The Hurricanes retired Eric Staal’s number one Sunday, a well-deserved moment for one of the most popular players in franchise history. Sending a player’s number to the rafters can be tricky business, and some teams handle it better than others, but that’s part of the fun. At the end of the day, these honors are as much about the fans as the players, as they get a chance to celebrate a guy who was important to them.
Next up for Staal’s legacy: The Hall-of-Fame debate, which will be a tough one. He won’t hash it out here, but it’s fair to say that you could see it going either way depending on which way the wind is blowing whenever the secretive committee gets together. My gut says he doesn’t get in, but my gut has been wrong about this stuff before.
Either way, seeing Staal get his flowers in Carolina got me thinking about a question: Who is each team’s all-time leader in games played among guys who didn’t make the Hall of Fame? Lots of fans could tell you their team’s all-time leader in games played, because it’s somebody like Gordie Howe, Ray Bourque, Mike Modano, Sidney Crosby… you get the idea. But what about the guy who stuck around forever, but wasn’t a superstar? Some of those guys have interesting stories, while others fall into that category of “you had to be there to truly appreciate it” for a fan base that watched them forever.
Today, let’s go through every team and see which player answers our question. (Well, almost every team – there’s not much point using Vegas or Seattle here, since they haven’t been around long enough to have a true lifer in the books. Sorry, newbs, check back in another generation or two.)
Do you know who your team’s guy will be? How many of the 30 teams do you think you’ll be able to guess? Lock in your answers in now, because we’re about to find out…
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