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I wouldn't worry too much about it Blues 34, I don't think many of the posters saw too much of Black Jack Stewart, and he might have been the toughest out of anybody.
In my opinion, guys nowadays are bigger and stronger than they've ever been, and they will continue to get bigger and stronger - hence my conclusion that the champ of 1998 Tony Twist is better than the "champs" of 1978 Wilson, Gillies, Fotiu, Nystrom, etc.
My Top 10 would look something like this -
1- Kocur - feared like no one I have ever seen - better than Twist
2- McCarthy - a newer Probert
3- Simon - most dominating fighter I ever saw for about a four to five year stretch - McCarthy beat him head to head so Sandy's higher
4- Twist - the new Kocur, and perhaps even more feared, but Joe had him with longevity and had a better left
5- Probert - The King, but sometimes overrated - will win every poll from now until the end of time
6- Brashear - maybe the strongest fighter that ever played - all apologies to Barry Beck - severely underrated all-time perhaps for his antics, but I also believe that he gets slighted because of his color - he's been the champ for the last 2 or 3 seasons, and should remain champ - by the time he retires, he will have one of the great win/loss percentages in league history
7- Laraque - Massive size and strength - again, I would have loved to see guys like Gillies or Wilson have to contend with a monster like this guy - he's already put up a win loss record to put him up with the greats of all-time, and I see no reason not to think that he could eventually be number one on this list
8- Brown - Had he had more upper body strength, he would hae been the best all-time
9- Grimson - severely underrated all-time - did it for so long, and so well, how could he not be in the All-Time Top 10
10- McKenzie over McSorley - Big Jim reminds me of a stronger Jack Carlson, who, I might add, had he played a few years later, and in the NHL in his prime, would have been held in just as high regard, if not higher regard than Wilson, Gillies, Playfair, or any of the
seventies greats - could flat out fight - McKenzie, however would have beaten Carlson - he would have been too strong for Carlson
Well, there you have it, my top 10 all-time for what its worth
From what I've seen already, not many people, especially those from the old school don't share my opinions - that's fine, that's whats great about America, and this message board
I gotta tell you however, that I lived through the days of the Broad Street Bullies and Fotiu and Beck and Gillies and Nystrom and the Big Bad Bruins, Playfair and Semenko, and I've seen all of the Carlsons play live - Jeff was the toughest by the way - I'll take the guys from today and recent years to dominate the guys from years ago any day of the week
that's my story and I'm sticking to it
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