All-Time Team: Minnesota North Stars (1967-93)

  Mein friends, it's time for another all-time greatest roster of an NHL team. Today we're looking at the dearly departed Minnesota North Stars, who played in Bloomington, Minnesota from 1967 to 1993. Here's an abbreviated history.

  The North Stars were one of the original NHL expansion teams that doubled the league's size from six to twelve clubs in 1967. Despite a losing record, the team did well enough to make the playoffs in its first season and were eliminated just one win shy of making the Stanley Cup finals. After making the playoffs in five of their first six seasons, the North Stars went the next six seasons (1974-79) with only one postseason appearance (1977). This was bad news for Minnesota, as attendance dropped off and the team was in critical financial trouble. The situation was equally as dire for the Cleveland Barons, whose owners made the decision to merge their team with Minnesota's in 1978. This meant that the Stars' lineup was bolstered with Cleveland's best players – like Gilles Meloche and Al MacAdam – and were moved to the smaller Adams Division. This was also the year in which the team drafted future stars Bobby Smith and Steve Payne.

  Great things started happening. In January 1980 the Stars defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, bringing an end to the longest undefeated streak in professional sports history. Later that year, Minnesota knocked the 4-time defending Cup champion Canadiens out of the playoffs en route to the conference finals. This was also the year the team picked up scoring sensations Neal Broten and Dino Ciccarelli. What followed in 1981 was the North Stars' first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup finals; predictably they ended up losing to the heavily favoured New York Islanders.

  Minnesota made the playoffs seven years in a row from 1980 to 1986. Though they didn't get to hoist Lord Stanley's cup they were an exciting and competitive team that made several deep playoff runs. 1985-86 was the club's last winning season as their scoring output dropped off and the fans' attendance was inconsistent.

  The late 1980's and early 1990's were a rather dismal period in North Stars history, though they did make the playoffs every year from 1989 to 1992 (they were in a weak division and there was usually at least one team that played even worse than them). There were only two bright spots during the club's dying years: the drafting of Mike Modano who would go on to become the best player in Minnesota/Dallas history, and the team's 1991 Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup finals. After stunning victories against the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, and Edmonton Oilers (all of them great teams during this era) they lost in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

  By now problems were mounting. Attendance wasn't good, the Met Center was getting old, a replacement arena couldn't be found/built, and owner Norm Green's wife threatened to leave him if he didn't relocate the team. In a sad move, the Minnesota North Stars were moved to Dallas in 1993 to become the Dallas Stars. That's right, a northern team – that has the word “north” right in its freakin' name! – was moved to Texas, where I'm pretty sure ice doesn't even exist. In their time in Dallas the Stars have won 8 division championships and two Presidents Trophies, made two Stanley Cup finals appearances, and one Stanley Cup championship out of 14 playoff appearances. They've had an up-and-down history, but they still exist. In fact they've existed almost as long as the North Stars have, so that's something I guess.

  The Minnesota North Stars, in their 26 seasons, made 18 playoff appearances and two Stanley Cup finals appearances while winning two division championships. The last remaining North Stars player in the NHL was Mike Modano and he retired in 2011. NHL hockey eventually returned to Minnesota in 2000 with the Minnesota Wild expansion team.

  So let's take a look at the best possible team that can built with North Star players. I've limited the roster to guys who stuck with Minnesota for at least 200 games, and as always only their accomplishments with Minnesota will be considered. Let's begin.

Forwards

L-R: Ciccarelli, Goldsworthy, Gavin

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Brian Bellows (1983-92)	Neal Broten (1981-93)	Dino Ciccarelli (1980-89)
Steve Payne (1978-88)	Mike Modano (1989-93)	Bill Goldsworthy (1967-76)
J.P. Parise (1967-75)	Bobby Smith (1978-83, 1990-93)	Stew Gavin (1988-93)
Basil McRae (1987-92)	Keith Acton (1983-88)	Willi Plett (1982-87)

This team's first line holds few surprises; it's made of Minnesota's top three career point scorers: playmakers Broten (four seasons of 85+ points) and Bellows (never less than 50 points) and in-your-face goal scorer Ciccarelli (two 50-goal seasons) . The second line adds some more point production from the likes of Bill Goldsworthy (five 30-goal seasons), Steve Payne (seven straight 20-goal seasons), and Mike Modano (three 75+ point seasons). With a bit of defensive play from two-time Selke Trophy nominee Bobby Smith, forechecker J.P. Parise, and penalty killer Stew Gavin the third line gives this team some versatility. And the fourth line is stacked full of grinders with tough guy Keith Acton and enforcers Basil McRae and Willi Plett.

Honourable mentions: Bob Brooke, Al MacAdam, Dennis Hextall

Defencemen

L-R: Hartsburg, Giles

Craig Hartsburg (1979-89)	Gordie Roberts (1980-88)
Curt Giles (1979-86, 1987-91)	Mark Tinordi (1988-93)
Lou Nanne (1968-78)	Dennis O'Brien (1971-77)

As far as I can tell Minnesota stuck mostly with stay-at-home defencemen throughout its history. Most of the guys on this lineup – especially O'Brien, Roberts, and Tinordi – played a good physical game (as all good defencemen should!). But amongst these blueliners only Craig Hartsburg has a talent for playmaking (three seasons of 60 points) and only Tinordi was a notable presence on the powerplay. What we've got is a defensive corps that does its job well, just not in any versatile way.

Goaltending

Casey

John Casey (1984-93)

Gilles Meloche (1979-85)

This was a tough call, both Casey and Meloche were pretty good goaltenders. But in the end I had to give the starting spot to John Casey whose save percentage and goals against average remained more consistent than Meloche's. Not only was Casey the only North Stars goaltender to win 30 games in one year (1989-90), but he also put up some great playoff performances, including the 1991 Stanley Cup finals run.

Honourable mention: Cesare Maniago

That does it for this week. Join me next time as I look at the all-time team of what I like to call the "loser franchises".