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Denis Potvin leads all-time NHL team of players who stayed with one team
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Denis Potvin leads all-time NHL team of players who stayed with one team

I’m not sure I saw the photo of Steven Stamkos in a Nashville uniform the other day as a disagreement, other than the fact that I was blindsided by the garish jersey. And this is not a commentary on Fanatics, by the way.

We’ve become so numb to players switching teams after long careers with a big-name franchise. It didn’t take long to get used to seeing Marty St. Louis in a Rangers uniform after embodying the Lightning for so long. At first, it was impossible to imagine Raymond Bourque playing anywhere outside of Boston, and now people only remember him winning the Cup in Colorado in 2001.

It’s too early to predict Connor McDavid’s career, and it’s safe to say that if you believe Auston Matthews will play his entire career in Toronto, it would be one of us. It seems impossible to believe Nathan MacKinnon would play outside of Colorado — just as impossible that Adam Fox would give up his lifetime membership in the Rangers Fan Club — but never is a long time.

Predators forward Steven Stamkos speaks during a press conference at the team’s training complex earlier this week. AP

At this point, however, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Victor Hedman, Kris Letang and Marc-Edouard Vlasic are among the last of the career one-teamers. Loyalty and sentimentality disappeared with the hard cap, although the likes of Ed Giacomin, Jean Ratelle and Phil Esposito might also want to have a word about loyalty and sentimentality in the mid-70s.

Who are the greatest All-Stars of all time?

The all-time first-team, one-team goalie is Ken Dryden, who may have played just 397 games in his NHL career but won five Stanley Cups in seven full seasons with Montreal. If you want to draw the line at 500 career games, fine, but there was never, ever a better money-making goalie than the Cornell product, and that includes Billy Smith and Patrick Roy.

Do you want your second-team, one-team goalie to have an asterisk next to his name? What do we do with the knowledge that Henrik Lundqvist, who played all 887 of his NHL games with the Rangers, signed to play with the Caps before the King’s heart condition prevented him from continuing his career?

Technically, Lundqvist is the all-time one-team goalie. However, if you insist on an impeccable one-franchise netminder, the second-team honor goes to Carey Price, whose contract likely prevented him from being traded at the end but played his entire 712-game career with Montreal.

Our ultimate one-team, first-team defensive duo consists of Nicklas Lidstrom, who played his entire 1,564 NHL career games with the Red Wings, and Denis Potvin, the four-time Cup-winning captain who played his entire 1,060 career games with the Islanders.

Denis Potvin won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders. Getty Images

And besides, could there ever have been a more dramatic example of Worlds Colliding if Potvin had accepted Mike Keenan’s invitation to join the Rangers in 1993-94, five years after the Hall of Famer had retired? It would have been as insane a concept as Bryan Trottier actually coaching the Rangers, for goodness sake. Who would have believed it?

Regardless, Lidstrom and Potvin make up the first team, with the still-active Doughty, who has played 1,177 games in his Kings career, paired with Jacques Laperriere, whose 691-game career with the Canadiens included five Cups.

You know, Laperriere’s stint behind the Bruins bench as an assistant was about as bizarre to the eye as seeing, I don’t know, maybe Trottier, or Terry O’Reilly or Ted Green (!!!!) for God’s sake behind the Rangers bench as an assistant. Wayne Cashman? It’s about as crazy as Derek Sanderson actually playing for the Rangers.

Nicklas Lidstrom was a powerhouse for the Red Wings. AP

Our all-time, one-team, first-team center is Jean Beliveau and his 10-Cup, 1,125-game career with Montreal rivals Crosby. Maurice Richard, 978 games with the Canadiens, is at right with Ovechkin, 1,426 games with Washington, at left.

Crosby, who played 1,272 games for the Penguins (and isn’t a contract extension expected soon?), stands in the center of the second line between Mike Bossy, who played 752 games for the Islanders and is the team’s all-time leading scorer, on the right and Bob Gainey on the left.

I went with Gainey and his 1,160-game career with Montreal as a second-team, one-team left winger, over Daniel Sedin, 1,306 games with Vancouver, and Bill Barber, 903 games as a Flyer.

Honorable mentions go to Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Stan Mikita, Malkin, Gilbert Perrault, Henri Richard, Henrik Sedin and Kopitar in the middle.

Montreal Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau holds the Stanley Cup after his team won the Stanley Cup in 1971. AP

Martin Brodeur played 99.44 percent of his career as a Devil, 1,259 games with New Jersey before seven with St. Louis. Billy Smith played 99.26 percent of his career with the Islanders, appearing in 674 games after beginning his career with five appearances with the Kings in 1971-72. Olaf Kolzig played 711 games with Washington, 98.88 percent of his career, before playing eight games with Tampa Bay.

The Rangers, who have always consisted of one team: G: Lundqvist; D: Ron Greschner, Adam Fox; LW: Chris Kreider; C: Walt Tkachuk; RW: Rod Gilbert.