2024 Hockey Eligibles

Braydon Coburn had a phenomenal career in Junior Hockey, winning Gold in the World Juniors and WJU18 while excelling at the blueline for the Portland Winter Hawks.  Coburn was a First Round Pick (8th Overall) in 2003, debuting two years later with the Atlanta Thrashers, but he only played 38 Games in ATL before he was traded to Philadelphia. Coburn honed his skills in Broad Street, becoming…
Splitting his professional career with Toronto and St. Louis, Carl Gunnarson was a traditional stay-at-home Defenseman who rarely drew penalties.  Gunnarson had three seasons where he received Lady Byng votes, and he only had 179 Penalty Minutes over 629 Games. A member of the 2019 Stanley Cup Championship Team with the Blues, Gunnarson scored 138 Points with a Plus/Minus of 41 over his career. Internationally, Gunnarson won…
From Minneapolis, David Backes played the majority of pro career with the St. Louis Blues, a squad he plated the first ten years of his sixteen NHL campaign with. Backes scored 45 or more Points seven times with St. Louis, with a peak of 62 in 2010/11/.  The Center was not a first line player, but was a very good two-way performer, who had five consecutive…
Jussi Jokinen may not have been considered a star in terms of his National Hockey League performance, but the Finnish Center appeared in 951 Games, though he never had more than 288 for any team. Jokinen suited up for Dallas, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Pittsburgh, Florida, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Columbus and Chicago, and scored 563 Points, a respectable number.  Five times, he had 50-Point seasons, his best…
From Finland, Center, Mikko Koivu played 16 years in the NHL, all but seven Games of with were with the Minnesota Wild. Over his career, Koivu scored 711 Points (709 in Minnesota), and had a three-year stretch (2008-09 to 2010-11) where he had at least 62 Points.  A solid playmaker, Koivu was equally adept at the defensive side of the rink.  Koivu enjoyed votes for the Frank…
Niklas Hjalmarsson played most of his NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks and he is one of seven players who was a member of the 2010, 2012 and 2015 Stanley Cup Championship Teams. Hjalmarsson was a tradition stay-at-home Defeneseman, but he did have two seasons (2013-14 & 2015-16) where he cracked the 20-Point threshold.  Internationally, he won a Silver Medal with Sweden in the 2016 Olympics.                              
So…what does longevity mean? As far as we are concerned, it should matter a lot! As of this writing, Patrick Marleau is the most tenured player in the National Hockey League.  The Canadian forward played 23 seasons (21 with San Jose) and logged 1,779 Games with 1,197 Points.  Marleau was never a threat for any individual award, but he was consistent for a long time, played both…
Pavel Datsyuk might be one of the best stick handlers the world of hockey has ever seen. A Red Wing for his entire NHL career, Datsyuk was lightly scouted and wasn't noticed until the 1998 Draft when the Red Wings (who were the only team that seemed to be aware of the Russian) took him in the Fourth Round. Three years later, Datsyuk reported to…
When you are taken 256th Overall in the NHL Amateur Draft, just making it to the largest North American hockey league is hard enough.  Putting that in perspective, what Finnish Goalie, Pekka Rinne accomplished was miraculous. Drafted in 2004, Rinne played a combined three NHL Games in his first three years in the United States, but he was clearly a netminder on the rise, and he became…
Because of the sheer greatness of Dominik Hasek, Ryan Miller was never going to be the best Goalie in Sabres history.  That being said, we know that Miller was pretty damned good. Miller joined the Sabres organization after three years at Michigan State, and in his fourth year of professional hockey, Miller became the primary netminder for Buffalo.  He kept his GAA well under three, and finished…
Travis Zajac was taken in the First Round in the 2006 Draft (20thOverall), and the native of Winnipeg cracked the New Jersey Devils roster immediately, with a 42 Point Season and a tenth-place finish in Calder voting. Zajac developed into a solid two-way forward, and in both 2008-09 and 2009-10, he cracked 60 Points and was in the top ten in Frank J. Selke voting,…