Top-100 Hockey Players of All-Time (The Third)

[wetcoast]

Thought I'd take a stab at categorizing the list by era. I'm including players who were in their prime in a certain era. The edge cases were basically quick judgement calls

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Rankings[/TD]
[TD]Pre-Expansion (Pre-1967)[/TD]
[TD]Post-Expansion (Post-1967)[/TD]
[TD]Pre-Merger (Pre-1927)[/TD]
[TD]Original Six (1942-1967)[/TD]
[TD]International Era (Post-1992)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Gordie Howe[/TD]
[TD]Wayne Gretzky[/TD]
[TD]Frank Nighbor[/TD]
[TD]Gordie Howe[/TD]
[TD]Mario Lemieux[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Hull[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Orr[/TD]
[TD]Cyclone Taylor[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Hull[/TD]
[TD]Patrick Roy[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]Jean Beliveau[/TD]
[TD]Mario Lemieux[/TD]
[TD]Newsy Lalonde[/TD]
[TD]Jean Beliveau[/TD]
[TD]Ray Bourque[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Doug Harvey[/TD]
[TD]Patrick Roy[/TD]
[TD]Sprague Cleghorn[/TD]
[TD]Doug Harvey[/TD]
[TD]Sidney Crosby[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]Maurice Richard[/TD]
[TD]Ray Bourque[/TD]
[TD]Georges Vezina[/TD]
[TD]Maurice Richard[/TD]
[TD]Dominik Hasek[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]Howie Morenz[/TD]
[TD]Sidney Crosby[/TD]
[TD]Joe Malone[/TD]
[TD]Red Kelly[/TD]
[TD]Nicklas Lidstrom[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]Eddie Shore[/TD]
[TD]Dominik Hasek[/TD]
[TD]Clint Benedict[/TD]
[TD]Jacques Plante[/TD]
[TD]Jaromir Jagr[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]Red Kelly[/TD]
[TD]Nicklas Lidstrom[/TD]
[TD]Cy Denneny[/TD]
[TD]Stan Mikita[/TD]
[TD]Alex Ovechkin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]Jacques Plante[/TD]
[TD]Jaromir Jagr[/TD]
[TD]Eddie Gerard[/TD]
[TD]Glenn Hall[/TD]
[TD]Martin Brodeur[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]Frank Nighbor[/TD]
[TD]Denis Potvin[/TD]
[TD]Russell Bowie[/TD]
[TD]Terry Sawchuk[/TD]
[TD]Joe Sakic[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]Stan Mikita[/TD]
[TD]Mark Messier[/TD]
[TD]Hugh Lehman[/TD]
[TD]Ted Lindsay[/TD]
[TD]Steve Yzerman[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]Glenn Hall[/TD]
[TD]Alex Ovechkin[/TD]
[TD]Tommy Philips[/TD]
[TD]Syl Apps[/TD]
[TD]Chris Chelios[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]Cyclone Taylor[/TD]
[TD]Guy Lafleur[/TD]
[TD]Hod Stuart[/TD]
[TD]Henri Richard[/TD]
[TD]Peter Forsberg[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]Bill Cook[/TD]
[TD]Viacheslav Fetisov[/TD]
[TD]Mickey MacKay[/TD]
[TD]Milt Schmidt[/TD]
[TD]Evgeni Malkin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]15[/TD]
[TD]Terry Sawchuk[/TD]
[TD]Sergei Makarov[/TD]
[TD]Georges Boucher[/TD]
[TD]Pierre Pilote[/TD]
[TD]Chris Pronger[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]Ted Lindsay[/TD]
[TD]Phil Esposito[/TD]
[TD]Moose Johnson[/TD]
[TD]Frank Brimsek[/TD]
[TD]Scott Stevens[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]Newsy Lalonde[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Clarke[/TD]
[TD]Frank Fredrickson[/TD]
[TD]Ted Kennedy[/TD]
[TD]Al MacInnis[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]Frank Boucher[/TD]
[TD]Martin Brodeur[/TD]
[TD]Babe Dye[/TD]
[TD]Andy Bathgate[/TD]
[TD]Teemu Selanne[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]19[/TD]
[TD]King Clancy[/TD]
[TD]Bryan Trottier[/TD]
[TD]Duke Keats[/TD]
[TD]Tim Horton[/TD]
[TD]Brett Hull[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]20[/TD]
[TD]Syl Apps[/TD]
[TD]Joe Sakic[/TD]
[TD]Lester Patrick[/TD]
[TD]Dickie Moore[/TD]
[TD]Ed Belfour[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]21[/TD]
[TD]Henri Richard[/TD]
[TD]Mike Bossy[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Frank Mahovlich[/TD]
[TD]Sergei Fedorov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]22[/TD]
[TD]Milt Schmidt[/TD]
[TD]Larry Robinson[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Max Bentley[/TD]
[TD]Zdeno Chara[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]23[/TD]
[TD]Pierre Pilote[/TD]
[TD]Steve Yzerman[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Elmer Lach[/TD]
[TD]Joe Thornton[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]24[/TD]
[TD]Charlie Conacher[/TD]
[TD]Chris Chelios[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Bill Durnan[/TD]
[TD]Patrick Kane[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]25[/TD]
[TD]Frank Brimsek[/TD]
[TD]Valeri Kharlamov[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Turk Broda[/TD]
[TD]Duncan Keith[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

And by region raised in

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Rank[/TD]
[TD]Ontario[/TD]
[TD]Quebec[/TD]
[TD]Western Canada[/TD]
[TD]USA[/TD]
[TD]Europe[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Wayne Gretzky[/TD]
[TD]Mario Lemieux[/TD]
[TD]Gordie Howe[/TD]
[TD]Chris Chelios[/TD]
[TD]Dominik Hasek[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Orr[/TD]
[TD]Jean Beliveau[/TD]
[TD]Eddie Shore[/TD]
[TD]Frank Brimsek[/TD]
[TD]Nicklas Lidstrom[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Hull[/TD]
[TD]Patrick Roy[/TD]
[TD]Mark Messier[/TD]
[TD]Patrick Kane[/TD]
[TD]Jaromir Jagr[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Howie Morenz[/TD]
[TD]Doug Harvey[/TD]
[TD]Glenn Hall[/TD]
[TD]Mark Howe[/TD]
[TD]Alex Ovechkin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]Red Kelly[/TD]
[TD]Maurice Richard[/TD]
[TD]Bobby Clarke[/TD]
[TD]Brian Leetch[/TD]
[TD]Viacheslav Fetisov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]Denis Potvin[/TD]
[TD]Ray Bourque[/TD]
[TD]Bryan Trottier[/TD]
[TD]Rod Langway[/TD]
[TD]Sergei Makarov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]Frank Nighbor[/TD]
[TD]Jacques Plante[/TD]
[TD]Joe Sakic[/TD]
[TD]Mike Modano[/TD]
[TD]Valeri Kharlamov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]Stan Mikita[/TD]
[TD]Guy Lafleur[/TD]
[TD]Terry Sawchuk[/TD]
[TD]John Leclair[/TD]
[TD]Vladislav Tretiak[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]Phil Esposito[/TD]
[TD]Martin Brodeur[/TD]
[TD]Steve Yzerman[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Peter Forsberg[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]Cyclone Taylor[/TD]
[TD]Mike Bossy[/TD]
[TD]Andy Bathgate[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Evgeni Malkin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]Bill Cook[/TD]
[TD]Henri Richard[/TD]
[TD]Max Bentley[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Teemu Selanne[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]Larry Robinson[/TD]
[TD]Pierre Pilote[/TD]
[TD]Elmer Lach[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Anatoli Firsov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]Ted Lindsay[/TD]
[TD]Sprague Cleghorn[/TD]
[TD]Turk Broda[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Jari Kurri[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]Newsy Lalonde[/TD]
[TD]Bernie Geoffrion[/TD]
[TD]Ed Belfour[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Borje Salming[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]15[/TD]
[TD]Frank Boucher[/TD]
[TD]Marcel Dionne[/TD]
[TD]Bill Gadsby[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Boris Mikhailov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]King Clancy[/TD]
[TD]Georges Vezina[/TD]
[TD]Duncan Keith[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Sergei Fedorov[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]Syl Apps[/TD]
[TD]Dickie Moore[/TD]
[TD]Sid Abel[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Zdeno Chara[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]Ken Dryden[/TD]
[TD]Joe Malone[/TD]
[TD]Jarome Iginla[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Alexander Maltsev[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]19[/TD]
[TD]Brad Park[/TD]
[TD]Bill Cowley[/TD]
[TD]Johnny Bower[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Vladimir Martinec[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]20[/TD]
[TD]Paul Coffey[/TD]
[TD]Nels Stewart[/TD]
[TD]Ching Johnson[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Henrik Lundqvist[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]21[/TD]
[TD]Milt Schmidt[/TD]
[TD]Martin St. Louis[/TD]
[TD]Jack Stewart[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Erik Karlsson[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]22[/TD]
[TD]Charlie Conacher[/TD]
[TD]Dave Keon[/TD]
[TD]Scott Niedermayer[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Jiri Holocek[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]23[/TD]
[TD]Ted Kennedy[/TD]
[TD]Russell Bowie[/TD]
[TD]Doug Bentley[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Valeri Vasiliev[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]24[/TD]
[TD]Chris Pronger[/TD]
[TD]Serge Savard[/TD]
[TD]Cecil Thompson[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Peter Stastny[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]25[/TD]
[TD]Earl Seibert[/TD]
[TD]Roberto Luongo[/TD]
[TD]Paul Kariya[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Vladimir Krutov[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Agree with the gist of the entire post although might quibble a bit here and there.

Also noted that while Yzerman was born in BC he moved to Ontario at age 3 or something.

Also Brett hull isn't on the last list either and while he was born in the States he is a North shore product in Vancouver at the age of 15 after having spent some time in Winnipeg and before that Chicago..

 

[jcs0218]

This may seem an unpopular opinion.

But Connor McDavid is making a strong case for himself as deserving a high ranking.

3 Hart, 5 Art Ross, etc. Very high per-game numbers.

He doesn't have a Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe, like some other players do.

But his trophy case is starting to look very impressive.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

This may seem an unpopular opinion.

But Connor McDavid is making a strong case for himself as deserving a high ranking.

3 Hart, 5 Art Ross, etc. Very high per-game numbers.

He doesn't have a Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe, like some other players do.

But his trophy case is starting to look very impressive.

Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone agreeing that McDavid belong anywhere near the top 100.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone agreeing that McDavid belong anywhere near the top 100.

I'm not sure if this is a joke, or assuming everyone holds your opinion, or possibly a typo that says the opposite of what you mean. He placed 130th in the 2021 project (that was built upon an older top 100 so no one could have argued him for anything higher than 101st), and led the league in scoring twice in the meantime, one of which was the highest scoring individual season in nearly 30 years. That's...getting up there and very easy to see even a relatively conservative voter bumping him 35 spots or so for that 2 years of work.
I'm all for playing the waiting game, but sometimes you get to the point where it's just denying the passage of time.
Sid the Kid's 36 now, and that's just offensive to me.

 

[jigglysquishy]

It was very clearly a joke.

McDavid's placement in the top 200 was always going to be weird. The top 100 was at the start of the 2018-19 season so McDavid had some 200ish NHL games including 2 Art Rosses. Very difficult to rank and he didn't end up in the top 100.

His placement in the follow-up was weird. Several posters excluded him on their initial list because they thought he moved into the top 100 and the list was 101-200.

If we were to redo the project today he would quite comfortably finish top 50 and probably closer to 25.

It's the inherent problem with ranking players in the middle of their primes.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

I'm not sure if this is a joke, or assuming everyone holds your opinion, or possibly a typo that says the opposite of what you mean. He placed 130th in the 2021 project (that was built upon an older top 100 so no one could have argued him for anything higher than 101st), and led the league in scoring twice in the meantime, one of which was the highest scoring individual season in nearly 30 years. That's...getting up there and very easy to see even a relatively conservative voter bumping him 35 spots or so for that 2 years of work.
I'm all for playing the waiting game, but sometimes you get to the point where it's just denying the passage of time.
Sid the Kid's 36 now, and that's just offensive to me.

Yeah, it was a joke, could have made it more clear. I wasn’t around for the top 100 project (though I have read a lot of the discussions afterwards), however I followed the top 200 closely and I understand how it came to be that McDavid received that odd and lowly ranking considering his age, considering the participants weren’t redoing the top 100, and considering that at the time of the project his playoff resume in particular was an utter non-factor as compared to players with more complete careers (then he had that magnificent CF run the following spring).

My point being, it was impossible to get McDavid’s ranking right then, but it’s undeniable he’s well into the top 100 by now.

 

[WarriorofTime]

It was very clearly a joke.

McDavid's placement in the top 200 was always going to be weird. The top 100 was at the start of the 2018-19 season so McDavid had some 200ish NHL games including 2 Art Rosses. Very difficult to rank and he didn't end up in the top 100.

His placement in the follow-up was weird. Several posters excluded him on their initial list because they thought he moved into the top 100 and the list was 101-200.

If we were to redo the project today he would quite comfortably finish top 50 and probably closer to 25.

It's the inherent problem with ranking players in the middle of their primes.

You almost need a cutoff, like > age 30 or something, to make it make sense, and even then it kinda cuts things a bit unfairly for players that are 30/31/32, but it's more margins at that point.

McDavid if he retired here and now? I'm not so sure. 144th in career points, but 5 Art Ross Trophies, only Gretzky (10), Lemieux and Howie (6 each) have more, with Esposito and Jagr also at 5. Also 3 Hart Trophies, only Gretzky (9), Howe (6) and Shore (4) with more, and tied with a crowded but elite tier at 3 with Ovechkin, Lemieux, Clarke, Orr and Morenz.

The lack of Cups kinda is what it is, but I think 32-team, hard salary cap era helps bring some context to it as well. Peak value is always going to matter more than longevity compiler totals.

Even if McDavid retired today, I'd have a really hard time leaving him out of the top 15.

 

[Jets4Life]

Good list.

I disagree with Orr being ahead of Lemieux, simply because Orr's NHL career was pretty much over in 1975, after 9 seasons. Lemieux had health and injury problems in his prime, but managed to come back and lead the Pens to two Stanley Cups and a Presidents Trophy. He also had two great seasons in his early 30s, and after returning in 2000, Lemieux was arguably the best player in the game from the second half of 2000-01, to the Olympic break 2002.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

TheGoldenJet - I'm moving our discussion about the Top 100 players lists (from 2018/19) into this thread (since it has nothing to do with Leon Draisaitl, which is where the conversation originated). (I wrote this reply in early January but forgot to post it until now).

You said that the Top 100 players list is "heavily biased, due to primarily North Americans doing the voting" and "...having a large group of North Americans submit ranking lists) present a skewed depiction of reality (eg. having North American players ranked above non-North American players)."

First, I oppose these kinds of blanket statements about the voters. You're treating the voters as one homogeneous group, on the basis of their nationality and ethnicity. That's the very definition of identity politics. (Replace "North American" with "Blacks", "Muslims" or "LGBT" and you'll see how discriminatory your statement sounds). There are plenty of places where you can talk about identity politics online (Reddit, Twitter, etc) but let's keep that off of HFBoards.

Of course, it's possible that the list could be biased for or against certain types of players. The relevant question is - do the results actually demonstrate bias? It doesn't matter if the voters are all North American, or all Russian, or all Tanzanian - if bias actually exists, would be observable in the output.

To demonstrate that bias exists, you'd have to show that HOH's ranking of Russian/Soviet players is consistently lower than what similar lists show. For example, we ranked Fetisov 25th. If most mainstraim lists have him ranked, say, 15th or higher, that might be evidence of bias. But you'd have to do that systematically, looking at how most/all Russian/Soviet/European players were ranked. You haven't provided any evidence so far. Present your researchm then we can review it. Without this, there's no factual basis for your statement.

I'll repeat my question from the previous thread - if the HOH project was biased against Russian players (in favour of Canadian players), why did we rank Slava Fetisov and Sergei Makarov higher than Canadian legends who are (almost) universally respected like Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Martin Brodeur, Mike Bossy, and (yes) Bryan Trottier? Go make a poll and see how many HFBoards users would pick Fetisov and Makarov as the top two players from that list of seven. Why did we rank Russian players who never played a single game in the NHL ahead of Canadian legends like Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens, and Marcel Dionne? We had a Soviet player from the 1960's (who I'd imagine 95% of people on this website have never even heard of) ranked ahead of Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, Ed Belfour, and Frank Mahovlich.

"Of course, biased North American voters will often throw in a token Russian or Swede high up their ratings, to appear neutral. That is a common tactic"

If there was one highly ranked Russian player, and the others were ranked low, then that would be evidence of tokenism. That's obviouly not the case here, where Makarov and Fetisov are in the top 30, and Tretiak and Kharlamov are in the top fifty. A token ranking would be (for example) ranking Makarov very high, and the others much lower. That's not the case here.

Then you made three statements over the span of two posts that really get to the heart of the issue:

"But that situation is going to objectively create real bias. Especially against a Russian player in Malkin, who is already being underrated to meme-like levels"
"The net result of a board process is the same, you get guys like Malkin rated low and some North American players rated higher than they should be".
"Malkin as a Russian is going to be lower down on a list made by North American HFBoards users than he should be".

That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's clear from your post history that Malkin is one of your favourite players. (There's nothing wrong with that - we all have our favourites). But if you think Malkin was ranked too low, explain why. (That should be easy, if he's "underrated to meme-like levels").

If there's evidence of anti-Russian/Soviet/European bias in the results, tell us. If the 2018/19 version of the list is flawed, we'll want to make the nexessary corrections in future editions. So far, you haven't provided any evidence of this bias. Your entire response sounds like sour grapes because you don't like how one of your favourite players was ranked. You should either provide evidence of the bias, or you should withraw your statement.

 

[Batis]

TheGoldenJet - I'm moving our discussion about the Top 100 players lists (from 2018/19) into this thread (since it has nothing to do with Leon Draisaitl, which is where the conversation originated). (I wrote this reply in early January but forgot to post it until now).

You said that the Top 100 players list is "heavily biased, due to primarily North Americans doing the voting" and "...having a large group of North Americans submit ranking lists) present a skewed depiction of reality (eg. having North American players ranked above non-North American players)."

First, I oppose these kinds of blanket statements about the voters. You're treating the voters as one homogeneous group, on the basis of their nationality and ethnicity. That's the very definition of identity politics. (Replace "North American" with "Blacks", "Muslims" or "LGBT" and you'll see how discriminatory your statement sounds). There are plenty of places where you can talk about identity politics online (Reddit, Twitter, etc) but let's keep that off of HFBoards.

Of course, it's possible that the list could be biased for or against certain types of players. The relevant question is - do the results actually demonstrate bias? It doesn't matter if the voters are all North American, or all Russian, or all Tanzanian - if bias actually exists, would be observable in the output.

To demonstrate that bias exists, you'd have to show that HOH's ranking of Russian/Soviet players is consistently lower than what similar lists show. For example, we ranked Fetisov 25th. If most mainstraim lists have him ranked, say, 15th or higher, that might be evidence of bias. But you'd have to do that systematically, looking at how most/all Russian/Soviet/European players were ranked. You haven't provided any evidence so far. Present your researchm then we can review it. Without this, there's no factual basis for your statement.

I'll repeat my question from the previous thread - if the HOH project was biased against Russian players (in favour of Canadian players), why did we rank Slava Fetisov and Sergei Makarov higher than Canadian legends who are (almost) universally respected like Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Martin Brodeur, Mike Bossy, and (yes) Bryan Trottier? Go make a poll and see how many HFBoards users would pick Fetisov and Makarov as the top two players from that list of seven. Why did we rank Russian players who never played a single game in the NHL ahead of Canadian legends like Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens, and Marcel Dionne? We had a Soviet player from the 1960's (who I'd imagine 95% of people on this website have never even heard of) ranked ahead of Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, Ed Belfour, and Frank Mahovlich.

"Of course, biased North American voters will often throw in a token Russian or Swede high up their ratings, to appear neutral. That is a common tactic"

If there was one highly ranked Russian player, and the others were ranked low, then that would be evidence of tokenism. That's obviouly not the case here, where Makarov and Fetisov are in the top 30, and Tretiak and Kharlamov are in the top fifty. A token ranking would be (for example) ranking Makarov very high, and the others much lower. That's not the case here.

Then you made three statements over the span of two posts that really get to the heart of the issue:

"But that situation is going to objectively create real bias. Especially against a Russian player in Malkin, who is already being underrated to meme-like levels"
"The net result of a board process is the same, you get guys like Malkin rated low and some North American players rated higher than they should be".
"Malkin as a Russian is going to be lower down on a list made by North American HFBoards users than he should be".

That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's clear from your post history that Malkin is one of your favourite players. (There's nothing wrong with that - we all have our favourites). But if you think Malkin was ranked too low, explain why. (That should be easy, if he's "underrated to meme-like levels").

If there's evidence of anti-Russian/Soviet/European bias in the results, tell us. If the 2018/19 version of the list is flawed, we'll want to make the nexessary corrections in future editions. So far, you haven't provided any evidence of this bias. Your entire response sounds like sour grapes because you don't like how one of your favourite players was ranked. You should either provide evidence of the bias, or you should withraw your statement.

As one of the European voters that participated in many of the discussions about the Non-NHL European players I personally did not feel like the group of voters had much of a bias against European players. On the contrary I felt like the group was open to the arguments made for many of those players. If I remember correctly both Sergei Makarov and Anatoli Firsov (two of the players that I have a high opinion of) were voted in during their first round of availability. While I personally think that both players probably should have come up for voting a little bit earlier (especially Firsov) I definitely do not think that it was a case of a strong bias against European players. Because when someone really has a strong bias against something it is obviously very difficult to change their mind about that. Which certainly not was the case here considering that both players were voted in during their first round of availability.