THN Yearbook Rankings - 1992-2008

[Troubadour]

I see. You watched Dom shine bright and then threw him in the dustbin.

Anyway, I lost all my hockey magazines (Beckett monthly included) issued in the nineties when moving to a new place. Regret it deeply now. And not only because they seem to be gaining in price much faster than usual collectibles like cards (which is understandable, as cards were already treated with respect then, while magazines were just a toilet paper alternative). They meant a lot to me. Physical substance got somewhat underrated as we switched to the digital age, but many people now seem to realize how important and different a palpable artifact is. It was also different and more charming to actually leaf through stats instead of loading them

 

[Killion]

It was also different and more charming to actually leaf through stats instead of loading them

You bet. That tactile quality, quality of life really be it cards, magazines, books. An attention span of more than 3.5 seconds required. While the dawning of the information age brought us much, changed the world, the way we go about just about everything, big difference between information & knowledge. Of course, pluses & minuses to everything.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Physical substance got somewhat underrated as we switched to the digital age, but many people now seem to realize how important and different a palpable artifact is. It was also different and more charming to actually leaf through stats instead of loading them

Oh, for sure. I was thumbing through the 41-game stats in an old Face/Off Yearbook this morning, and remembering every photo and fold.

 

[flipp]

Jagr vs Forsberg 1996-2006. Very close. Extremely impressive numbers by Forsberg. Was ranked first 2 times, second 4 times. Top 5 ten years in a row.

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Jagr	2	*FP	4	1	1	1	4	14	20	12	3
Forsberg	5	*FP	3	2	2	4	2	1	1	2	13

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[seventieslord]

@quoipourquoi what are you still missing? I could have this all together for you within half an hour.

 

[quoipourquoi]

@quoipourquoi what are you still missing? I could have this all together for you within half an hour.

@reckoning covered the rest!

I just never got around to updating the table, of course...

 

[seventieslord]

@reckoning covered the rest!

I just never got around to updating the table, of course...

What about post 2008? And all the positional rankings?

 

[DitchMarner]

How did LeClair end up higher on the 2000 list than Lindros?

 

[quoipourquoi]

What about post 2008? And all the positional rankings?

Oh, totally feel free to fill in any blanks there! Would be a pretty good resource to have.

 

[Yendor28]

@reckoning covered the rest!

I just never got around to updating the table, of course...

Hello, new member and this thread has caught my interest many times. It's actually why I joined. I too have a collection of THN Yearbooks, but have gaps and holes in my collection. I began with your chart and filled all the years I could find.

Couldn't find a list for 1997, nor could I find an authored list for 2011 - just a top 50 by the players. I added as the years went by... and have an up to date spreadsheet save for the years missing. And player #42 in 1999 and any ranking for 1997. 28 years in all, 319 players in total, of which 108 make the list only once.

Curious if anyone could help find those missing years / partial years for me.

 

[seventieslord]

Hello, new member and this thread has caught my interest many times. It's actually why I joined. I too have a collection of THN Yearbooks, but have gaps and holes in my collection. I began with your chart and filled all the years I could find.

Couldn't find a list for 1997, nor could I find an authored list for 2011 - just a top 50 by the players. I added as the years went by... and have an up to date spreadsheet save for the years missing. And player #42 in 1999 and any ranking for 1997. 28 years in all, 319 players in total, of which 108 make the list only once.

Curious if anyone could help find those missing years / partial years for me.

There's no list in 1997 - only the 5 franchise players.
Player #42 in 98-99 was Shanahan, in 99-00 it was Desjardins.
There was no leaguewide top-50 in 2011. Though, one could use the positional lists to approximate one based on the years before and after.

 

[Yendor28]

There's no list in 1997 - only the 5 franchise players.
Player #42 in 98-99 was Shanahan, in 99-00 it was Desjardins.
There was no leaguewide top-50 in 2011. Though, one could use the positional lists to approximate one based on the years before and after.

Thank you kindly. I began with 2015-2020, and went backwards. I purchased virtual copies of Yearbooks I couldn’t find elsewhere at reasonable prices. I picked up the 2011 mag virtually with the positional rankings, but went with the player generated top 50 for ease. I also checked on Etsy with an individual selling the complete year of mags from 1997-98, knowing the top 50 hadn’t appeared in the ‘97 Yearbook. They confirmed no list was ever printed for that year. Would you happen to know if they ever published ranking lists pre-1993? And how far do their positional rankings date - is this a yearly endeavour for THN as well?

Side note: I whole heartedly agree a hard copy print version of any collectible far surpasses searching the web, flipping pages beats swiping screens.

Thanks again!

 

[seventieslord]

Thank you kindly. I began with 2015-2020, and went backwards. I purchased virtual copies of Yearbooks I couldn’t find elsewhere at reasonable prices. I picked up the 2011 mag virtually with the positional rankings, but went with the player generated top 50 for ease. I also checked on Etsy with an individual selling the complete year of mags from 1997-98, knowing the top 50 hadn’t appeared in the ‘97 Yearbook. They confirmed no list was ever printed for that year. Would you happen to know if they ever published ranking lists pre-1993? And how far do their positional rankings date - is this a yearly endeavour for THN as well?

Side note: I whole heartedly agree a hard copy print version of any collectible far surpasses searching the web, flipping pages beats swiping screens.

Thanks again!

As a holder of every yearbook since 1977, I can tell you they never made any lists prior to 1993, sadly.

 

[Yendor28]

As a holder of every yearbook since 1977, I can tell you they never made any lists prior to 1993, sadly.

Thanks. I filled out the rest of my spreadsheet. Much appreciated. Also been working on gathering all players that were ever invited to Canada Olympic orientation camps, Canada Cup summer camps, etc. Been trying to track down the long lists of player names submitted to the IOC by COC in Olympic years - for example 2006 had 81 player names submitted for consideration. Been interested in best-on-best tournaments, particularly the stories surrounding the two Mike Keenan led CC camps. Started at the ‘72 Summit Series and went forward. Cheers

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Most votes - 1994 to 2005

Rank	Player	Points
1​	Peter Forsberg	527​
2​	Jaromir Jagr	518​
3​	Joe Sakic	429​
4​	Sergei Fedorov	397​
5​	Nicklas Lidstrom	375​
6​	Eric Lindros	374​
7​	Chris Pronger	353​
8​	Mike Modano	347​
9​	Dominik Hasek	344​
10​	Mats Sundin	342​
11​	Paul Kariya	335​
12​	Keith Tkachuk	316​
13​	Rob Blake	310​
14​	Mario Lemieux	307​
15​	Martin Brodeur	290​
16​	Patrick Roy	287​
17​	Pavel Bure	264​
18​	Steve Yzerman	229​
19​	Brian Leetch	220​
20​	Teemu Selanne	217​
21​	Ray Bourque	210​
22​	Scott Niedermayer	200​
23​	John LeClair	198​
24​	Markus Naslund	179​
25​	Jarome Iginla	173​
26​	Brett Hull	162​
27​	Joe Thornton	161​
T-28​	Peter Bondra	153​
T-28​	Chris Chelios	153​
30​	Alexei Yashin	152​

I've assigned points as follows (feedback welcome):
- First place gets 50 points, second place gets 49 points, down to 50th place, which gets 1 point
- We have complete results for 1998, and then each year from 2000 to 2005.
- Only the top forty was published for 1994, 1995 and 1996. 40th place is worth 11 points. Players who would have ranked 41st to 50th are unfortunately at a disadvantage.
- We're missing 42nd place (9 points) for 1999.
- The lack of a list in 1997 makes it tougher. I've given 50 points (equivalent to 1st place) for each of the five listed players. All the other players who would have ranked highly (Hasek, Sakic, Lidstrom etc) are, unfortunately, at a disadvantage.
- I'm excluding 2006, 2007 and 2008 because (despite some carryover), we're getting into the next generation. I excluded 1993 because there's only a top 25.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Players who appeared on 5+ lists

Player	Lists	1997 FP	Total
Jaromir Jagr	11	1	12​
Peter Forsberg	10	1	11​
Sergei Fedorov	11	-	11​
Joe Sakic	11	-	11​
Keith Tkachuk	11	-	11​
Mats Sundin	10	-	10​
Eric Lindros	8	1	9​
Nicklas Lidstrom	9	-	9​
Martin Brodeur	9	-	9​
Rob Blake	9	-	9​
Mike Modano	9	-	9​
Brian Leetch	8	-	8​
Chris Pronger	8	-	8​
Scott Niedermayer	8	-	8​
Paul Kariya	7	1	8​
Dominik Hasek	8	-	8​
Zigmund Palffy	8	-	8​
Pavel Bure	7	-	7​
Steve Yzerman	7	-	7​
Brett Hull	7	-	7​
John LeClair	7	-	7​
Teemu Selanne	7	-	7​
Keith Primeau	7	-	7​
Peter Bondra	7	-	7​
Mario Lemieux	7	-	7​
Adam Foote	7	-	7​
Patrick Roy	6	1	7​
Theo Fleury	6	-	6​
Brendan Shanahan	6	-	6​
Sergei Zubov	6	-	6​
Doug Weight	6	-	6​
Ray Bourque	6	-	6​
Daniel Alfredsson	6	-	6​
Jason Allison	6	-	6​
Pavol Demitra	6	-	6​
Curtis Joseph	6	-	6​
Al MacInnis	6	-	6​
Patrik Elias	6	-	6​
Alexei Yashin	6	-	6​
Joe Thornton	5	-	5​
Markus Naslund	5	-	5​
Chris Chelios	5	-	5​
Alexander Mogilny	5	-	5​
Milan Hejduk	5	-	5​
Jeremy Roenick	5	-	5​
Marian Hossa	5	-	5​

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Lowest average ranking in best five seasons (excludes 1997)

Rank	Player	Peak
T-1​	Jaromir Jagr	1.6​
T-1​	Peter Forsberg	1.6​
3​	Mario Lemieux	3.2​
4​	Nicklas Lidstrom	4​
5​	Dominik Hasek	4.4​
6​	Eric Lindros	4.6​
7​	Paul Kariya	4.8​
8​	Chris Pronger	5​
9​	Joe Sakic	5.6​
10​	Mike Modano	6.6​
11​	Sergei Fedorov	8.2​
12​	Martin Brodeur	9.2​
13​	Pavel Bure	9.4​
14​	Patrick Roy	9.6​
15​	Rob Blake	11.6​
16​	Mats Sundin	12.6​
17​	Brian Leetch	13.2​
18​	Teemu Selanne	14.2​
19​	Ray Bourque	14.4​
20​	Keith Tkachuk	14.6​
T-21​	Markus Naslund	15.2​
T-21​	Steve Yzerman	15.2​
23​	John LeClair	17​
24​	Scott Niedermayer	18.4​
25​	Joe Thornton	18.8​
26​	Chris Chelios	20.4​
27​	Alexei Yashin	23.2​
28​	Al MacInnis	23.4​
29​	Patrik Elias	24.2​
T-30​	Brett Hull	24.8​
T-30​	Peter Bondra	24.8​

 

[seventieslord]

The lack of a list in 1997 makes it tougher. I've given 50 points (equivalent to 1st place) for each of the five listed players. All the other players who would have ranked highly (Hasek, Sakic, Lidstrom etc) are, unfortunately, at a disadvantage.

Maybe simulate a 1997 list by averaging out 1996 and 1998 lists as that will approximate the player's trajectory between those years. Off list in 1996 counts as 41st, of list in 1998 counts as 51st, then rank the scores and assign placements. Force the top 5 to be top 5.

Also, the rankings can be refined by looking at the 1997 positional lists. Use both methods together and you can come up with a de facto top 50.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Great stuff HO. I don’t think I see any big surprises.

Has anyone collected and posted the following 10 years or so/generation on here?

 

[tabness]

Thank you kindly. I began with 2015-2020, and went backwards. I purchased virtual copies of Yearbooks I couldn’t find elsewhere at reasonable prices. I picked up the 2011 mag virtually with the positional rankings, but went with the player generated top 50 for ease. I also checked on Etsy with an individual selling the complete year of mags from 1997-98, knowing the top 50 hadn’t appeared in the ‘97 Yearbook. They confirmed no list was ever printed for that year. Would you happen to know if they ever published ranking lists pre-1993? And how far do their positional rankings date - is this a yearly endeavour for THN as well?

Side note: I whole heartedly agree a hard copy print version of any collectible far surpasses searching the web, flipping pages beats swiping screens.

Thanks again!

Hockey Digest had yearbooks with player rankings from 1988 to 1993 (covering the years 1987-1988 to 1992-1993), I'll dig them up and post them sometime.

Also Superstar Hockey sometimes ranked players in the same timeframe, not as thorough as Hockey Digest though. Hockey Stars also did some lists in a more ad hoc fashion in the early nineties.

 

[Staniowski]

Hockey Digest had yearbooks with player rankings from 1988 to 1993 (covering the years 1987-1988 to 1992-1993), I'll dig them up and post them sometime.

Also Superstar Hockey sometimes ranked players in the same timeframe, not as thorough as Hockey Digest though. Hockey Stars also did some lists in a more ad hoc fashion in the early nineties.

I think I've got the Hockey Digest for '91-'92.....the rankings are by position only, right?

 

[tabness]

I think I've got the Hockey Digest for '91-'92.....the rankings are by position only, right?

Yes mostly, 1989-90 does do a top 25 across players and goalies