Outside of the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers, the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders were arguably the two most successful franchises of the 1970s and 1980s with two and four Stanley Cup titles, respectively. While each team had its share of great forwards and defensemen, both also had Hall of Fame goalies in Bernie Parent (Flyers) and Billy Smith (Islanders); in their primes, each goalie was a Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe winner who elevated his game in the postseason – as two of the best netminders of this era, it is a natural comparison to ask the question:
With the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets entering the NHL as expansion teams in 2000, each new franchise sought to build via the draft. In early years, the Wild and Blue Jackets drafted Marian Gaborik and Rick Nash, respectively, with high first-round draft picks to serve as franchise cornerstone players. Each forward eventually went on to have an illustrious career with the team that drafted him, sitting at or near the top of various career offensive categories, e.g. goals scored. Moreover, the duo had similar overall career lengths and statistics, thus making for an interesting comparison:
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