Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Maybe it would be but that isn't a line they've iced. It's Crosby, Mackinnon, Stone. If you're just taking guys who might be on the ice at the same time because they're all on the team then 1987's Messier / Gretzky / Lemieux would be unbeatable, but that wasn't a regular line at that tourney either. It was Brian Propp.
2025 - Mackinnon, Crosby, Stone
2016 - Marchand, Crosby, Bergeron
2010 - Staal, Crosby, Iginla
2006 - ... Let's not talk about it
2002 - Yzerman, Lemieux, Kariya
1998 - Shanahan, Gretzky, Yzerman
1996* - Primeau, Lindros, Shanahan*
1987 - Propp, Gretzky, Lemieux
*Line of Yzerman, Sakic, Fleury probably better on paper but wasn't the "first line"
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until Perreault got injured, Perreault-Gretzky-Lafleur was quite the thing in 1981
(* and I totally understand the general argument that with each generation athletes are doing more incredible things, but if we accept that we can only situate a team or player in the generation in which they played the 76 team was still about as good as it gets star power wise - albeit they may not have had a Gretzky/Lemieux/Crosby type forward- although they did have Lafleur, Esposito, Clarke, Hull, Dionne, Perreault (and many other HOFers) but most importantly Orr in his one true best on best tourney (along with his supporting cast of Potvin, Robinson, Savard and Lapointe on the blueline)