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Top 10 - Most mythical players of all time

Sergei Bure

Sergei Bure

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Dec 28, 2015
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Who are the 10 most mythical players ever in your opinion? Once again not the best, just in terms pop culture impact

My List:

- Bobby Orr - The most legendary defender ever by far

- Gordie Howe - His long career is stuff of legends

- Jacques Plante - His mask effect is enough to make him belong here

- Mario Lemieux - Nobody in the history of the NHL means more to a franchise than Lemieux to Pittsburgh

- Mark Messier - Considered the greatest leader of all time, for me personally, give me Steve Yzerman leadership anyday...

- Maurice Richard - A God in Montreal the nº1 franchise in the history of the NHL

- Patrick Roy - Influenced a lot of goalies, and his trade to Colorado is probably the second most famous after Gretzky to Los Angeles

- Vladislav Tretiak - He was Canada nº1 enemy for years

- Vsevolod Bobrov - Probably the most influenced russian hockey player of all time

- Wayne Gretzky - The "Great One" has most of the NHL records
 
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Could be the final list, but some candidate that could challenge it:

Morenz, the early death, when I was young he was somewhat often feature in piece of media despite the amount of time, got recent enough statue made and...

Morenz's daughter Marlene married Bernie Geoffrion, who also played for the Canadiens and Rangers, and was later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. When the Canadiens retired Geoffrion's number on the night of his death on March 11, 2006, the team recognized the link between the two men. As Geoffrion's banner was being raised to the rafters, Morenz's banner was lowered halfway to the ice. Once Geoffrion's banner reached Morenz' banner, the two were raised together

With the amount of footage or people that saw him play still alive, he is almost pure myth in a way.

Eddie Shore, maybe it is because of how big Slap Shot cultural phenomenon got to be, he became a bit of a shorthand for all of hockey before ww2.... Lot of lore and stories about him.

Not sure who I would remove too, but long time ago help a bit the mythical aura around them. Bobby Clark and the smile (as an avatar for the era of the Broad Street Bullies, big bad bruins) would be another one, that era and those team left a mark in popular mind/pop-culture about hockey that still a little bit there to this day.

In Quebec once:


Die in 2022, there was a bit of a feeling that the time of living hockey legends was over, Roy getting a state funeral with all the flags in half-mast like for Lafleur would not be as much an automatic, people in charge when it will happen will not have grown in a world where the Canadians was such an institution (and a winning symbol), he is still there a bit but at the tail end of it.
 
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Everybody in Michigan has a Bob Probert story, whether it's about meeting him somewhere or a memory about a game he was in.

The Canadiens bought an entire league to get Jean Beliveau on their roster. That is legendary stuff.
 
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Nothing after World War II seems "mythical" to me. It's all pretty well documented, with most of it on video.

I would go with Hobey Baker, Howie Morenz...
 
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Does anyone share my concern that the digital age has robbed us of future mythology?

Like, when we want to see film of Newsy Lalonde, we're out of luck, so he becomes mythological. If we want to see film of Howie Morenz, there's a little, only, and in sketchy quality, and he died young in weird circumstances, so he becomes mythological.

But, like, Ovechkin is never going to be mythological. In 100 years, everyone will have access at the snap of their fingers to HD 3D images in a plane in the air of front of them of every moment of Ovechin's career.
 
The Panther said:
Does anyone share my concern that the digital age has robbed us of future mythology?

Like, when we want to see film of Newsy Lalonde, we're out of luck, so he becomes mythological. If we want to see film of Howie Morenz, there's a little, only, and in sketchy quality, and he died young in weird circumstances, so he becomes mythological.

But, like, Ovechkin is never going to be mythological. In 100 years, everyone will have access at the snap of their fingers to HD 3D images in a plane in the air of front of them of every moment of Ovechin's career.
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Yes, that's part of it, but I think it's more than just having video, it's partly about recency, but partly about individual traits, stories, fandom...a bunch of things.

Anybody can watch Bobby Orr if the want to, but he is still hugely legendary and mythologized..

And I think Ovechkin is actually one of the very few recent players who is receiving the mythological status. McDavid too. I think they both have an all-time uniqueness even though they're being widely seen.

I think Lafleur has it, maybe due to his beautiful, natural flow and artistry. Nobody else looks anything like Lafleur.

I think it also depends on location, both of the player and the fans. Somebody mentioned Bobrov...he might have it in Russia, and a certain amount of it in North America, but he's not well-known enough in the latter to have a lot of it. Same with Firsov. But Kharlamov and Tretiak, on the other hand, have a lot of it in Canada. They are true legends.

Morenz and Shore are by far the Big 2 from the first 40 years or so of hockey. Perhaps followed by Cyclone Taylor.

Rocket Richard is off the charts, much more (in Canada, at least) than Howe or Beliveau.

Keon has quite a lot of myth surrounding him.

Lemieux has considerably less than Orr and Gretzky, who are both at a level that's unmeasurable.

Different factors go into it...
 
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The Panther said:
Does anyone share my concern that the digital age has robbed us of future mythology?

Like, when we want to see film of Newsy Lalonde, we're out of luck, so he becomes mythological. If we want to see film of Howie Morenz, there's a little, only, and in sketchy quality, and he died young in weird circumstances, so he becomes mythological.

But, like, Ovechkin is never going to be mythological. In 100 years, everyone will have access at the snap of their fingers to HD 3D images in a plane in the air of front of them of every moment of Ovechin's career.
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No, well I am really unsure, there is a good amount of analog recording (audio-video-picture) of say Hitler or Churchill and they still entered mythology, little doubt Trump will.

Yes there will be more content in the digital age, but it is not like people not born during that time will go back to watch 0.1% of what is available (a few will or an AI will and make the best moments compilation), creating an amount of content that will be watch not too dissimilar to the more analog star of the 70s-80s type. To take a no doubt about it example, Micheal Jordan, have been half myth, half shoe, half legend, and I imagine most if not all of his playoff finals games are available in a good enough format:

Lafleur for an hockey example above, did enter that zone, the noise he made skating, the flow and the 70s era as a whole with him as the face of it, people would still shout GuyGuyGuy ! if an Habs scorer as a name that sound like him like they did for Latendresse, even if they were not born at the time. Chelios-Patrick Roy was the last glimpse of it, so maybe 30 years or so is a good amount of time to pass for it, when old adult want-try to explain to young adult that were not there at the time what was great about the old generation player, that when they start to create legend around them.

We could try to predict who would become a bit of "mythical" figure in the future, *maybe they will be called meme player and maybe it will not be the biggest player. Probert mentionned for example, Dave Schultz before him are certainly name that resonate, the end of ww1 (and starting to look like ww2 at that point) German helmet picture.

Still active/recent, Phil Kessel is one with a lot of lore around, Boogaard iconic look-tragic end
 
The Panther said:
Does anyone share my concern that the digital age has robbed us of future mythology?

Like, when we want to see film of Newsy Lalonde, we're out of luck, so he becomes mythological. If we want to see film of Howie Morenz, there's a little, only, and in sketchy quality, and he died young in weird circumstances, so he becomes mythological.

But, like, Ovechkin is never going to be mythological. In 100 years, everyone will have access at the snap of their fingers to HD 3D images in a plane in the air of front of them of every moment of Ovechin's career.
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I wouldn't say I have concerns about it but it is an interesting analysis of how things will change with new technology.

I've actually tried to find footage of players from even the 70s and 80s just to get a sense of how they scored their goals- blazing shot, garbage goal, etc and hie fast they were compared to their peers

Andreychuk was a plodding sloth on skates, but I always wondered if players like Tim Kerr was much the same, but can't get a large sample of his goals or games to find out
 
I'm voting for Hall of Fame goaltender Bill Durnan. Things that should grant him Mythic status:

Crazy good and crazy short career. In a 7 year NHL career he won the Vezina 6 times and the Cup twice.

The "what-if" factor. Not only was his career short, but it ended suddenly. In the middle of a playoff run, no less, he said he didn't want the pressure any more and walked away from the game.

He was the last goalie to officially serve as team captain. He would use that privlidge to get extra game stoppanges by leaving the crease slowly to talk to the refs. That caused the rule that a goalie couldn't serve as a captain or alternate, which is why Luongo was only named an unofficial captain during his time in VAN.

The show stopper? He was ambidextrous, and had special gloves so that he could switch his stick from one had to the other, and go from catching right to catching left or back DURING GAME PLAY!

250px-Bill_Durnan2.jpg
 
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Pavel Datsyuk becomes more mythical with each passing year.

I love Datysuk and think he was phenomenal and one of the best choices of players if you could clone 5 of them and play any other players 5 clones.

That all said, he is talked about like he's Wayne Gretzky mixed with Patrice Bergeron. His flashy dekes and take away ability look good on a highlight reel but let's not forget he was at his peak probably in the range of 10-15th best player in the league and really only had a 4 notable seasons.

He was also largely outshone by Zetterberg in the playoffs and Z was typically given the top shut down matchups.
 
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Datsyuk, Lindros, Bure, Forsberg has modern player goes, Jagr, hasek are some with a bit of it, maybe a metric on video views and comments mention for them would give some idea
 
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HFpapi said:
Pavel Datsyuk becomes more mythical with each passing year.

I love Datysuk and think he was phenomenal and one of the best choices of players if you could clone 5 of them and play any other players 5 clones.

That all said, he is talked about like he's Wayne Gretzky mixed with Patrice Bergeron. His flashy dekes and take away ability look good on a highlight reel but let's not forget he was at his peak probably in the range of 10-15th best player in the league and really only had a 4 notable seasons.

He was also largely outshone by Zetterberg in the playoffs and Z was typically given the top shut down matchups.
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I agree, i love Datsyuk but he is maybe the most overrated player of all time, him on the Top 100 NHL players of all time instead of Ed Belfour, Evgeni Malkin, Dale Hawerchuk or Doug Gilmour, is laughable.
 
MadLuke said:
Datsyuk, Lindros, Bure, Forsberg has modern player goes, Jagr, hasek are some with a bit of it, maybe a metric on video views and comments mention for them would give some idea
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Hasek is more of an enigma than a myth
 
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