Top 10 French Canadian players all time

[crobro]

1.Mario
2.Jean Beliveau
3.Maurice Richard
4.Guy Lafleur
5.Denis Potvin
6.Jaiques Plante
7.Gilbert Perrault
8.Patrick Roy
9.Jean Ratelle
10.Patrice Bergeron

 

[Nick Hansen]

Ray Bourque?

Mike Bossy was French-Canadian as well, wasn't he?

 

[red devil]

Marcel Dionne

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

rocket
beliveau
roy
potvin
mario
lafleur
plante
bourque
brodeur

that’s my clear top nine on the nebulous “greatness” scale, not necessarily in that order

not sure who my tenth would be but probably one of henri richard or serge savard

…assuming i’m correct that harvey, morenz, lalonde, and joliat all were not francophone

 

[MadLuke]

Mike Bossy was French-Canadian as well, wasn't he?

Not sure he went to english schools and a rather good accent when speaking in French for someone born in Quebec.

Would be surprising for Bourque to not be a lock here, Dionne has well, Perreault/Ratelle/Bergeron above them ?

 

[Mandar]

How about some love for Rod Gilbert…..not top 10 probably, but probably top 20

 

[double5son10]

Ray Bourque?

Mike Bossy was French-Canadian as well, wasn't he?

No. Bossy's dad Borden was Ukrainian and his mom Dorothy was from the UK.

 

[LightningStorm]

My attempt at a list:

1. Mario
2. Beliveau
3. Bourque
4. Richard
5. Roy
6, Potvin
7. Plante
8, Lafleur
9. Perrault
10. Dionne

I don't see a case for anyone else besides Mario at #1.

 

[red devil]

rocket
beliveau
roy
potvin
mario
lafleur
plante
bourque
brodeur

that’s my clear top nine on the nebulous “greatness” scale, not necessarily in that order

not sure who my tenth would be but probably one of henri richard or serge savard

…assuming i’m correct that harvey, morenz, lalonde, and joliat all were not francophone

Dionne should be in the top 10

 

[Sprague Cleghorn]

Dionne should be in the top 10

Over whom exactly?

My top 10, French players being determined as French as their 1st language

Lemieux
Roy
Béliveau
Bourque
M. Richard
Plante
Potvin
Lafleur
Brodeur
H. Richard

rocket
beliveau
roy
potvin
mario
lafleur
plante
bourque
brodeur

that’s my clear top nine on the nebulous “greatness” scale, not necessarily in that order

not sure who my tenth would be but probably one of henri richard or serge savard

…assuming i’m correct that harvey, morenz, lalonde, and joliat all were not francophone

If I remember correctly, despite their French names, both Joliat and Lalonde did not speak French very well. More like FSL level.

As for Morenz, he’s Anglo Ontarian. And as for Harvey, just by his name, pretty sure he’d be an Anglo Quebecois.

 

[MadLuke]

Of the unamed only 2 names come to mind
Geoffrion, 2 art ross, 1 hart

NHL Stats

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www.nhl.com

From 53-54 to 61-62, only Beliveau-Howe had more points or goals, only Beliveau had a better ppg and he did lead the league in goal per games.

He did lead the whole league in playoff points and goals by a good amount during that windows has well.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

St-Louis ? 2x Ross, Hart, big series run, for the 10 seasons windows of 2002-2003 to 2012-2013 only Joe Thorton has more points.

Not a named name of the latest post that you could remove obviously for them too

And as for Harvey, just by his name, pretty sure he’d be an Anglo Quebecois

Father born in the UK, mother in the US, he went to an English high school yes.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

How about some love for Rod Gilbert…..not top 10 probably, but probably top 20

rocket
geoffrion
beliveau
plante
h richard
s savard
lapointe
ratelle
perreault
lafleur
dionne
parent
bourque
d savard
roy
mario
brodeur
MSL
luongo
bergeron

that’s 20 guys i’d comfortably consider above rod gilbert. then you get to lemaire, cournoyer, goulet, robitaille, where you can start to make an argument that gilbert belongs in their echelon. but honestly, i would put gilbert well down the list, around pierre turgeon.

If I remember correctly, despite their French names, both Joliat and Lalonde did not speak French very well. More like FSL level.

As for Morenz, he’s Anglo Ontarian. And as for Harvey, just by his name, pretty sure he’d be an Anglo Quebecois.

anyone know if the boucher brothers were francophone?

 

[The Panther]

I feel like I can list several significant French-Canadian stars into about three tiers. The first tier is actually exactly ten guys. To me, these ten are pretty much beyond debate in some order, though other posters obviously would disagree. Ranked in my order of choice, they are:

TIER ONE
1. Mario Lemieux
2. Jacques Plante
3. Raymond Bourque
4. Jean Béliveau
5. Maurice Richard
6. Denis Potvin
7. Guy Lafleur
8. Patrick Roy
9. Martin Brodeur
10. Marcel Dionne

(Note I'm counting Denis Potvin as French-Canadian. Since his name sounds French and there are interviews where he describes himself as a "French kid", I think that is correct but tell me if I'm wrong.)

Tier two is about five guys who don't quite make the top ten, but they're still close. In no order:

TIER TWO
Henri Richard
Pierre Pilote
Gilbert Perreault
Martin St. Louis
Luc Robitaille

And then Tier three is a bunch who aren't quite up to par with all of the above, but are still very noteworthy:

TIER THREE
Bernie Geoffrion
Jean Ratelle
Jacques Lemaire
Serge Savard
Guy Lapointe
Yvan Cournoyer
Bernie Parent
Michelle Goulet
Denis Savard
Pierre Turgeon
Patrice Bergeron

I don't think I'd consider Luongo French-Canadian. He may speak French well, but as neither of his parents are Quebecois (to my knowledge), he wouldn't normally be cast into that cultural group. Same thing with Bossy.

 

[Nathaniel]

My attempt at a list:

1. Mario
2. Beliveau
3. Bourque
4. Richard
5. Roy
6, Potvin
7. Plante
8, Lafleur
9. Perrault
10. Dionne

I don't see a case for anyone else besides Mario at #1.

Thats because there isn't

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Over whom exactly?

My top 10, French players being determined as French as their 1st language

Lemieux
Roy
Béliveau
Bourque
M. Richard
Plante
Potvin
Lafleur
Brodeur
H. Richard


If I remember correctly, despite their French names, both Joliat and Lalonde did not speak French very well. More like FSL level.

As for Morenz, he’s Anglo Ontarian. And as for Harvey, just by his name, pretty sure he’d be an Anglo Quebecois.

On your list? Dionne is ahead of Henri Richard. Sorry, but Henri gets drastically overrated because he won a truckload of Cups on a stacked team. No Harts, no Ross trophies, no individual awards.

 

[GMR]

Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre should be included because he has the most French name I've ever heard.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre should be included because he has the most French name I've ever heard.

Better than Gaston Gingras?

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

On your list? Dionne is ahead of Henri Richard. Sorry, but Henri gets drastically overrated because he won a truckload of Cups on a stacked team. No Harts, no Ross trophies, no individual awards.

Actually, you are drastically underrating the Pocket Rocket.

First team all-star once, second team all-star 3 times at center in the 06 era is very impressive.

A Bergeron-level defender with a world class offensive game also. Led the league twice in assists and second in scoring in 1957-58 to his linemate Dickie Moore.

Not the offensive force Dionne was but probably the better player.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Lemieux is #1. But Plante has a better case for #2 over Beliveau imo.

 

[JackSlater]

Actually, you are drastically underrating the Pocket Rocket.

First team all-star once, second team all-star 3 times at center in the 06 era is very impressive.

A Bergeron-level defender with a world class offensive game also. Led the league twice in assists and second in scoring in 1957-58 to his linemate Dickie Moore.

Not the offensive force Dionne was but probably the better player.

The defensive game of Henri Richard interests me. If I recall correctly, in his book Bowman said that it wasn't that Richard was great defensively but that he dominated possession. I suppose you could argue that to some degree it's the same end result. I do agree that Richard was clearly better than his numbers would indicate given his role. Dionne is not better than his numbers indicate.

 

[Sprague Cleghorn]

#10 for me could actually be H. Richard, Geoffrion, Vezina or Pilote. Completely forgot about Pilote. Not many French players on other teams other than Montreal back in the O6 days is why he slipped my mind.

 

[GMR]

Better than Gaston Gingras?

Yeah, because it's four names.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Yeah, because it's four names.

Four names is more like a Spanish thing, not French, no?

Like Francisco Maria Iriondo Churruca, greatest jai-alai player ever.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

The defensive game of Henri Richard interests me. If I recall correctly, in his book Bowman said that it wasn't that Richard was great defensively but that he dominated possession. I suppose you could argue that to some degree it's the same end result. I do agree that Richard was clearly better than his numbers would indicate given his role. Dionne is not better than his numbers indicate.

Bowman says a lot of odd things about players.

Richard was 34 when Bowman first coached him in Montreal in 1971. Long past his prime.

 

[JackSlater]

Bowman says a lot of odd things about players.

Richard was 34 when Bowman first coached him in Montreal in 1971. Long past his prime.

I don't think that it matters when Bowman coached Richard. He coached against him in the 1960s, was able to watch the 1950s and 1960s Canadiens live as part of the organization. There's probably no one alive more capable of weighing in on how Henri Richard played, having been able to watch him up close for the duration of his career plus having coached him and coached against him. Doesn't mean Bowman is correct, but it is certainly worth giving a lot of consideration to.

Probably something that would require gameplay watching for me to really have a good idea. I'm not up to it at the moment but there are a few full Stanley Cup finals games from the late 50 and various parts of the 60s that would feature Richard in his prime.