No matter when they played, no matter which team they played for, many players selected as members of the top 100 of the NHL’s first 100 years had a similar reaction to winning that honor.
“I never really expected it,” Hall of Fame goaltender Billy Smith, who won the Stanley Cup four times with the New York Islanders, said of the announcement made Friday during festivities related to Sunday’s All-Star Game at Staples Center and the NHL’s centennial.
“I didn’t see myself as being one of the top 100,” Bobby Clarke said, though he was the heart of the Philadelphia Flyers’ Broad Street Bullies and is a Hall of Famer and two-time Cup winner.