IIHF Centennial All-Star Team

The IIHF Centennial All-Star Team is an all-star team of hockey players from international ice hockey tournaments. The selection was organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation and named in 2008. The panel comprised 56 ice hockey experts from 16 countries representing a balance between North American and European countries, and included people who have worked in the game for an extended period and whose opinions are widely respected. One of the 56 votes represented the collective opinion of the staff of The Hockey News. None of the voter's selections as a whole were the same as the final team.

All six players were already members of the IIHF Hall of Fame and all but Sergei Makarov are also enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. All four Russians selected to the team played league hockey with CSKA Moscow, including three years (1978 to 1981) as teammates.

Centennial All-Star Team

The players selected:

Goaltender: Vladislav Tretiak (Soviet Union) – 30 votes
First defenceman: Viacheslav Fetisov (Soviet Union) – 54 votes
Second defenceman: Börje Salming (Sweden) – 17 votes
First winger: Valeri Kharlamov (Soviet Union) – 21 votes
Second winger: Sergei Makarov (Soviet Union) – 18 votes
Centre: Wayne Gretzky (Canada) – 38 votes

Response

The response to the selection was generally positive on both sides of the globe. The editors of The Hockey News, which participated in the selection, said they were aware that many Canadians might not like the fact that there is only one player from Canada on the list, but they proclaimed the selection fair and said that much work had been done to make it objective.^[1] Canada's National Post completely supported the selection and even said: "With Wayne Gretzky, four Soviets and a Swede on the Centennial All-Star Team, it's a great one". Gregory Sandstrom, a Canadian working at the Saint Petersburg State University, said in The St. Petersburg Times that the Russian domination on the list was fair, and called on Canada to get revenge on Russia at the following Olympic Games -- a goal the national team would accomplish with their gold medal victory in 2010.^[2]