For the following reasons, the Detroit Red Wings’ best player has decided to retire.
Let me start by saying that I wasn’t exactly thrilled to get this assignment.
For starters, there are already a gazillion (yes, that is a number) different types of “Top 10, 20, 100…” lists available online.
Top 100 Places To Eat Organic Ice Cream, Top 20 Vacation Spots, and Top 10 Movies Put on a three-cornered hat, and there are lists of the Top 10 and Top 20 lists of the Top 100 and Top 10 lists all over the place.
In the sports world, “top” lists are also very common. Now, this makes some sense because player selection and strategy development in sports generally rely heavily on statistics and other forms of quantification.
However, I believe there are far too many “Top” lists that are either a ranking of “popular” players, teams, coaches, etc. who may or may not really be at “the top” in their category, or they are simply statistical rankings (in which case, they contain information that anyone can get from a stat sheet).
I was therefore left wondering how precisely to go about producing something that was both interesting to write and interesting to read when I was asked to rank the Top 25 Detroit Red Wings of all time.
Yes, I could start with Gordie Howe and work my way down, just like most list writers seem to do. I could print out a list of the franchise’s top scorers again and include Terry Sawchuck in it.
I could just compile a list of the top 25 players to have ever worn a Red Wings jersey, which would provide a little more diversity than most lists of that kind.
These are things I could have done, but I chose not to.
My main goal was to identify the top 25 Red Wings ever made.
What exactly is a “Red Wing” now?
A “Red Wing” player, in my opinion, is someone who possesses skill, a strong work ethic, the capacity to put the team’s needs ahead of his own, and has contributed to the Detroit Red Wings’ continued success as the most successful NHL team in US history.
Although it can be difficult to determine the final one, players who have helped their team win a Stanley Cup, rank highly among the franchise’s point or goal scorers, or—spoiler alert—have the name “Bob Probert” will likely be considered for the Top 25.
I used all of these factors in choosing a group of candidates, along with a respectable tenure with the team (sorry, no Brett Hull or Luc Robataille on here).
I ranked the 42 people in that group from the bottom up, reranked them, and then ranked them once more.
After assigning a number to each name, I enumerated them from 1 to 42, drew a line beneath 25, and voila! I had my list.
Since I was the only person to make the list in the first place, it is difficult for me to be surprised by who and where I saw myself listed.
I doubted my logic, considered taking a different route, and considered whether or not what I was doing was incorrect.
