What If the NHL Had an All-Time Fantasy Player Draft?
Who could create the best roster of the NHL's top players from its 106-year history? Adam Proteau pitches an ultimate fantasy draft like the NBA's done before, featuring former stars, celebrities and media.
The NHL recently revealed changes to its all-star weekend, including a player draft and new skills competition format, and many hockey fans are excited about it.
But there’s another potential event that could be staged at an all-star weekend, and we’ve seen the success of it in the 2022 NBA all-star weekend: a fantasy draft involving the best players in the history of the sport.
The NBA held an “ultimate draft” in the 2021-22 season – which largely was a celebration of the first 75 years of the league. Squads of former players, league executives and basketball personalities picked teams from a pool of the top 75 players in NBA history.
It was the first time the league staged such an event since 2011, and the pick-makers included former star players Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley, Jerry West, Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, celebrities including actor D.L. Hughley and rapper Quavo, and media members.
Everyone was in the same area – this was, first and foremost, a made-for-TV event – and it was a traditional “snake” draft most sports fans are familiar with.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hohlENK_xQ4[/embed]
The aforementioned people playfully poked at one another after just about every pick made. Veteran fantasy pool players know this is a key part of the reason why you hold drafts in the first place – the smack talk is often just as entertaining as the honest and passionate debate that goes into picking teams across different generations of competitors. And you know there are hockey-crazy celebrities out there who would love little more than to razz former teammates and “experts” as they question the rationale behind every pick.
Now, imagine the NHL doing this. Let’s say we can get Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Jaromir Jagr and Jeremy Roenick to pick four of the teams. Then let’s ask women’s hockey icon Cassie Campbell-Pascall and longtime GM Brian Burke to pick another two teams. After that, let’s say a former coach such as Ken Hitchcock picks a team, and former NHLers-turned-podcasters team up to pick a squad. Let the final two team spots be filled by teams comprised of media, and boom – there are the 10 teams you need for a deep pool without getting too deep.
As it was in the NBA ultimate draft, NHL ultimate fantasy draft teams should be picked from a group of players recognized as the best of the best over the decades. We’d humbly suggest THN’s 2010 list of the top 100 players of all-time by position, which would provide a group of players not included for any bias other than how outstanding they were on the ice. And to include players who became megastars after 2010, you could do what the NBA did in 2022 – set up a section of the draft open to “wild card” (read: current generation) players.
Get this fantasy pool sponsored, and use the money for the charities selected by the groups of drafters. There’s no downside to this idea whatsoever. Of course, there’s no real winner in an ultimate fantasy draft – at least, other than the sport itself, which could always use more marketing of individual players across all generations. We’re talking prime water cooler material:
Would you go with Connor McDavid first overall, or would you do what this writer would do and take Gretzky first? Would you take Martin Brodeur as your goalie, or would you go with Dominik Hasek, Glenn Hall or Patrick Roy in net?
What about on defense – would it be Orr over Nicklas Lidstrom, or vice-versa? And what about Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau? Then there's Cy Denneny, Joe Malone and Charlie Conacher. The possibilities are just about endless, and the debate over who picked the best team would rage on long after the draft was complete.
Hockey players tend to be humble people, and while there might be some who don’t take a lot of pleasure in publicly picking one particular player instead of another, we should be past that as a sports community and be willing to have more fun with events like an ultimate fantasy draft.
It’s too late to hold such an event on the 2024 NHL all-star weekend, but you could easily plan for it in 2025. Give us a call if need be.
Let’s embrace our imagination a little more and envision how spectacular newly picked groups of players would actually be. It’s fun, it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and it’s guaranteed to be a hot conversation topic. Let’s make it happen.
