\u2022 One important exception: While we usually count nicknames if that\u2019s what a player always went by, we won\u2019t allow them here. It just feels like it doesn\u2019t fit the spirit of the thing if we let Team Unique Names use guys like Tiny Thompson, Gump Worsley and Tiger Williams. We will allow first names made up of initials, as long as that\u2019s what the player always went by.<\/p>\n
\u2022 For Team Two Names, we need a way to determine what should count, since in theory anything could be a first name if your parents are goofy enough. Our rule will be that something is a \u201ccommon\u201d first name if there are at least three other players in NHL history who went by it. And to keep the same names from showing up over and over, we\u2019ll limit ourselves to using each one once.<\/p>\n
\u2022 To state what I\u2019d hope would be the obvious: close doesn\u2019t count. Will is not William, Stevens is not Steven, Pierre-Luc is not Pierre, etc. Spelling has to be an exact match, although we won\u2019t get caught up with accents or pronunciation because I\u2019m still scarred over how many of you got weird about regional dialects in this piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s do this. We\u2019re building a full roster of 13 forwards, 7 defensemen and three goalies. Go ahead and see if you can come up with a few options of your own, and then we\u2019ll start building from the net out\u2026<\/p>\n Goalies<\/p>\n We\u2019ll start with what will quickly become a theme of this post: agonizing near misses for Team Unique Names. Four of the best goalies from the modern era fall just short of unique name status thanks to exactly one other player from NHL history: Roberto Luongo (thanks to 1980s goalie Roberto Romano), Pekka Rinne (\u201970s defenseman Pekka Rautakallio), Miikka Kiprusoff (2010s winger Miikka Salom\u00e4ki) and Carey Price (\u201980s center Carey Wilson).<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that Team Unique Names doesn\u2019t have any options. They can start with a Hall of Famer, albeit one who had to wait a few decades for the honor, in Rogie Vachon. He\u2019ll be backed up by a Vezina winner in Tuukka Rask. And while we could make a case for a current star to get the third spot in Thatcher Demko, I\u2019m going to go with Olaf Kolzig. That\u2019s partly because his 303 wins sets a high bar for Demko to chase down, but mainly because having a guy named Olie the Goalie is just too perfect for a names-based piece.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a pretty solid trio. Can Team Two Names match up? Well\u2026 yeah.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll start with Patrick Roy, who needs our \u201cpronunciation doesn\u2019t matter\u201d rule but is otherwise an obvious pick thanks to the six Roys (including HHOFers Conacher and Worters) who\u2019ve played in the NHL. He\u2019s arguably the greatest of all time, but we have another option who actually had one year where he was even better, so let\u2019s pencil in Rask\u2019s old pal Tim Thomas as our backup. And we\u2019ll round out our group with a guy who should be in the Hall of Fame thanks to his 454 wins, Curtis Joseph.<\/p>\n While with the Colorado Avalanche, Patrick Roy set a then-NHL record of 448 career wins in October 2000. He finished with 551 but was later passed by Martin Brodeur. (Doug Pensinger \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n One position in, and this one isn\u2019t all that close. Team Unique Names is good, but Team Two Names is absolutely fantastic. We\u2019ve still got plenty of roster to go, though, so let\u2019s try the blue line\u2026<\/p>\n Defensemen<\/p>\n Team Unique Names gets off to another tough start here, as arguably the two best blueliners in the world today are near-misses. Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes would make for a hell of a pairing, but unfortunately Makar doesn\u2019t make it thanks to fellow defensemen Hulse and Fleury. Worse, Hughes misses the cut thanks to an infuriating two late-season games<\/a> from Quinn \u201cBrother of Lane\u201d Hutson on last year\u2019s Oilers \u2013 the only two games ever played in the NHL by a player whose first name was Quinn but whose last name wasn\u2019t Hughes.<\/p>\n To pile on, we also miss out on Zdeno Chara thanks to one guy, Zdeno Ciger. And we lose two more excellent blue line options when the only two players named Shea in NHL history, Weber and Theodore, cancel each other out.<\/p>\n Still, we can at least start the uniques off with a slam dunk Hall of Famer in Borje Salming. We\u2019ll pair him with a fellow HHOFer in old-timer Sprague Cleghorn, arguably the league\u2019s greatest defenseman during its first decade.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Team Two Names gets off to a great start with Doug Harvey, who was the consensus best defenseman ever until Bobby Orr came along. He qualifies thanks to the five Harveys who\u2019ve played in the NHL, although it\u2019s become one of those forgotten hockey names<\/a>; there hasn\u2019t been one since Harvey Bennett in 1979. That\u2019s still good enough to get Doug on the list, and we\u2019ll pair him with a fellow Original Six stalwart in Red Kelly. Five players in, Team Two Names is dominating.<\/p>\n While he may not be quite as well-known, we can get one more HHOFer onto Team Unique Names, as Sylvio Mantha qualifies for the squad; he was a longtime Canadien in the pre-Original Six era who once finished fourth in MVP voting. We\u2019ll pair him with a more recent Canadien who won\u2019t make the Hall, but who I believe is this squad\u2019s only Norris winner: P.K. Subban, who\u2019ll also end up as our only set of unique first-name initials.<\/p>\n Team Two Names can find two more HHOFers in Rob Blake, who Kings fans will agree was a better defenseman than GM, as well as Oilers legend Duncan Keith. The good news is that\u2019s a great pair. The bad news is their depth is about to drop off badly.<\/p>\n Each team still needs a third pair plus a depth guy, and Team Unique Names has an impressive list to choose from. We could find a spot for Kimmo Timonen, or Sandis Ozoli\u0146\u0161, or maybe Teppo Numminen. Carol Vadnais is an option, as is Torey Krug. We could even make a case for Dougie Hamilton \u2014 the league has seen a ton of guys named Doug and a few who went by Douglas, but according to Hockey-Reference only one who specifically went by Dougie. I\u2019m not sure my early \u201990s Leafs fandom<\/a> would let me get away with that one, but luckily we have enough options that we won\u2019t need to try.<\/p>\n So instead, let\u2019s build a hard-hitting third pair from Dion Phaneuf and Derian Hatcher, two former captains who\u2019ll force Team Two Names to keep their heads up. And for our depth spot, let\u2019s go with a current star in Hampus Lindholm.<\/p>\n Hampus Lindholm led the entire league in plus-minus during the 2022-23 season with a plus-49. (Rich Gagnon \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n That\u2019s a strong finish for Team Unique Names. Meanwhile, Team Two Names is struggling for the first time. One of the things that happens with an exercise like this is that you end up fighting the nagging doubt that you\u2019re missing some better picks along the way, and maybe that\u2019s happening to me here. But I went through just about every list of great defensemen I could find, and double-names were hard to come by past the four we already have. Put it this way: I was furious to find out that I couldn\u2019t use Tyson Barrie because Barrie Meissner and Barrie Moore left me one short of our three-player rule. In the end, I\u2019m giving the final spots to Bob Murray, Derek Morris and Ian Cole.<\/p>\n Team Two Names has the best player in Doug Harvey, but Team Unique Names dominates in terms of top-to-bottom depth. That\u2019s enough to close some of the gap that opened up after the goalies, although Team Two Names is still comfortably in the lead.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll get to the forwards in a minute, but this feels like as good a place as any to toss out a trivia question that you may be wondering about: Are there any players who would qualify for both teams because their first name was unique in hockey history but their last was a common first name?<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty sure there are several players who\u2019d fit both criteria. There would almost have to be. But while digging into this piece, I only found one guy that was good enough for me to consider using for the rosters. He\u2019s a guy who played in multiple All-Star Games, and he just barely qualifies \u2014 there\u2019s a slightly more common spelling of his first name that multiple players have had, and his last name applies to only three players in NHL history, although one of those is a Hall of Famer. A final nudge: It\u2019s a name you definitely know if you\u2019ve read my stuff over the years.<\/p>\n Chew on that while we move on to our forwards\u2026<\/p>\n Forwards<\/p>\n We\u2019ll get to the near-misses for Team Unique Names in a minute, but for once that\u2019s not the main story. Instead, I\u2019m just going to cut to the chase and throw their top line at you. How does a unit of Sidney Crosby, Jaromir Jagr and Jarome Iginla grab you?<\/p>\n That\u2019s a little over 2,000 NHL goals and almost 5,000 points, if you\u2019re keeping track. It might be the single best line we\u2019ve ever had for one of these fake roster challenges. And it would be insanely fun to watch.<\/p>\n And sure, there have been other players named \u201cSid\u201d in NHL history, including all-stars like Abel and Smith. But with apologies to that lame nickname<\/a>, nobody has ever referred to Sid Crosby. He\u2019s Sidney, and always has been. And he\u2019s the only one in NHL history, so he\u2019s on the team.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be awfully tough for Team Two Names to match up, although they can get off to a good start with a pick that might be slightly controversial. The nickname rule means he can\u2019t play for Team Unique Names, and we have to rely on the pronunciation rule to get him onto this one, but after filling out all the paperwork we can confirm his eligibility. Team Two Names will start its top line with Maurice Richard.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll put Ted Lindsay on the other wing, although it\u2019s close \u2014 nobody with the first name Lindsay played in the NHL until Middlebrook in 1980 and Carson in 1982, and we need the one career game<\/a> from Canadiens first-round pick Lindsay Vallis to get us to our three-name cutoff. It\u2019s enough, though, and we\u2019ll give Richard and Lindsay a Hall of Fame center in Ron Francis.<\/p>\n Ron Francis centers one heck of an all-timer top line for Team Two Names. (Glenn Cratty \/ Allsport \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n So far, we\u2019ve got two first lines of all-timers. But Team Unique Names keeps coming with star power, icing a second line of Anze Kopitar, Auston Matthews and Lanny McDonald. There have been plenty of guys named Austin in NHL history, but Matthews is the only one who spells it with an \u201co,\u201d so he\u2019s in. Also, I just now learned that \u201cLanny\u201d isn\u2019t short for anything. It\u2019s just his given name. I don\u2019t know why I like that, but I do.<\/p>\n By comparison, Team Two Names is starting to sweat, although they can lead off their second line with a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest Rangers of all time, Rod Gilbert. We\u2019ll give him two contemporary linemates who each had 50-goal seasons in the 1970s, in Rick Martin and Danny Grant.<\/p>\n For Team Unique\u2019s third line, I\u2019m going to indulge myself with a card I haven\u2019t played much yet: going way back in NHL history for old-timey names you just don\u2019t hear anymore. Let\u2019s build a unit of Aurele Joliat, Dickie Moore and Ebbie Goodfellow. For you kids out there, that\u2019s three Hall of Famers, with Moore winning two scoring titles and Joliat and Goodfellow each winning an MVP. And more importantly, \u201cEbbie\u201d was short for Ebenezer, so he absolutely has to be on the team.<\/p>\n Team Two Names is losing a few strong candidates to our rule about avoiding repeats, because the hockey gods sure do love to re-use names<\/a>. The biggest star on that list is Henri Richard, and there\u2019s also Steve Thomas, Derek Roy, Todd Harvey and Jason Blake, but not Glen Murray because he knows what he did<\/a>. But we\u2019ve still got options, including an old-timey HHOFer of their own in Lynn Patrick. We\u2019ll play him alongside one of the greatest Kings of all time in Dave Taylor, and a guy that plenty of fans think should see the Hall someday in Patrik Elias.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1319775776-scaled.jpg\")
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