30 Best Players To Not Win Cup? How About Flyers’ Mark Howe?

Five Flyers made the dubious honor of being named among the 30 greatest NHL players to never win a Stanley Cup by the website Stadium Talk.

And, the website missed one, a major one.

Named were Eric Lindros (No. 8 on the list), Dale Hawerchuk (9), Adam Oates (14), Jeremy Roenick (18) and Darryl Sittler (25) — all valid choices. Of these five, only Roenick is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame

The missing name? Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Howe. When you see the list of 30 below, you wonder how Mark Howe isn’t included.

You can make a case that Howe should be in the top 10.

Howe played 16 seasons in the NHL after six seasons in the World Hockey Association. He played 10 seasons for the Flyers, from 1982-92. He was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in 2001 and his No. 2 jersey was retired in 2012. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011.

A Plus Player

Howe was a fast-skating, smart, puck-moving defenseman, seemingly always one step ahead of the play. He might have been the Flyers’ smoothest skater, right up there with Rick MacLeish.

Howe, who had a wicked wrist shot, scored 138 goals and 342 assists. He was an astounding plus-351 for the Flyers, including a league-leading plus-85 in 1985-86, a Flyers franchise record.

He teamed with Brad McCrimmon to form the Flyers’ greatest defense pairing. Howe was first-team All-NHL three times.

“In 1982, Ed Snider, Keith Allen and Bob McCammon brought me to Philadelphia,” Howe said at his Hockey Hall of Fame ceremony in Toronto in 2011.

“From the beginning, it was as if I was born to be a Flyer. And although I wanted to slash him a few times, I want to thank [then-coach] Mike Keenan for helping me to raise my bar.

“There were many character players who contributed so much to this day — Brian Propp, Dave Poulin, [Ron Hextall], [Rick Tocchet], Ronny Sutter, Dave Brown and so many others.

“I want to give special thanks to my defense partners, Glen Cochrane, Kjell Samuelsson, and my dear friend Brad McCrimmon.”

Howe’s name *is* engraved on the Cup from his work as a Red Wings’ scout in 1997, 1998 and 2002, but the website’s list was for playing careers.

Lindros’ 1997 Team Swept By Detroit

Lindros’ story is well known. Lindros and Hawerchuk were on the Flyers’ 1997 Cup team that was swept by Detroit. Hawerchuk’s final two seasons were with the Flyers — 1995-97. He scored 13 goals and 28 assists in 66 games.

Most of Sittler’s heroics were during his 12 seasons with the Maple Leafs. In his three Flyers seasons, (1981-84) he scored 84 goals and 94 assists in 191 games.

Roenick scored 67 goals and 106 assists from 2001-04 with the Flyers. 

Oates had a 19-year career but only played 14 games for the Flyers at the end of the 2001-02 season.

The list, from stadiumtalk.com:

1. Marcel Dionne
2. Pat LaFontaine
3. Brad Park
4. Paul Kariya
5. Henrik Lundqvist
6. Pavel Bure
7. Henrik Sedin
8. Eric Lindros, 1992-2000
9. Dale Hawerchuk, 1996-97
10. Cam Neely
11. Peter Stastny
12. Erik Karlsson
13. Gilbert Perreault
14. Adam Oates, 2002
15. Rod Gilbert
16. Harry Howell
17. Pierre Turgeon
18. Jeremy Roenick, 2001-04
19. Keith Tkachuk
20. Phil Housley
21. Dino Ciccarelli
22. Mike Gartner
23. P.J. Subban
24. Daniel Sedin
25. Darryl Sittler, 1982-84
26. Ryan Miller
27. Peter Bondra
28. Bernie Nicholls
29. Curtis Joseph
30. Bernie Federko

You probably can make a case for Claude Giroux belonging on that list, but he’s still playing and that’s an argument we can make another day.

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Flyers, In Case You Missed It:

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