Best Players Ever With Particular Names (That Are Common)...
- Thread starter DitchMarner
- Start date
VanIslander
20 years of All-Time Drafts on HfBoards
Johnny Engine
Moderator
- Jul 29, 2009
- 5,062
- 2,509
There are a few names that the average fan, maybe even one with a regular-DGB-reader level of interest in history, would have as very different from this forum's lists.
- We had Frank Mahovlich as only the 3rd best Frank ever after Nighbor and Boucher, or perhaps 4th if King Clancy uses the common short form of his birth name.
- Bill/Billy/William/Will is an oddly shallow field - Billy Smith is a name that pops to mind easily. Bill Gadsby might be a choice for older boomers, as well as Xers and Millennials who grew up with coffee-table books with pretty photos of O6 hockey. For fans of his team Bill Durnan is in the continuum of great goaltenders that stretches from Vezina to Price. But Cook is our leader by far, we had Cowley ahead of Gadsby, and Quackenbush shows up nearly 70 spots before Smith.
- It's a bit more of a stretch, but the number of fans who'd recognize Ed Belfour's greatness would have to be exponentially more than the number of people who even know what Newsy Lalonde's first name was, but Newsy's over 45 spots ahead.
- We had Frank Mahovlich as only the 3rd best Frank ever after Nighbor and Boucher, or perhaps 4th if King Clancy uses the common short form of his birth name.
- Bill/Billy/William/Will is an oddly shallow field - Billy Smith is a name that pops to mind easily. Bill Gadsby might be a choice for older boomers, as well as Xers and Millennials who grew up with coffee-table books with pretty photos of O6 hockey. For fans of his team Bill Durnan is in the continuum of great goaltenders that stretches from Vezina to Price. But Cook is our leader by far, we had Cowley ahead of Gadsby, and Quackenbush shows up nearly 70 spots before Smith.
- It's a bit more of a stretch, but the number of fans who'd recognize Ed Belfour's greatness would have to be exponentially more than the number of people who even know what Newsy Lalonde's first name was, but Newsy's over 45 spots ahead.
Yozhik v tumane
Registered User
- Jan 2, 2019
- 2,044
- 2,189
Thinking about the Youtube sports documentary about the decline of the once-great name “Bob”.
Best Carol
Vadnais
Bum Phillips head coach of the Buffalo Bills must be the only pro coach named Bum
Gaylord Perry nuff said
Vadnais
Bum Phillips head coach of the Buffalo Bills must be the only pro coach named Bum
Gaylord Perry nuff said
JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 19,431
- 14,809
I was at a Christmas concert at an elementary a few nights ago and one of the songs was The Hockey Song. Sad that in the early 1970s when the song came out there were so many great Bobbys to choose from and today so few. Tragic almost.
Mike C
Registered User
DitchMarner
TheGlitchintheSwitch
Johnny Engine
Moderator
- Jul 29, 2009
- 5,062
- 2,509
Stick tap to the second best player with the first name Tahir, a forward who seems to have played one season in the Swiss Division 1 in 1980 named Tahir Ahmad.
buffalowing88
Registered User
Bum was the HC of the Oilers and Saints. His son Wade was the HC of the Bills.
Bum's actual first name is "Oail", which is strange to begin with haha.
Mike C
Registered User
Orest Kindrachuck
Hubert "Pit" Martin
Pascal Clutterbuck
Nickname-- Bunny Larocque (4 time cup winner!)
DitchMarner
TheGlitchintheSwitch
Clutterbuck may very well be the best player named "Cal," but he's only (at best) the second best Pascal behind Dupuis...
The Panther
Registered User
I feel like there aren't many Waynes or Dougs anymore. Those names seemed to peak in the 70s/80s.
Mike C
Registered User
I'm gonna go with NYI bias and Calls old school style. All time NHL hits leader. I'll keep him on my ballot
MadLuke
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2011
- 10,899
- 6,370
Patrick was quite common in 1965:
www.capeutservir.com
www.behindthename.com
Messier for the best marc-mark
Orr for the best Robert/bob/bobby
Scott become a bit of a Stevens vs Niedermayer, I imagine Stevens much longer prime can get the title.
51 skaters in the nhl were named Kevin, Stevens, Hatcher, Lowe, ...
Top 100 des prénoms en 1965
Liste des 100 prénoms les plus attribués aux filles & garçons nés en France sur l'année 1965
Popular Names in Canada (Ontario and BC)
Popular Names in Canada (Ontario and BC) 1965 (top 100)
Messier for the best marc-mark
Orr for the best Robert/bob/bobby
Scott become a bit of a Stevens vs Niedermayer, I imagine Stevens much longer prime can get the title.
51 skaters in the nhl were named Kevin, Stevens, Hatcher, Lowe, ...
Bit surprised to see how much Wayne was popular, I thought it was more niche than that. A bit more than 20 nhler were named Wayne (cashman-Simmonds had great 1,000 games career).
Nogatco Rd
Pierre-Luc Dubas
- Apr 3, 2021
- 3,355
- 6,231
Bum has to be one of the most beloved NFL coaches of all time in addition to being a great nickname.
My favorite football name: early NFL player Sneeze Achieu
The Panther
Registered User
Yozhik v tumane
Registered User
- Jan 2, 2019
- 2,044
- 2,189
I’m a bit surprised we aren’t seeing a few Bobs and Bobbies coming out of Sweden actually. Definitely seems like they would appear among the other ‘cute’, English names in vogue like the Noels, Miltons and Melvins we’re seeing among young prospects today. I do suppose parents are choosing from a greater variety of names in recent decades and the odds of seeing a dozen Swedish Daniels and Henriks in the NHL at the same time gets severely reduced.
Typical 00s births from Sweden will in my mind have names like Noel, Liam and Melvin (for whatever reason: isn’t a Melvin an epithet for a nerd?), but the 10s and 20s births will see an upswing for what the kids’ grandparents and great-grandparents might have been named, that seemed old-school and weird to name a kid when I grew up with a ton of Christoffers, Daniels, Henriks, Mattias’s and Mikaels.
