Earlier this week on a segment of “Insider Trading” on TSN, insider Chris Johnston mentioned the NHL is working on a new, ambitious project. The league is going to name an all-century team for all 32 teams in the NHL — for the 21st century. With the next calendar year being the quarter mark of the new century, why not… right?
Johnston said they’re going to name six forwards and four defensemen with a goalie.
For the Chicago Blackhawks, the last 25 years have given fans the high and low of what’s possible for an organization. Before Rocky Wirtz took over, the Hawks were named the worst-run organization in professional sports — not just the NHL. And then Rocky took over, 19 and 88 arrived and the entire history was re-written. Three championships, Olympic golds, a handful of future Hall of Famers and jerseys to retire.
If we’re talking about an all-century team for the Chicago Blackhawks, it feels pretty easy to knock out a few of the names on the list. But the door opens for some conversation as we get a little lower on the depth chart.
At forward, the first four names are incredibly easy for me: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp.
On defense, the first three names are also incredibly easy: Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
So how do we fill out the other two forward spots and the final spot on the back end?
Final Blackhawks Forward
If we’re trying to narrow it down to a fourth and final wing since Jan. 1, 2000, there are three options I consider heavily: Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Saad and Steve Sullivan.
Saad was here for part of the championship run, so he gets points for winning. And his defense was terrific for the Blackhawks while he was here.
DeBrincat is the highest point producer behind the four I named above since 2000 (307 points in 368 games). He scored 160 goals for the Blackhawks. And he was a perfect running mate for Kane.
However, Sullivan was just behind DeBrincat is points produced (303 in 370 games since the start of the 1999-2000 season). And he did that on some awful teams. Between the 2000-01 and 2002-03 seasons, Sullivan missed five regular-season games and scored 81 goals. If you were around back then you have to appreciate what Sullivan meant to those teams.
For those reasons, I’m going to make Sullivan my fourth wing.
At center, the options start to get a little more debatable. Dave Bolland was a terrific checking line center for a while. Brad Richards came in and won a championship. And, to all of the points I mentioned in the case for Sullivan, Alexei Zhamnov appeared in 308 games and produced 252 points on some really bad teams.
But my second center on the all-century team for the Blackhawks is going to be Marcus Kruger. He ranks second among Blackhawks centers behind only Toews in games played since 2000 (472) and he took a beating every night. He was an excellent defensive center for the Blackhawks and won over 50 percent of his faceoffs with the team. And, the fun part: he was traded back to the Blackhawks by the Coyotes in the deal for Hossa’s contract.
Final Blackhawks Defenseman
The gap between Seabrook, Keith and Hjalmarsson and the rest of the consideration set on the blue line is massive. All three of those guys was at least plus-100 with the Blackhawks. They’re 1-2-3 in games plays and points (Hjalmarsson had 143 points in 623 games and, yes, that’s third among Hawks defensemen).
So who else makes the list of names to consider?
Brian Campbell, who now works in the front office, is fourth in points (134) and fifth in games played for the Blackhawks (295).
Tied with Campbell in points is Erik Gustafsson. But I’m not putting him on the list. Sorry Gus.
Right behind those two in points for the Blackhawks is Seth Jones with 129. Jones averages the most ice time of any defenseman since 2000 (25:26). And he’s tied with Cam Barker for fourth among Blackhawks defenseman with 45 power play points since 2000. But… he’s minus-95.
But for my fourth defenseman I’m going to go with Connor Murphy. Since 2000, he ranks fourth in shots on goal (615), which is nice to note. But he’s appeared in 441 games for the Blackhawks — which is 146 more than any other defenseman since 2000. If you have almost two full seasons more games played than any other defenseman during the time period being considered, you get the nod.
Murphy has averaged 19:50 per game, has an even 100 points and is only minus-27 on teams that haven’t been very good since he arrived.
And the fun part: Murphy was acquired in the trade that sent Hjalmarsson to Arizona. So we’ve got our two wild card picks coming to (or back to) Chicago in trades with the artist formerly known as the Coyotes for guys who also made the lists.
Blackhawks Goalie
With all due respect to Jocelyn Thibault and Nikolai Khabibulin, this is easy. Too easy. It’s Corey Crawford by a mile, and not only because of his two rings.
Since 2000, Crawford won 260 regular-season games. Thibault is second with 116. No other goalie went over 100.
Since 2000, Crawford has 26 shutouts. Thibault is second with 24 (which is remarkable when you consider the teams he played behind). No other Blackhawks goalie had more than seven.
Crawford appeared in 219 games more than Thibault 488 and 269, respectively), who ranks second. The only other goalie to appear in more than 200 was Khabibulin.
Blackhawks All-Century Team
So here’s my Blackhawks all-century team:
Patrick Sharp — Jonathan Toews — Marian Hossa
Steve Sullivan — Marcus Kruger — Patrick Kane
Duncan Keith — Brent Seabrook
Niklas Hjalmarsson — Connor Murphy
Corey Crawford
