This ranking of hockey greats—another in a series by sports news outfit The Athletic—is entertaining and aggravating, as any list of its kind should be. It’s essentially a contest for second place. The authors called this “our NHL 99 project.” That’s Wayne Gretzky’s jersey number. He’s the no-brainer pick for the top player in hockey’s “modern era,” which began with NHL expansion in 1967. It’s a timeframe that results in major gaps. Gordie Howe, who scored more goals than all but two players while playing into the 1980s, is excluded because his finest seasons were pre-’67. This is like omitting Charlie Chaplin from a list of great filmmakers because his best movies weren’t talkies. Surely there’s a way to grandfather in an all-timer who played until he was a grandfather. Each player who made the cut gets a chapter by an Athletic writer. The sharpest of these show that certain players weren’t just successful—they changed how hockey is played and perceived. After Stan Mikita used a bent stick blade to put unusual movement on his shots, other players followed; goalkeepers complained and the NHL made a consequential rule change. Börje Salming and Jari Kurri, a Swede and a Finn, respectively, withstood what Gretzky calls “extra hacks and whacks,” disproving the myth that Europeans couldn’t hang with rugged Canadians. Solid essays on Tony Esposito and Patrick Roy trace developments in goalkeeping techniques and equipment. Several chapters are awash in cliched prose and unenlightening quotes, but a few, mindful that this isn’t a high-stakes endeavor, find spots for irreverence. Chris Pronger, apparently annoyed that he’s 35th on the list, swears at The Athletic reporter bearing the news. In retirement, the combative defenseman worked in the NHL’s player safety office—“the hockey equivalent of a hacker hired to lead operations for a digital security company.”