Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.  Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such, it is important to us that Bronson Arroyo has been selected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

Chosen via the Modern Era route, Arroyo had two runs with Cincinnati (2006-13 & 2017), where he posted a record of 108-100 with 1,157 Strikeouts.  Arriving in Cincinnati from a trade from Boston, the Pitcher was an All-Star in his first season with the Reds (2006), and was the National League leader in Innings Pitched (240.7), and a five-time club leader in that category.  He was also the 2010 Gold Glove recipient.

Arroyo will be joined by a Veteran’s Committee candidate at a later date, and that group will be inducted on July 15.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Bronson Arroyo for earning this prestigious honor.

The path for LaMelo Ball to the NBA might be a template for others to follow, though few people have a father like LaVar Ball.

The youngest Ball brothers forewent college, playing overseas and ationally in his father’s developmental league, honing his skills and parlaying that to a Third Overall Pick in the 2020 Draft.  Many predicted that LaMelo would become the best in the family, and early in his career, that appears to be the case.

Ball started the 2020-21 Season on the bench, but the Hornets gave him more time and the starting position at Point Guard by mid-season.  Ball won the Rookie of the Year, averaging 15.7 Points and 6.1 Assists per Game.  He progressed as a sophomore, representing Charlotte in the All-Star Game, averaging 20.1 Points per Game and finishing in the top in Assists (7.6) and Steals (1.6) per Game.  Ball was injured for most of the 2022-23 Season, and last year, but was electric when he played.

If the Hornets can hold on to Ball for a decade, he should make the top of this list; that is providing he stays healthy.

An All-Big Ten First Team player from Michigan, Miles Bridges was taken with the 12^th Overall Pick in 2018 by the Los Angeles Clippers, only to be immediately traded to Charlotte.

After a decent rookie year (7.5 PPG in 21 MPG), Bridges settled in as a regular starting Forward as a sophomore, but his progression was not as fast as the Hornets were hoping for, and he was regulated to more of a bench role in his his third season.  Going into 2021/22, it was believed that this would have to be the season where he would show whether or not he could take that nake step, and that is exactly what he did.

Playing more at Power Forward, Bridges had a breakout campaign, averaging 20.2 Points and 7.0 Rebounds per Game, and every metric showed improvement.  It looked like there was a star in the making, with Bridges poised to be a lynchpin to a contender…or so, it seemed.

Entering Restricted Free Agency in 2022, Bridges’ life and career took a tumble by his own hands.  He was charged with domestic violence, and missed the entirety of the 2022-23 Season.  He resigned with the Hornets, returned from suspension and averaged 21 Points per Game, but this was more due to somebody having to score for Charlotte.

He is still in his prime, but has a lot of work to do to be a potential All-Star.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2021/22 revision of our top Los Angeles Kings.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Hockey League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Nashville made the playoffs but were bounced in the first round.  There were multiple active Predators on the list, leading to some significant elevations, including a new number one.  There was also one new entry.

As always, we present our top five:

1. Roman Josi

2. Shea Weber

3. Pekka Rinne

4. David Legwand

5. Filip Forsberg

You can find the entire list here.

Josi, who was the runner-up for the Norris last year, takes over at number one, overtaking Weber and Rinne.  Forsberg, who is currently a top Forward for the Predators, moves into the top five, taking over the spot from Kimmo Timonen.  He advanced from #9.

Defenseman, Mattias Ekholm, inched up one spot to #9.

Goalie, Juuse Saros, went up from #20 to 14.

Center, Ryan Johansen, climbed to #17 from #21.

Another Center, Colton Sissons advanced five spots to #35.

The new entrant is Forward, Mikael Granlund, who debuts at #49.  He knocks Austin Watson off the list.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.