With three teams in the area, the pool of players to choose from for the WFAN Quarter Century Hockey Team was vast, and it was clear with the results from our voters having more parity than any other sport.
The last 25 years has seen the Devils win two Stanley Cups and reach four, the Rangers win a Prince of Wales Trophy, and the Islanders reach consecutive conference finals. Plenty of stars made their impacts on those teams, from Hall of Famers to superstars whose numbers were eventually retired from their respective franchises.
Here are the results of our voting for the WFAN Quarter Century Hockey Team, presented by CashApp:
First forward line: LW Chris Kreider (NYR, 82.9 percent of votes), C John Tavares (NYI, 75.6 percent of votes), RW Ryan Callahan (NYR, 87.5 percent of votes)
It’s all New York on our top line, as the recently-departed Kreider edged out Patrik Elias at left wing by one vote. Kreider is eighth all time in Blueshirts history in games played, third in goals, tied for first in power play goals, and 10th in points. He was part of the 2013-14 team that reached a Stanley Cup for the first time in 20 years. Callahan was the captain of that team before he was traded, but he still had eight impressive seasons in New York, as he was consistently in the Selke conversation. As for Tavares, Isles fans were burned by his exit to Toronto, but before that pain, there was years of spectacular play worthy of a No. 1 overall draft pick. Tavares was an All-Star five times with New York, tallying 272 career goals in nine seasons.
Second forward line: RW Jaromir Jagr (NYR/NJD), C Jack Hughes (NJD), LW Patrik Elias (NJD)
Plenty of Devils representation on this lethal second line, which is centered by one of the game’s current bright young stars in Jack Hughes. Shoulder injuries have cut short some of his recent seasons, but he still has tallied two All-Star selections and a 43-goal season in 2022-23, when he helped the Devils back to the postseason. Hard to believe the former first overall pick is still just 24 years old. To his right is the Ageless Wonder in Jagr, who had a phenomenal 2005-06 season with the Rangers when he finished second in the Hart Trophy voting. He tallied 124 goals and 195 assists in 277 games with the Blueshirts, and in 2014-15 posted a 24-goal season at 41 years old. One of Jagr’s teammates on that Devils squad was Elias, the most accomplished forward in franchise history. He won two Cups with New Jersey since the turn of the millennium, and is the team’s all-time leader in goals, assists, points, power play goals, hat tricks, game-winning goals....you get the idea.
Third forward line: LW Artemi Panarin (NYR), C Mika Zibanejad (NYR), RW Kyle Palmieri (NJD/NYI)
A pair of current Rangers teammates anchor this third line, as Panarin snuck by Zach Parise by a pair of votes, while Zibanejad edged out Mark Messier by just one tally. Panarin and Zibanejad have helped the Blueshirts to two conference final appearances during their time in New York, with Panarin finishing in the top five in the Hart voting twice. Zibanejad has gotten some consistent love in the Selke voting throughout his Rangers career, and is tied with Messier for eighth all time in franchise goals, and eighth in points. As for Palmieri, his production with the Devils and Islanders helped him sneak past New Jersey playoff hero Jamie Langenbrunner for the final forward spot. Palmieri beat out Langenbrunner by one vote, decided by our hockey guy Boomer Esiason. Palmieri was an All-Star with New Jersey in 2019 and tallied 140 goals in six seasons with the Devils. In his current five-year tenure with the Isles, Palmieri has 87 goals and 85 assists.
Top defensive pair: Scott Stevens (NJD, 82.9 percent of votes) and Scott Niedermayer (NJD, 63.4 percent of votes)
Who else? The Devils and their infamous trap game suffocated opposing teams in the early 2000s, and Stevens and Niedermayer were at the forefront. They both won Cups in 2000 and 2003, both are in the Hall of Fame, and both have awfully impressive trophy cases. Niedermayer won a Norris Trophy in 2004, while Stevens won the Conn Smythe in 2000. When the NHL revealed its top 100 players ever for its 100th anniversary back in 2017, both were on the list.
Second defensive pair: Brian Leetch (NYR, 61 percent of votes) and Ken Daneyko (NJD, 53.7 percent of votes)
Both Leetch and Daneyko were on the back ends of their careers by the year 2000, but both still made their impact on their respective teams, enough to beat out candidates like Adam Fox and Ryan McDonagh. Leetch still had two more All-Star seasons in him by the start of the new century, finishing in the top 10 of the Norris Trophy voting twice, en route to a Hall of Fame induction. Daneyko, the Devils’ all-time leader in games played and penalty minutes, is “Mr. Devil” for a reason. The heart and soul of New Jersey’s dynastic years, Daneyko won two Stanley Cups in the last quarter century, including being in the lineup to help post a shutout against the Ducks in game seven of the 2003 Cup Final, his final NHL game.
Goalie: Martin Brodeur (NJD, 80.5 percent of votes)
The winner was hardly a surprise to this voter, but the overall results were. Many of us here at the Fan expected this position to be one of the most tightly-contested races of any of our Quarter Century Teams, but Brodeur comfortably beat out Henrik Lundqvist for this honor. The Hall of Famer is regarded as one of the greatest goalies of all time, and he had some of his best years after the turn of the century. From the year 2000 on, Brodeur won two Stanley Cups and went to four, won four Vezina Trophies, led the league in shutouts four times, led the league in wins seven times, and retired as the winningest goaltender in NHL history. As Devils fans liked to cheer, “Marty’s Better.”
Head coach: John Tortorella (NYR, 32.5 percent of votes)
This actually finished as the sole position of any of the Quarter Century Teams with the most parity, as five candidates all had solid representation in the final voting results. But the fiery Tortorella won out. He ranks fifth all time in wins by a Rangers head coach, and helped New York to the conference finals in 2012. He beat two Devils Stanley Cup-winning head coaches in Larry Robinson and Pat Burns by four votes, while Barry Trotz and Alain Vigneault finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the voting.