NOTES FROM 120 YEARS OF NHL HISTORY
I ran a historical sim over night starting in 1917 and progressing through to 2036. I went that long to ensure most of the current players would have completed their careers and retire so we can see how Connor McDavid and others number's would stack up against past greats.
In this sim, as in most I do, I choose to let the FHM development engine take over rather than have the player ratings recalculated every year. Recalculating would yield much more realistic results but I always enjoy some variety in my sims, having an unheralded player or two emerge with some very big numbers.
I also decided to assign players to their original teams rather than have a draft in this sim so there would be some semblance of normality when comparing this sim to real life. I do that most times as well as I find it difficult to imagine a league where Maurice Richard is anything but a Canadien and Gordie Howe not a Red Wing. It also means when I talk teams or number of Cups won we can immediately have a good idea of who was on that team.
If you want to hear how a certain player or team feel free to ask. There will be no format to this dynasty and it will last just as long as I find interesting things to document.
Let's start with Cup winners. Your 2035-36 Cup winners are the Toronto Maple Leafs which gives the club 15 Stanley Cup titles in the past 120 years, second only to the Montreal Canadiens with 34. Looking at the Leafs history, their all-time scoring leader was Pavel Datsyuk (581-1087-1647), who was acquired from Detroit after scoring just once in 11 games as a rookie. Datsyuk would lead the Leafs to a Cup in 2004. Toronto would also win in 1983 and 1985 when Borje Salming (215-683-898) and Dennis Maruk (632-897-1529) led the way.
Maruk was one of those breakout players I talked about when I mentioned I like the variance you get using the FHM development engine as opposed to recaluclate ratings. Maruk began his career in Oakland as the California Golden Seals played their final season. He would go with the club to Cleveland for two years and scored 52 goals in his final year as a Baron. The Leafs signed him when Cleveland folded/merged with Minnesota and he would have 5 straight 50+ goal years in Toronto from 1981-85 playing alongside Lanny McDonald (322-363-685) and Darryl Sittler (342-520-862) for much of the time.
Despite having the most titles, the Canadiens have not won a Cup since 2017-18 when Carey Price - who's 739 career wins is third all-time behind Roberto Luongo and Patrick Roy - backstopped the Habs to the title. Montreal's greatest time was from 1975-80 when the Guy Lafleur (741-1084-1825) led a team that won 6 Cups in a 7 year period. Old-timers, of course, would say no team could match the Habs of the 1940's when Maurice Richard (650-604-1254) and goaltender Bill Durnan (294-67-42, 1.98) led Montreal to a record 6 straight titles.
The Detroit Red Wings are third all-time in Cup wins with 13. Detroit's glory days started in 1982 when they began their streak of 31 straight playoff appearances, a stretch that included 10 Cups with 4 straight coming betwen 2000-2003. That was the heyday of Steve Yzerman (1060-1565-2625) and Nik Lidstrom (410-1146-1556). Yzerman, who won 5 Conn Smythe Trophy's and 9 Art Ross's is widely regarded as the best player in Detroit history - including Gordie Howe (1165-1352-2417). Howe is the NHL's all time goal scorer but trails only Wayne Gretzky (1066-1681-2747) and Yzerman in career points.
The Boston Bruins won 11 Stanley Cups in their history with Bobby Orr (310-1087-1397) and Ray Bourque (541-1337-1878) being most identified with the team. Unlike in real-life when he needed to go to Colorado to get his name engraved on the Cup, Bourque would win with Boston - three times actually- and be named Conn Smythe Winner each of the 3. Orr would also win 3 Cups as a Bruin and would do so alongside Phil Esposito. Esposito (754-961-1715) would join the Bruins as a 21 year old in the summer of 1963 after Chicago dealt the young forward in exchange for defensemen Doug Mohns and Arnie Brown.
Chicago drank from the Cup on only 4 occassions as the Black Hawks were certainly the least successful original six team. Despite joining the NHL in 1926-27, Chicago did not win a title until 1966-67 - the final year of the original six era. Stan Mikita (670-1201-1871) and Bobby Hull(701-731-1432) were the leaders of that team and the long-time teammates also led Chicago to championships in 1971 and 1973. The only other Chicago Cup came in 2012 when Jonathan Toews (338-690-1028) and Patrick Kane(510-617-1127) combined for their only title. The Hawks looked to be building something until the infamous Duncan Keith (222-692-914)for Rick Nash (523-612-1135) trade with Columbus in 2013. Keith, who won 3 Norris Trophy's in Chicago, would win 3 more with Columbus and help the Bluejackets to their first of two Stanley Cups in 2017.
Rounding out the original six, the New York Rangers won 5 Stanley Cups: 1936, 1937,1940,1955 and 1997 when John Vanbiesbrouck (675-409, 2.71) had the best season of his Hall of Fame career.