I remember he played with Tampa, but thought it was perhaps shorter. He wasn't even that big of a star in the SHL, especially not prior to his NHL stint, but more of an energy forward who could chip in some goals here and there if deployed on a good line. I think Hardy Nilsson loved Ölvestad in his "torpedo system."

Interesting Ölvestad trivia is that his grandfather Lennart Skoglund is one of the biggest football legends in Sweden, played left-winger with Inter Milan and Sampdoria between 1950–1962, and was known for his dribbling skill game.

Here's Ölvestad's grandpa (to the left) with Inter Milan.

RosenSkoglund.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yozhik v tumane
If we're excluding active players, I think there have only been five players who have played in 100+ games for Tampa Bay, without playing for any other team:

- Martin Cibak (154)
- Stan Drulia (126)
- Sheldon Keefe (125)
- Matt Smaby (122)
- Jimmie Olvestad (111)

That's a shockingly bad list.

by my eyeballing, the career oiler with the most GP is anton lander, with 215 games between 2012 and 2017.
 
by my eyeballing, the career oiler with the most GP is anton lander, with 215 games between 2012 and 2017.
Assuming we exclude Oscar Klefbom (who, as I understand, hasn't retired, but is trying to see if he can play again after shoulder surgery) - then yes, Lander is the only career Oiler with 200+ games played. There are a few other players with over 100 games (Jaroslav Pouzar, Brett Callighen - who also played for both the WHA Oilers and Whalers, Theo Peckham, Iiro Pakarinen, Anton Slepyshev, and Liam Reddox). Some neat names, but nobody too memorable as hockey players.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vadim sharifijanov
Are we pretending that Lundqvist played for the Capitals or is the signing of a contract enough to omit him from career long Ranger?
 
Are we pretending that Lundqvist played for the Capitals or is the signing of a contract enough to omit him from career long Ranger?
Interesting question.

My gut is he's not a Ranger. He signed the contract with another club and was paid by said club for one year.
 
Was also thinking Vyborny as a possibility for Columbus, among the active players maybe Werenski? Jenner's the longest tenured but isn't that great.
 
Last edited:
bill cook

continuing from my list of non-cut and dry teams from last night…

dave taylor for LA, but actually i think that’s not up for debate

tossup between rocket and beliveau for mtl

phillips for ottawa?

not doan but thomas steen for win/pho/ari (come at me)

henrik not daniel for vancouver ainec

washington is… bengt ake gustafsson… or michal pivonka? but i like BAG

leaving just a handful of 90s and later expansion teams: columbus, florida, minnesota wilds, san jose, and tampa.

Those last 5 teams are really tough if we're leaving out active players.

Vyborny for Columbus probably?

I think Paul Laus is probably Florida's single-team GP leader but he didn't really score.

SJ might have to be Korolyuk.

I really can't think of anyone for Minnesota or Tampa.
 
if we don’t make assumptions about current players,

winnipeg/atlanta is either toby enstrom or bryan little?

boston is milt schmidt?

calgary/atlanta is… hakan loob?

columbus, no idea

dallas/minny is craig hartsburg?

there may in fact be no such thing as a career oiler


oop second period’s starting
Spurgeon doesn't score at the same clip as Hartsburg, but it was a different era. Spurgeon already has close to twice as many games played, and simply has a larger resume. I thought that Mikko Koivu was the answer to this question, but forgot about the 7 games he played for CBJ.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad