Maurice Richard
Jean Beliveau
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Jean Beliveau leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Maurice Richard at #6 and Jean Beliveau at #8.
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The case for Maurice Richard
The Rocket was hockey's first great goal-scoring folk hero and the fiery soul of the Montreal Canadiens. In 1944-45 Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games, a benchmark that stood as the sport's ultimate scoring feat for decades, and in 1957 he became the first to reach 500 career goals. He won eight Stanley Cups, including a record five in a row from 1956 to 1960, and led the Canadiens with a competitive fury that made him a cultural icon in Quebec. His 1955 suspension by the league president sparked the Richard Riot in Montreal, an event now seen as a flashpoint of French-Canadian identity. Richard finished with 544 goals and 966 points in a low-scoring era, and, remarkably, never won a Hart Trophy despite his dominance. From the blue line in he was terrifying, his eyes reportedly blazing as he bore down on goaltenders. The NHL's trophy for its leading goal-scorer bears his name.
The case for Jean Beliveau
Regal, powerful and impossibly graceful, Jean Beliveau captained the Montreal Canadiens through the most successful era any franchise has known. He won ten Stanley Cups as a player, more than anyone in history except his teammate Henri Richard, and lifted seven more as a club executive, putting his name on the Cup a record 17 times. Le Gros Bill scored 507 goals and 1,219 points, won two Hart Trophies and the inaugural Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1965, and did it all with a dignity that made him one of hockey's most respected figures long after retirement. A big centre at a time when the position was being redefined, he combined a scorer's touch with a playmaker's vision and a leader's presence. Beliveau declined an offer to become Governor General of Canada, so revered was he. On the ice, his elegant stride and commanding two-way game set the template for the complete franchise centre that every organization has sought ever since.