It's Wayne Gretzky. No question. He is the greatest hockey player of all time.

Being that I am a Blackhawks fan I always loved guys like Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Denis Savard but Wayne was the best. Honorable mention goes to Mario Lemieux.

I'm gonna have to go with Gretzky. Hard to argue with most points all time, most points/goals/assists in a season, and 4 cup wins. Plus he's from Brantford, same city as me! I went to the same high school he did, and my dad actually went to school with him.

Runners up would have to be Lemieux, Orr, Bossy, Richard and Howe.

If Bossy hadn't had his career cut short due to injury he would easily be top 5 all time. He started his career with 9 straight 50 goal seasons and has the highest regular season goals per game in NHL history. 

Best goalie is probably Roy, although I don't like him at all.

My favourite players all time are Keith Tkachuk and Ryan Smyth, but neither of them are even close to best all time. Tkachuk will hopefully make the hall of fame though. Never won a cup, but he did lead the league in scoring twice and has over 500 career goals. Was just put in the US Hockey Hall of Fame. 

I'm from montreal, so maybe im a little biased, but I have to go with Maurice Richard, first player to reach 50goals in 50games in a time where it was extremely hard to be a french canadian in a league 100% controlled by english speakers. (at the time, racism was an extremely common thing)

They are alot of great ones in hockey, but in my mind, the "Rocket" will forever be the very first great one to ever play that sport.

Btw, you have a great list.

It's obvious who my favorite player is but the best player of all time would have to be Gretzky. Gordie Howe is 2nd though.

Since his records destroy all Gretzky is the best forward, no one else will ever have the league retire their number. Maybe in 2,000 years.

For Goalie, Patrick Roy, he was the ultimate clutch goalie and he left the game early when he was still at the top of his game.

The best defensemen is Ray Bourque who had the ultimate combination of brutal defense and one of the most famous and powerful slap shots in history.

@ Marks You are off my friends list buddy for slandering Roy.

Hey Ryan you like my first thread, "When did you give up on Nintendo"? I was a prick back than especially since I later bought a wii.

For goalies, id have to go with either George Vézina (the trophy for best goalie of the year is named after him... thats somthing) Jacques Plante (the legendary hockey mask anyone? and 6stanley cups) or Patrick Roy. And the fact that all of these guys played for the Habs is purely conincidental :P

For defense I think I have to go with Bobby Orr.

And chocoloco, for Marks defense... you have to admit that Roy was kind of a douche... (but I still love him :P)

has to be Gretzky. Mario would be a close second though.

As for Goalie, I have always liked Martin Brodeur more than Roy.

NOTE: There is a typo in Hasek's description "his peak performance with Buffalo and the Czech national team from 1993 through 1992 is hard to match."

Roy wasd cocky, but it was also what we loved about him in Colorado. We always believed he could win and would show everyone he knew he could do it. Also it is pretty well known in Colorado that Roy will eventually become the head coach. He has talked to the orginization about it many times.

Maybe the greatest player at getting DUIs.

All jokes aside, Chris Chelios played far too long.  He was fantastic in his prime though.