The readers here at HockeyBuzz have spoken. Thanks to the many of you who voted and I hope you enjoyed the exercise as much as I did. The 22-man roster (12 forwards, 6 defenseman, 2 goalies and 2 reserves) consists of twelve Hall of Fame players.
I made the final two reserve selections, based on a combination of the voting results and my own opinion.
FORWARDS
Ted Lindsay - Steve Yzerman (C) - Gordie Howe (A)
Brett Hull - Pavel Datsyuk - Brendan Shanahan
Bob Probert - Sergei Fedorov - Dino Ciccarelli
Sid Abel - Henrik Zetterberg - Tomas Holmstrom
RESERVE:
Alex Delvecchio (A)
DEFENSE
Nicklas Lidstrom (A) - Chris Chelios
Paul Coffey - Vladimir Konstantinov
Mark Howe - Larry Murphy
RESERVE:
Red Kelly
GOALTENDING
Terry Sawchuk
Dominik Hasek
************************************************************************
As for players I think got the short end of the stick in not getting selected to this squad, it's apparent players from the Original Six days had a much more difficult time getting selected, as only 4 of the 20 players voted in by our readers were from the pre-expansion era.
The biggest crime is the exclusion of defensemen
Ebbie Goodfellow. If you read up on Goodfellow, you quickly realize he would have been more than deserving of a spot.
Fourteen seasons as a Red Wing (1929-43), five as captain, he won three Stanley Cups. He was also the first Red Wing to win the league's Hart Trophy as league MVP (1939-40 season). Enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963. It's a mystery as to why Goodfellow's #5 was never retired by the club. It will be retired soon enough for Nicklas Lidstrom.
Up front, there was a three-way tie for the final 3 spots between
Sid Abel,
Tomas Holmstrom and
Frank Mahovlich. Although Mahovlich is seen as the best hockey player out of the three, I selected Abel and Holmstrom to represent this all-time Red Wing club because of the length of their tenures as a Red Wing, whereas Mahovlich played the majority of his career in Toronto as a Maple Leaf, with stops in Detroit and Montreal during the latter half of his career. He also never won a Stanley Cup while in Detroit, whereas Abel and Holmstrom did.
From the pre-expansion era, I believe
Syd Howe deserved a better result than his 4% vote figure and I deserve reprimanding for not even including
George Hay, a high scoring winger on the voting list. Hay played for Detroit during the days when the club was named the Cougars, Falcons and Red Wings (1927-34). Both men are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The other issue I have are for certain players who have played a greater number of games with other teams, yet are being listed as all-time Red Wings. Brett Hull (St. Louis), Bob Probert (Chicago), Dino Ciccarelli (Minnesota North Stars), Chris Chelios (Chicago), Mark Howe (Philadelphia), Paul Coffey (Edmonton), Larry Murphy (Washington) and Dominik Hasek (Buffalo) all played a bigger chunk of their careers outside of Detroit.
[email protected]
Make sure to follow Mark on Twitter! 
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»