To be honest, I might take Robitaille as the "greatest" LA King. He sits 1st in Kings' goals, 2nd in points (though Hockey Ref's sketchy 'adjusted points' system has him 1 point ahead of Dionne!), and ahead of Dionne in games played (though Brown, as of last year, and Dave Taylor are ahead of him there).
I don't see how it would work that Robitaille could be the greatest King over Gretzky. His entire career only makes him approximately the 150th greatest player of all-time. I'm not going to argue that if you take out his seasons in other jerseys, he'd fall all that much or at all - he was always most comfortable as a King (even before and after Wayne) and the other 240 points in 354 games is just window dressing on his excellent career as a King. But still - where would Wayne Gretzky rank on an all-time list if we only consider his Kings career? Three scoring titles and a Hart and incredible playoff production has to at least get him into Malkin territory, doesn't it? As a higher career shorter peak Malkin, maybe rank him in the 60s? Wherever you place him, surely it's higher than 150th.
However Kings were better off in 93 when they stopped that sillyness and played Gretzky with Robitaille, Kurri, Sandström and Granato. With Rychel getting a few shifts in when McSorley wasnt on the ice. That and his hanging by the blueline led to his best offensive playoff performance in a kings jersey.
I guess they were better off, after all, they were 3rd in the division, made the playoffs and went far. But was Wayne better off? He had the 2nd worst regular season of the first 18 years of his career. Missed half the season and when he played was only 14th in points per game.
The information in his ES scoring log for that season shows that in the regular season his main linemates were Robitaille and Granato, with Sandstrom and Donnelly secondary. In the playoffs, he was with Sandstrom from start to finish, with a mix on the other side (Robitaille and Rychel show up the most).
So he got some time with Robitaille this season, but it also wasn't excessive. they collaborated on just 23 ES goals the entire season and playoffs combined. Without going through every season I can't say if this was typical. But for the most part, it seems like this was a season where Gretzky carried lesser players like any other time - Granato, Donnelly, and Rychel prime among them. Never Kurri. And Sandstrom was OK but he was no Robitaille, and he was not driving the bus along with Wayne (not many would, of course).
I think Frank Boucher for the Rangers, actually. Cook, Bathgate, Leetch, & Lundqvist come in just behind. Messier as well, depending on how much you weight prime vs. total career value.
I think Cook and then Boucher is the right answer for the Rangers too. I pushed really hard to get THN to do it that way, but in the end they went halfway and put Cook 1st (to respect the 1998 list) and Boucher 4th.
Boston - Orr
Buffalo - Hasek
Detroit - Howe
Florida - Luongo
Montreal - M.Richard, Harvey, Béliveau, Plante, Morenz ??? Tough
Ottawa - Nighbor
Tampa Bay - St. Louis
Toronto - Apps, Kennedy, Horton, Conacher ??? Tough
Hartford/Carolina - Francis
Columbus - Nash
New Jersey - Brodeur
NYI - Potvin
NYR - Cook & Boucher equal
Philadelphia - Clarke
Pittsburgh - Lemieux
Washington - Ovechkin
Chicago - Hull
Quebec - Stastny
Colorado - Sakic
Dallas - Modano
Wild - Koivu ?
Nashville - Weber
STL - Brett Hull? MacInnis, Pronger
Atlanta - Kovalchuk
Anaheim - Selanne
Winnipeg - Hawerchuk
Phoenix - Doan
Calgary - Iginla
Edmonton - Gretzky
Los Angeles - Gretzky, Dionne, Robitaille, Doughty ??? Tough
San Jose - Thornton
Vancouver - I feel like saying Ryan Kesler. Probably Henrik Sedin is the answer followed by Daniel and Bure.
Edit:
Maroons: N.Stewart or H.Smith
NYA: Schriner
Bulldogs: Malone
Wanderers: S.Cleghorn
West coast leagues:
Vancouver Millionnaires: Cyclone Taylor, HM: Hugh Lehman, Art Duncan
Seattle Metropolitans: Frank Foyston
Edmonton Eskimos: Joe Simpson or Duke Keats
Victoria Cougars: Frank Fredrickson
Calgary Tigers: Herb Gardiner
Regina Capitals: George Hay
Saskatoon Sheiks: Bill Cook
Portland Rosebuds: Moose Johnson
Maroons: Stewart 1st, Smith 2nd
NYA - easily Worters. Schriner easy 2nd.
Bulldogs - easily Malone.
Your choices raise some interesting questions. Do we treat "greatest player of all-time" differently from "greatest player for a franchise"? I don't think we should. To go back to my LA example, a Gretzky who only played from 1988-1996 would still be in the 60s all-time. Dionne only as a King, 60s-70s. Robitaille would be ~150th. And as much as I love giving defensemen their due, Doughty is not yet a top-100 player of all-time in a career played entirely for the Kings, so how can he be an option above Gretzky?
The Leafs aren't really that tough, either, assuming you agree with the rankings of our recent top-100 list. Most of the greatest Leafs of all-time were career leafs (or, for all intents and purposes, they were). Apps made #45. Clancy made #44, but of course half his value came from his time as a Senator. Conacher was 55th and with 29% of his career games played in other jerseys you have to think he'd drop a handful of spots. Kennedy was 58th, Horton 65th, Broda 83rd, Salming 84th, and Keon (for whom some may assign some value to his by-no-means-meaningless final seven seasons) was 99th, surely out of the top-100 if you imagine he's a Leafs-only career.
There's some wiggle room based on personal preferences and how you discount time with other franchises, but it seems that Apps is an easy #1, followed by Conacher, Kennedy and Horton in some order, followed by Broda, Salming, Clancy and Keon in some order.
I am proud to say, that vaguely defined range I just definied, is exactly how the THN list shook out following my input.
Federko was so central to the 1980's Blues. He's got to be 1st or 2nd in consideration.
Hull was so central to the 1990s Blues. He's got to be 1st or 2nd in consideration.
Pronger and MacInnis were so central to the DPE Blues! They've got to be 1st or 2nd in consideration.
See how easy that was? The point is, there's only room for one player to be first. Was Federko even a top-20 player in the league while he was with the Blues? Hull was definitely a top-5 player for at least three straight seasons, arguably top-20 for a couple more. MacInnis and Pronger, as two of the top-5 defensemen in the league for about five seasons, were certainly top-20 players themselves.
No one produced more points per game or star power than Kariya (HAD to be said). More significantly, Ryan Getzlaf captained them to the Stanley Cup, leading the team in points in the championship run as well as two more conference final runs. I cannot fathom Selanne - minus his Winnipeg and other days - topping Getzlaf AS A DUCK!
Kariya probably did have more star power, but I think a lot of compelling arguments have been posted in this section in recent years that indicates not all of it was warranted. When they were together on the Ducks, their production was practically even: 1.26 to 1.22 for Kariya. Kariya produced 3% more per game, but Selanne played in 20% more games. Statistically, it would be fair to call them equals with sample size taken into account. But Kariya only put together one outstanding full season (1997), when he was 2nd in Hart voting, and Selanne had three: 3rd, 3rd and 5th.
If that was the end of Selanne's tenure as a Duck, it would be fair to call Kariya the better Duck. After all, he played 278 games as a Duck without Selanne, both before he arrived and after he left, scoring 255 points... that's not nothing. But then Selanne came back, played 572 more games and scored 506 more points in his late 30s and early 40s, and won a cup. Selanne wins this comparison so incredibly easily.
Selanne vs. Getzlaf is more interesting. It seemed clear two years ago in favour of Selanne, but two average seasons later, Getzlaf's counting stats have come very close to Selanne's. Still, he's played 18 more games and has 55 fewer points (49 adjusted). That only puts Selanne 2% ahead as a per-game producer, but he's kind of an all-time great goal scorer. I like his 3-3-5 Hart peak better than 2-6-7 as well.
While I dont disagree that Doan is one of those yotes players you think of when talking greatest yotes. I just dont think he is. I mean Ray Whitney, Khabibulin, Bryzgalov, Smith, OEL and Numminen are/were greater players than Doan. Hell, I'd say I rank Cliff Ronning ahead of him as well.
Phoenix includes the history of the Jets too, so you have Hawerchuk, Tkachuk, Numminen and Steen to contend with. Though, #2 after Hawerchuk would be fair for him IMO.
