All-Time Dream Team

[SirRupertBarnes 217]

Since this is theme week (even though it's almost over at the time I'm posting this) I’ve decided to take my format of the greatest players from each country and use it for an all-time dream team to form in my opinion the greatest lineup in history. It’ll consist of 3 forwards, 2 defenseman and a goaltender. 

 

There’s plenty of good options to pick from and there are some better players but I also took playstyle into consideration to imagine how much chemistry they would have with each other. For example a line of the 3 best goal scorers in history may not be effective if they can’t set each other up for plays and rely solely on their individual goal scoring. Same thing on defense. Having two offensive-defensemen paired together wouldn’t be the best for a full 200 ft game. 

 

Now with that out of the way let’s get into it!

 

F - Scotty Campbell 630 TPE (HOF) @scotty

I think to absolutely no-one's surprise we have Scotty Campbell up first for forwards. In 577 career games Campbell put up 600 goals and 639 assists for an astounding 1239 points. As of S73 Campbell is the only player to ever surpass the elusive 1,000 point mark and he blew past it. He’s the only player to score more than a goal per game as well as one of two players to record more than an assist per game. He’s a three-time league MVP, two-time playoff MVP, four-time leading goal scorer, two-time assist leader, led the league in points five times, and won the Continental Cup four times in his career. It’s safe to say that Campbell was essentially the Wayne Gretzky of the VHL. I highly doubt we’ll ever see talent like that in the VHL ever again. Let alone even get close to that amazing feat of 1,000 career points. In the history of the VHL there were only four other players to even surpass 900 points and three of those guys have trophies named after them such as Mike Szatkowski, Kevin Brooks, and Christian Stolzchweiger. 

 

F - Gabriel McAllister 1248 TPE (HOF) @CowboyinAmerica

Up next on this list I decided to choose Gabriel McAllister. Although you may argue there are better forwards I could’ve put here instead of McAllister. I opted to go with him because I felt his physical presence alongside his offensive ability would be a great asset. In 576 games played he managed to put up 397 goals and 429 assists for 826 points. He also had a little over 2,000 hits in his career and ranks 18th in points all time as well as 21st in hits out of all skaters. He’s a three-time Scotty Campbell Trophy winner, three-time Scott Boulet Trophy winner, two-time Mike Szatkowski Trophy winner, Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy winner, two-time Brett Slobodzian Trophy winner, two-time Daisuke Kanou Trophy winner, as well as a two-time Continental Cup Champion. With a trophy case the size of his there’s no real surprise he’s one of the greatest power forwards of all-time.

 

F - Matt Thompson 1571 TPE (HOF) @Beketov

For the third and final forward of this list I decided to go with Matt Thompson. Thompson was a fantastic goal scorer in VHL history ranking fourth all-time. That goal scoring capability paired with his physical presence having over 1800 hits in his career was a must-have for me on this dream team. In 576 career games Thompson put up 422 goals and 403 assists for 825 points which puts him tied at 19th for all-time points. Not to be outdone by his linemates Thompson collected quite the individual accolades as well. In his career he was a three-time Kevin Brooks Trophy winner, Scotty Campbell Trophy winner, two-time Brett Slobodzian Trophy winner, two-time Mike Szatkowski Trophy winner, four-time Scott Boulet Trophy winner, Dustin Funk Trophy win and to top it all off he managed to capture a Continental Cup.

 

With such highly decorated forwards that can clearly put the puck in the net whenever they feel like alongside laying out anyone who gets in their way. You could argue two of those players who surpassed 900 points should be on this line instead of McAllister and Thompson and that very well could be a highly productive line offensively. In my thought process though being more defensively minded I opted to go with a more well rounded team rather than pure offensive power.

 

Alright, well let’s move onto defenseman now and see what more superstars await.

 

D - Sterling Labatte 755 TPE (HOF) @sterling

Now we move onto Defenseman. First up we have arguably the best defenseman of all-time, Sterling Labatte. This hall-of-famer played in 9 seasons, played 648 games to put up 210 goals and 562 assists for 772 points which is the most out of any defenseman in the entire history of the league. He’s also tied for second for most played games and third in assists all-time out of all skaters. He won multiple individual trophies in his career including, league’s top defenseman three times, two-time playoff MVP, two-time top leader, as well as a 5 time all-star. He also won the Continental Cup 3 times with the Calgary Wranglers. He was on Team Canada multiple times in his career and won 2 bronze medals along with a gold. He was a first ballot hall-of-famer and even has the league’s top defenseman trophy named after him. In my mind if you’re looking at a dream team it has to include one of the all-time greats, Sterling Labatte.

 

D - Edwin Encarnacion 710 TPE @Tagger

Onto the second defenseman we have Edwin Encarnacion who is the only player on this team not in the Hall-of-Fame. Why would I choose a player who didn’t have a Hall-of-Fame career you may ask? Well let me tell you. Encarnacion wasn’t the best offensive guy out there recording 85 goals and 260 assists for 345 points in 578 games. He does however lead the league in hits for defenseman and is second for shots blocked out of all skaters. Even though his stats are low, having him alongside Labatte would be one of the best defensive pairings of all-time. The offensive dynamo that is Labatte combined with the physical and defensive presence of Encarnacion would be an unstoppable force on the blue line as well as in their own zone.

 

Now with the skaters addressed we move on to arguably the most important position on the ice. The Goalie. A goalie can steal wins for you on a hot night or be a big factor in falling short. There’s a lot of pressure on these guys on a nightly basis to perform well especially in the playoffs. Good thing this team has one of the greatest goaltenders of all time to really secure a victory in any game they would ever hypothetically play. 

 

G - Greg Clegane 908 TPE (HOF) @Victor

For my goalie choice I decided to go with Hall-of-Famer Greg Clegane. In 513 games played he had a 364-114-35 record with an astonishing 93 shutouts along with a career .926SV% and 1.80GAA. While you could argue there are goalies with better raw skill but Clegane leads the league in wins, GAA, and shutouts all-time. He’s third all-time in SV% out of goalies who have played more than 400 games. In his career he won 2 Continental Cups, both with Helsinki. He also won the Scotty Campbell Trophy for league MVP, Aidan Shaw Trophy for league’s Top Goalie, as well as the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy for Top Rookie. In his career he also won a Gold Medal as well as a Silver Medal with who i believe to be World/Europe. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s the best goalie in history so it’s a no brainer to have him on the team but I could see some solid arguments made for Toumas Tukio. Although if you compare the two side-by-side I’d have to give the edge to Clegane. It’s a tough role to have but clearly Clegane rose to the challenge when the opportunity presented itself. 

 

All in all I feel as though these players would mesh well together and would sacrifice the body on a nightly basis to block shots, passes, etc. It would be an unbelievable group of skaters to witness play. On top of all of their spectacular individual ability the chemistry I feel would come naturally as they all have their own roles to play and wouldn’t be fighting each other such as if you had just 5 pure goal scorers out there. The healthy blend of offensive upside paired with the defensive ability of Encarnacion as well as Scott Boulet Trophy winners Thompson and McAllister they’d be unstoppable. Even just having two of these guys on any roster would be enough to make them into an immediate cup contender let alone all of them together. To top it all off if a shot ever got through you have the winningest goaltender of all-time to stop what’s left. I’d love to see this team just play one game against someone else’s group of dream team talent. 

 

That’s all I have for today. Thanks for checking out my Dream Team and be sure to let me know if you agree with my logic or if you feel there are better players out there. Until next time!

 

 

1564 words

Edited October 12, 2020 by SirRupertBarnes

[SirRupertBarnes 217]

Claiming Part 2/3 week ending October 18th

[SirRupertBarnes 217]

Claiming part 3/3 week ending Oct. 25th

[Rhynex Entertainment 447]

Beautiful work of art. You've started with a brief introduction and followed with your descriptive analysis and opinion, which were all very well written. Structure is easy to read. Nicely and neatly separated into neat sections. I only know of Edwin (possibly because I'm newer to this league and Edwin is the only non-HOF and active player on your list). It's nice to read about some legends of the game before I joined. History is always nice. Happy to be able to view this. Keep up the great work! 10/10