The All-Time Money Winning Team

We're now six weeks away from the draft and we'll have some fun with a list of players that have made the biggest impact on winning money.

Since my draft pools have been posted on opiatedsherpa.com, which now dates back to the 2008 season, I have paid out money prizes, generally to 3rd place, but in 2012, it was actually paid down to 4th place.  I've only included money prizes, since that's the most interesting prize of them all.

If you haven't guessed already, Calgary's Jonas Hiller is on this all-time team, as he has actually appeared on the most money-winning pool teams, without being dropped from them.  Hiller has never been on a 1st place team in the hockey pool, but he has been on two 2nd place teams (2011 & 2012) and two 3rd place teams (2010 & 2013), since the 2008 season.

There is one more player, who has been on four money winning teams, but has been dropped once, so he didn't finish the year on that team.  Tampa Bay defenseman Matt Carle is that player, having finished on a 2nd place team in 2010, twice on a 3rd place team (2009 & 2012) and then he was dropped by Grant S. last season, before Grant finished 2nd in the standings.  It's still pretty impressive, nonetheless.

Since 2008, eight players have finished the season on 1st place teams without having been dropped.  Forwards Mike Ribeiro, Jason Pominville, Mason Raymond, Blake Wheeler and Claude Giroux lead the way, while defensemen John Carlson and Kevin Bieksa follow suit and goalie Antti Niemi also has this distinction.

Of those eight players, only Pominville and Wheeler have appeared on another money-winning team, Pominville on a 4th place team in 2012 and Wheeler was on a 2nd place team in 2014.

19 players have been on three (or more) money-winning teams without being dropped in the season and six of those players have appeared on a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place team... no one has got all four places in the money... yet.

Those six players are as follows... Shea Weber, Pavel Datsyuk, Dennis Wideman, Tomas Plekanec, Dustin Brown and Ryan Getzlaf.

There is one player of the 19, which has appeared on a 2nd, 3rd and 4th place team... defenseman Marek Zidlicky.

If you were wondering which NHL teams the most money-winning players (without being dropped) come from... look no further!  With 21 selections to their side, the Vancouver Canucks come out on top in this list.  The Chicago Blackhawks have 20 selections, the St. Louis Blues have 19 and three teams each have 16 selections.  The top three teams have had a money winner in every season since the 2008 season, so it would suggest that if you had a player from one (or all) of these teams, you'd be in a good place for money.

Chicago and the Colorado Avalanche lead the way for players that have ended up on 1st place teams since 2008, each with nine players.  St. Louis leads all teams with 2nd place players, with 10.  Dallas has had the most players on 3rd place teams, with eight.

Interestingly, two franchises have never had a player finish a season on a 1st place team and one of those teams never had a player dropped from a 1st place team.  The Minnesota Wild have never had a player on a 1st place team, while the Calgary Flames had two players dropped from 1st place teams, since 2008: David Moss was dropped by Leon G. in 2010 and Matt Stajan was dropped by Allan S. in 2014.

As for the arbitrary All-Time Money Winning Team, it is as follows:

Forwards			Defense			Goalies
Blake Wheeler	WPG		Keith Yandle	NYR		Jonas Hiller	CAL
Jason Pominville	MIN		Brent Burns	SAN		Antti Niemi	DAL
Eric Staal	CAR		Shea Weber	NAS
Dustin Brown	LOS		Dennis Wideman	CAL
Tomas Plekanec	MTL
Ryan Getzlaf	ANA
Pavel Datsyuk	DET
Claude Giroux	PHI