25 current NHL players who will end up in the Hall of Very Good

Ehlers just signed a big contract with a new team, the Hurricanes, and teams wanted him. However, he wasn’t Mitch Marner, you know? That makes him the ideal candidate for a list such as this. The Dane has consistently scored between 21 and 29 goals, which garners attention, but you will note he has never gotten to 30 goals, which is not a crazy threshold.

Perron is an “Immaculate Grid” hero kind of guy, which is to say he’s played for a lot of teams. Of course, that means more fan bases have firsthand experience watching him play. He’s often played pretty well at that. We’re talking seven teams over two decades, which means over 20 percent of NHL fans have seen Perron play as a secondary scorer for their favorite team.

Playing good defense and so-so offense doesn’t make you pop as an NHL star. It doesn’t keep you around for a while, though, and it does earn you ice time. The kind of ice time that means your name gets mentioned often. McDonagh also has two things going for him. One, he played for two Cup winners with Tampa. Two, he played for the Rangers for many years.

Look, if you’re going to be a decent athlete with a long career and you want to be remembered, it helps to have a name that stands out. Nino Niederreiter isn’t merely a fun name to say (though a tricky name to write). He has several 20-goal seasons to his name, and that name, of course, is Nino Niederreiter.

We’ve got to get some goalies in here. Gibson slipped toward the end of his time with Anaheim, but he’s still in his early thirties, and goalies can play a little longer than forwards. At his peak, though, the American netminder was very good, if not great. The kind of guy who is in the Vezina mix, but never a finalist. If things pick up for him, it will boost his stock, but Gibson is the kind of netminder who gets remembered because he had a good peak and has played for a while.

Verhaeghe had a 40-goal season, which puts you on the radar. One 40-goal season isn’t going to get you in the Hall of Fame, or even the Hall of Very Good. Plus, one 40-goal season is just one 40-goal season. Jonathan Cheechoo once led the NHL with 56 goals. “Oh yeah, I remember him!” is the level that Cheechoo ended up at in his career.

Being a good player on a team that gets a ton of attention is a path toward being remembered. Ekholm started his career in Nashville, but he has since moved to the Oilers. You know, the team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that has been to multiple finals. On the Edmonton blue line, both Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse are too polarizing to imagine them falling into this kind of space. Ekholm, though, is appreciated for his steadiness.

How do you end up remembered at this level historically when you play your entire career in New York? When you play your entire career for the New York Islanders. If Lee a career-long Ranger, he would have gotten more shine over the years. He’d basically be Chris Kreider. Lee once reached 40 goals in a season, and he’ll end up with over 300 goals and 500 points. It’s also possible he will do all that playing for the Islanders.

Jarry doesn’t have a Cup, as he joined the Penguins after that. He’s got some of that Sidney Crosby shine, though, even if the tail end of his prime has been spent with a team that needs to rebuild. Jarry has been a bit worse the last couple years, but in 2023-24 when he had a .903 save percentage he also weirdly led the NHL with six shutouts. Plus, he’s apparently finished seventh in Vezina voting twice. Until Crosby (and Evgeni Malkin) aren’t around, he’s going to garner some attention.

Boone Jenner is also a fun name. It’s a very fake quarterback name, but instead, this is a real hockey player. He’s certainly going to be remembered in Columbus, but of course, playing in Columbus makes it harder to really make a name in the NHL. That also makes him the kind of player the diehard hockey fans like to remember. They want to be able to pull the names of guys who scored 20 goals semi-regularly on the Blue Jackets. Hopefully, he plays his entire career with Columbus. The franchise needs some solid players of that ilk.

It’s too late for Fiala to play his entire career with one team. He’s on his third team, the Kings. He’s been a 30-goal guy in Minnesota and Los Angeles, and once got to 85 points with the former. Fiala could easily have a couple more 30-goal campaigns in him, and that kind of good production in Los Angeles goes a long way to being vaguely remembered.

Play for several teams. Win one piece of regular-season hardware and have it be the Lady Byng. Win a Conn Smythe that makes people later say, “Wait, he won the Conn Smythe?” That’s how you become an “I remember that guy!” kind of player. O’Reilly hit the NHL as a teenager, and there’s an outside chance he gets to 1,000 points. If he does that, maybe he graduates from this list. If he tops out around 940, though, that’s Blake Wheeler and Jason Arnott territory.

When Alex Pietrangelo was around, and you watched the Blues, you’d say, “Hey, that guy Parayko is also pretty good.” Then, it became, “Our defense really needs to be better…but at least Parayko is still pretty good.” He has a heavy shot, but he isn’t Al MacInnis. Parayko can score goals, but not to a remarkable degree. He has just gone out there and played a lot of minutes for almost a decade on the Blues.

Some goalies make a habit of being inconsistent. That keeps you from being remembered as a really good player, but it also makes you more memorable. It’s either “Wow, he’s been really good this year!” or “Wow, what the hell happened to him!?” Kuemper once finished a season with a 3.31 GAA and .890 save percentage and then the following season finished third in the Vezina voting. There’s a reason why five teams have wanted him…but also a reason why he’s played for five teams.

Being the guy who went the other way in a notable trade definitely helps you stick in people’s minds. You may not remember that Huberdeau won the Calder, but there’s a good chance you remember that he went from Florida to Calgary in the Matthew Tkachuk trade. Yes, Huberdeau will get to 300 goals and 800 points in his career. Jimmy Carson had back-to-back 100-point seasons, but he’s the guy who went to Edmonton from Los Angeles in the Wayne Gretzky trade.

When a player is still active but you get the feeling of, “Oh yeah, he’s still in the league. He used to be really good!” then he’s likely heading to being remembered in the style of this list. Part of it is the Flyers becoming an also-ran franchise. Part of it is injuries cutting into Couturier’s production. He had two 70-point seasons in a row, and then the next season he won the Selke.

Joining an expansion franchise in a significant role definitely helps bolster your legacy, such as it is. Dunn was solid for the Blues, but then he joined the Kraken. He became the team’s top offensive defenseman, making him one of the first players to matter to Seattle hockey fans. Of course, opportunities to bolster your Q rating with an expansion team are rare.

Being “the other guy” creates a lower ceiling and a higher floor for a player. Quinn Hughes gets a lot of attention, and Hronek plays with Hughes on Vancouver’s top pairing and has for a couple of years. Hughes has the puck on his stick a lot of the time and chews up the power-play minutes. Hronek still managed to have 48 points in his first season as a Canuck, though. As long as he plays with Hughes, he’s going to make his mark on the minds of NHL fans.

Speaking of expansion stars, Karlsson scored 43 goals in Vegas’ inaugural season, and he won the Lady Byng. He’s never been that good again, but “Wild Bill” has remained steady for the Golden Knights. Also, his nickname is “Wild Bill.” That’s a good enough nickname to be more memorable, but not so good that you are remembered by everybody.

Strome was a third-overall pick, but he was scuffling to start his NHL career. Then, he ended up in Washington and got paired with Alex Ovechkin. Suddenly, he was a 20-goal, 60-point player. Of course, Ovechkin won’t be around forever. At that point, Strome will likely be less prominent, and he will start to fade from people’s hockey thoughts. He’ll be wedged in memories thanks to the Ovechkin era, though.

Do you remember Chris Shelton? He started one season for the Tigers scorching hot, but he cooled off and was never anywhere near that good again. Now, Terry is a better player than Shelton was, but he would likely not even be remembered at this threshold if not for the 2021-22 season. He started the year with 22 points in 17 games, and even by the halfway point of the season, he had 25 goals and 41 points in 42 games. There was talk of a Maurice Richard, even Hart votes! He finished with 37 goals, 67 points, and zero Hart votes. Terry has consistently been a 20-goal guy for the rebuilding Ducks, but for half a season, there was chatter about him in the hockey world. Chatter!

Byram could easily play for another decade, as he is in his mid-twenties, but we also feel totally confident that his future will be remembered as pretty good. Had he stayed with the Avalanche, he would have been third fiddle to Cale Makar and Devon Toews. However, he was dealt to the Sabres…where he’s third fiddle to Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, two first-overall picks. Byram is a big, solid defenseman, but he has “Colton Parayko” written all over him.

This is, perhaps, the inverse of a vote of confidence. Swayman started his career hot, but he’s still fallen off. He wouldn’t be the first goalie to hit the NHL with gusto but to be figured out and fall by the wayside. Swayman doesn’t have a Vezina like Jim Carey got, either. We don’t think Swayman will necessarily flame out, but he may end up more like Patrick Lalime than fellow American Jonathan Quick.

One more for the “fun name” category. Also, one for the “Oh, he’s older than we thought he was so this is kind of who he is” category. Hintz is nearing 30, so his 30-goal, 70-point seasons represent his prime. That’s a good prime! It’s not amazing, of course. Hintz is also a really good defensive center, but he’s not his countryman Aleksander Barkov. He’s the kind of player that knowing he’s good makes you feel like a smarter hockey fan, but that’s because he’s not meriting a ton of attention.

We end with Tarasenko because, in the current NHL landscape, he’s the quintessential “Oh yeah, that guy!” kind of player. First, he has a strong hockey name. Second, he was a really good goal scorer for the Blues, consistently scoring 30 to 40 goals. Third, he then became a journeyman. Since leaving St. Louis, Tarasenko has played for five NHL teams, each lasting no more than one season. Hockey fans are going to remember Tarasenko. At this rate, all 32 teams will get to root for him for, like, 20 games of a season. There’s zero chance he makes the Hall of Fame. He won’t be considered a franchise legend anywhere, not even St. Louis. However, if a discussion of the best goal scorers in the 2010s arises, you know somebody is going to pull Tarasenko’s name, and murmurs of appreciation will follow.