One day, someone might go to the trouble of creating a virtual best-of competition for Major Junior hockey. It would be time-consuming and no matter how much effort was put into it, it would still be a creation.
Doing it in person isn’t worth it either. You could put a Kamloops Blazers sweater on former Kamloops Blazers’ forward, Darcy Tucker. You could bring Corey Perry back to the London Knights and pit him against Brad Richards and the 1999-2000 Rimouski Oceanic, but a whole lot of time has passed. Those guys have gone through long NHL careers and quite a few of their junior teammates have either quit hockey entirely or now play it at a much slower pace.
So, as part of the 100th anniversary of the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Regina, Sask., the Canadian Hockey League is selecting the team of the century using fan votes.
The final four have been unveiled and feature the 2004-05 London Knights, the 1994-95 Kamloops Blazers, the 1999-2000 Rimouski Oceanic and the 2012-13 Halifax Mooseheads.
Votes can be cast at chlfanbase.ca and voting will last until May 15.
The Memorial Cup tournament gets underway on May 17 with host Regina taking on either the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds or the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Here is a look at what the final four accomplished:
2004-05 London Knights
The team was led offensively by Corey Perry, Dylan Hunter, Dave Bolland and Rob Schremp. Defensively, they may have had one of the best Top 4 defence corps ever. Danny Syvret, Marc Methot, Dan Girardi and Bryan Rodney all made it to the National Hockey League. Eleven players from that team played in at least one NHL game.
The Knights went 59-7-2 during the regular season and lost only twice on their way to capturing London’s first J. Ross Robertson Cup championship in the Ontario Hockey League.
From there, they tangled twice with Sidney Crosby and the Rimouski Oceanic. The first meeting at the Memorial Cup is considered one of the best London Knights games ever played. London won it 4-3 in overtime on a goal by Methot after Crosby and Co. had built a 3-1 lead. The Knights went unbeaten in the tournament and ended it with a 4-0 shutout of Rimouski in the final, setting off a celebration like no other the city of London had ever seen.
1994-95 Kamloops Blazers
The Blazers made it back-to-back Memorial Cup championships in 1995 with a team led by Jarome Iginla, Darcy Tucker Shane Doan and Nolan Baumgartner. They entered the season ranked No. 1 in the Canadian Hockey League and never budged from that spot, winning 52 games during their regular season and winning the WHL championship by defeating Brandon in six games.
Kamloops hosted the 1995 Memorial Cup tournament and gave their fans a show, going undefeated to the final where the Blazers hammered a Detroit Jr. Red Wings team 8-2. That team featured the likes of Bryan Berard, Jamie Allison and goalie Jason Saal.
That Kamloops team marked the end of a major junior dynasty that saw the Blazers capture three Memorial Cups in four years.
1999-2000 Rimouski Oceanic
Led by Brad Richards up front, Sebastien Caron in net and some very unheralded stars in between, Rimouski blazed through the QMJHL during the regular season, scoring 370 goals. A total of 71 of those came from Richards, who ended the year with 186 points. Jan-Phillip Cadieux, Juraj Kolnik and Michael Periard also topped the 100-point mark. The Oceanic earned a bye through the first round of the playoffs and then went 12-2, capturing the President’s Trophy with ease. In the Memorial Cup, Rimouski went up against the “Bay Boy” Barrie Colts, the Kootenay Ice and the host Halifax Mooseheads. The Oceanic allowed just six goals in their round-robin games and earned a bye to the final where they knocked off the Colts for the second time by a score of 6-2.
2012-13 Halifax Mooseheads
Like the Knights in 2005, the Mooseheads built their team with 2013 in mind. It was led by Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, who had gone 1-2 in the 2011 QMJHL draft. Along with Seth Jones of the Portland Winter Hawks, they made up the top prospects for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and went head-to-head at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
Halifax won 58 times in 2012-13 and lost just six games in regulation. The Mooseheads then went 15-1 in the playoffs and earned a trip to Saskatoon, where they earned a berth in the final by way of a tie-breaker and then beat the Portland Winter Hawks 6-4 to win it all. MacKinnon had a hat trick in the final and led all scorers with 13 points in four games.
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