Joel Otto came from Elk River, Minnesota where he went starred for Bemidji State University.  Otto would go undrafted but after what must have seen like an eternity, he was signed with the Calgary Flames.  Otto would become a permanent fixture in the pro ranks in the 1985/86 season and found a niche excelling at the less than sexy aspects of the game.  He had size that he could use was an excellent faceoff man and he would become an excellent defensive Centre.  Otto never won the Frank J. Selke Award as the NHL’s best defensive Award but he finished 3^rd on two occasions, was in the top ten another two times and received votes another four seasons.

Thomas Steen played his entire National Hockey League career with the Winnipeg Jets, where he may not have been known outside small-market Winnipeg and his home country of Sweden, but he was a player who was vastly underrated, selfless, and thus invaluable to the Jets, who never let him go.  Beyond his work with the Jets, Steen played internationally for Sweden at three Canada Cups and was a two-time Silver Medalist at the World Championship.  Steen’s #25 would be retired by the Jets in 1995.

This one might be a little difficult to justify putting him on this list at all, as many considered the career of Sergei Samsonov a disappointment, but while he may not have lived up to lofty expectations, there is no doubt that the Russian had a promising career. 

Bryan Smolinski could be considered a journeyman of sorts in the National Hockey League (he did play with nine teams) but his skill set was always coveted as every team can use a player who could score when needed and was adept at the penalty kill.  The Centre would score 651 Points over a 1,056 Game NHL career.