Stars Take ‘Center’ Stage

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Those were just for starters.

If Saturday night’s NHL All-Star game proved anything, it was that center is the strongest position in the league’s history.

“The league has a lot of great players,” Colorado’s Joe Sakic said, “but it seems like most are playing center.”

While Gretzky, of the Los Angeles Kings, started for the Western Conference and Pittsburgh’s Lemieux for the East, there was no shortage of great centers behind them.

They included Mark Messier of the New York Rangers and Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers on the East team, and Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings on the West. All three have been league MVPs.

“This is the greatest thrill of any All-Star Game for me, to be picked with this group of centers,” Messier said. “That says something special.”

A list of the centers missing from the game also was impressive. Among them were Detroit’s Steve Yzerman, Chicago’s Jeremy Roenick, Boston’s Adam Oates, Buffalo’s Pat LaFontaine, Vancouver’s Trevor Linden, Dallas’ Mike Modano, Philadelphia’s Rod Brind’Amour, Toronto’s Doug Gilmour and Winnipeg’s Alexei Zhamnov.

Yzerman, for one, appears on his way to the Hall of Fame, along with Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier and, potentially, Lindros. Earlier this season, Yzerman scored his 500th goal, as did Lemieux and Messier.

Gretzky is the NHL’s all-time point leader and goal scorer.

“It’s a crime to keep a guy like Adam Oates off the team, especially here in Boston, but you can only pick so many,” Bruins right wing Cam Neely said.

The other centers picked this year included Pittsburgh’s Ron Francis, Montreal’s Pierre Turgeon and Philadelphia’s Craig MacTavish on the East team, and Toronto’s Mat Sundin, Chicago’s Denis Savard, Edmonton’s Doug Weight and Colorado’s Peter Forsberg and Sakic on the West.

MacTavish and Savard were added to the team by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for their years of service and accomplishments in the league. Otherwise, All-Star regulations require representatives from each of the 26 teams. In many cases, the best players are centers.

“A center must know how to dish, pass, set up plays,” the New York Rangers’ Pat Verbeek said. “It’s the most skilled position on the team.

“Maybe we have too many great centers now.”

Francis believes the center position dominates in the modern era “because it’s tougher for wings to develop their game. But centers bring out the scoring in the wings.”

Lemieux feels centers become great players “because you have to handle the puck on both ends of the ice and you get more involved in the game.”

Chicago goaltender Ed Belfour sees the center position from another perspective.

“I think the reason there are more good centers in the league now is because there are more Europeans in the league and it makes for better competition among the centers.”

Many players in the NHL believe that Europeans, known more for skating and puck-handling than physical presence, have added a new skill level to the league.

Winnipeg’s Teemu Selanne, a right wing from Finland who has scored 76 goals in one season, goes along with the popular thinking about centers in the NHL.

“It seems that every team has one star center,” Selanne said. “It makes every team better. It’s amazing actually how many there are. That’s why I like this league so much.”