LW: Tommy Phillips is the near unanimous choice and with good reason. Not only was he an outstanding player, there's no one else worth naming! George Hay was making a name for himself by then; it's worth mentioning.
RW: If you believe these lists, Scotty Davidson was the best RW of all-time as of 1925, with Alf Smith getting some love and Babe Dye up-and-coming. Five others were named once, three of whom weren't right wingers. The list makers probably knew this and were just trying to fit on players they otherwise couldn't.
What to make of this? Not much that we don't already know. Davidson was a pretty good player when he played - he must have really passed the eye test for these guys. But at the same time, do I believe he was actually better than Didier Pitre, Punch Broadbent, Jack Walker, Jack Darragh or Harry Hyland, who had all played full careers by 1925? Or even Harry Oliver, who had played much of his prime? Or even Eddie Oatman? (to say nothing of Smith and Dye, who actually received votes) No, I don't. Not on a career basis for sure, and I'm pretty sure not at their respective bests either. I can only assume the votes cast for Davidson were meant as tributes to a fallen soldier and hero. Davidson, to me, still looks like an above average NHA player for two seasons.
C: Taylor, Bowie and Nighbor all top the list, followed closely by Lalonde, then by McGee. This, more than anything, matches ATD/HOH canon. In fact, if you assume two things - 1) that Nighbor, with six seasons still to play, had not completely cemented his reputation, and 2) that in 1925 they understandably lacked the historical perspective we have 90 years later to judge players of Bowie and McGee's generation by a slightly tougher standard - then you could say their assessment of the best centers of the day perfectly matches ours.
D: You've got Stuart with 8 mentions, Cleghorn with 6, Gerard with 4, Simpson and Boucher with 2, and then many of the usual suspects got a vote; in fact, almost no one was left out. Our HOH list has pre-merger defensemen as follows: Cleghorn, Gerard, Stuart, Johnson, Boucher, Cameron, Patrick, Pulford. Stuart is very understandable because: 1) he actually was a very good player, 2) he died young and gets some of the same benefit as Davidson, 3) same lack of historical perspective that might affect Bowie/McGee relative to newer, superior centers, and 4) they all got to name two defensemen so unlike C/LW/RW/D, there was room to name an old guy and a new guy. Simpson with 2 votes is a little surprising, but keep in mind he was in the middle of his WCHL heyday at the time. Most snubbed players? I'd select two for this honour. Johnson should have more than a vote. If Simpson/Boucher have 2 and Gerard 4, I'd have liked to have seen Johnson with 3. And Cameron not getting a single vote when Grant, Ross and Griffis each got one seems a little off.
G: Vezina the clear winner with 6, followed by the best eye test goalie of the previous generation, LeSueur. Benedict and Lehman with two votes each, with Roach, Moran and the completely-out-of-left-field Mike Merritt earning one vote. Vezina was by most accounts, the best of his time, however, it was not unanimous over Benedict, even with the "benefit" of an early tragic death. I'd use the "historical perspective" excuse for Benedict not getting as many votes as his predecessor Lesueur, but also one was the best of his generation and one was 2nd, putting him at a clear disadvantage. I'm more interested in who didn't pick up the last few remaining votes: Holmes shut out in favour of Lehman, and Lesueur cleaning up on Moran, Hern and Hutton, with only one defector going for Moran. These votes very closely match what we now know as canon, which makes me happy.
