“I played against a lot of great players and I played with some great players,” said Kelly, 89. There are so many great players who are not here, unfortunately.”The NHL decided from the outset not to rank the 100. But Gretzky, Lemieux and Orr agreed that Gordie Howe — who was in that first group of 33 — is No. “Wayne with all the numbers and Bobby really changed the game as far as the way the game is played by a defenseman,” Lemieux said. 1With talk about Connor McDavid as the next great player in the game, Gretzky and Lemieux concurred that Sidney Crosby is still the standard bearer.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 28, 2017 06:00 UTC