Lehtinen makes The Hockey News’ All-Decade Team, and so does Jussi Jokinen
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The Hockey News has put together an All-Decade team and Jere Lehtinen is the one current Dallas Star to make it. Two former Stars are on it as well - Willie Mitchell and Jussi Jokinen.
THN didn't pick just the best players of the decade, they put together what they would be the best team as its All-Decade team. That would be players that would slot in on two top scoring lines, a checking line and an energy line. They also picked defensemen that could be slotted from one through six. The picked a starting goalie and a backup as the All-Decade backup. They picked a couple of specialists too.
Lehtinen made is on the checking line. They slotted Mitchell in on the 3rd defensive pairing. Jokinen is labeled the team's shootout specialist.
Here's the lineup THN put together. Ken Holland is the GM and Mike Babcock is the coach.
| THN All-Decade Team | ||
| Forwards | ||
| Alex Ovechkin | Joe Sakic | Jarome Iginla |
| Ilya Kovalchuk | Pavel Datsyuk | Daniel Alfredsson |
| Jay Pandolfo | Rod Brind'Amour | Jere Lehtinen |
| Jarkko Ruutu | Kris Draper | Chris Neil |
| Jussi Jokinen (shootout specialist) | ||
| Donald Brashear (enforcer) | ||
| Defensemen | ||
| Nicklas Lidstrom | Chris Pronger | |
| Robyn Regehr | Brian Rafalski | |
| Willie Mitchell | Colin White | |
| Goaltenders | ||
| Martin Brodeur | ||
| Ty Conklin | ||
I was going to freak out about Mike Modano and Sergei Zubov not being there.
Then I realized this is 2000-2009. However, I do think Zubov should be paired with Lidstrom. Zubov should be there way before Rafalski in my opinion.
I can understand leaving Modano off. Too much of the same thing. Sakic or Modano for number one, take your pic. Sakic is easily my second favorite player of all time behind Modano. Yzerman would be right there with them as well.