Russian Defenseman Vitaly Vishnevsky was the Fifth Overall Pick in 1998, and he would play in 30 Games for the team that year for the squad that took him, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Petr Sykora played for the New Jersey Devils for seven seasons, winning a Stanley Cup before he was part of a seven-player deal that sent him to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Niclas Havelid was a Swedish star blueliner who played in his native Sweden for years before being drafted at age 26 (26?) by the Mighty Ducks in the Third Round of 1999.
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. We have a new one to unveil today, that of the New England Patriots.
An inaugural franchise of the American Football League, the New England Patriots debuted as the Boston Patriots, but they were unable to win the AFL Title. They did appear in the 1963 AFL Championship Game, but that was their only playoff appearance of the 1960s.
The Patriots took on New England as their designation when they moved to Foxborough in 1971, shortly after the NFL-AFL merger. The Patriots only made it to the playoff twice in the 70s, but in the 80s, they went to their first Super Bowl but were thumped by the Chicago Bears in 1986. A decade later, they were back again but lost to the Green Bay Packers.
The 2000s were completely different, and with Quarterback om Brady and Head Coach, Bill Belichick, the Pats won six Super Bowls, which is tied for the most with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NFL.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.
This list is updated up until the end of the 2019 Season.
The complete list can be found here, but as always, we announce our top five in this article. They are:
1. Tom Brady
2. John Hannah
We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.
Look for our more material coming soon!
As always we thank you for your support.