The top 5 NHL players whose names begin with ‘E’

It's one thing to rank the best players in the history of the NHL. But that's almost too easy. Instead, we've decided to go letter by letter through the alphabet, then rank the best players based on the first letter of their last name.

Today, we risk dividing a family with the letter "E."

Here's how it works: I've gone through the history of the NHL and plucked the players I believe to be the best with "E" last names. But this isn't my decision completely. Each of these lists over the next five weeks will have a poll attached to it.

Look at the list and vote on the player you think is the best below, and (kindly) let us know in the comments if you disagree with our top five. The five players are listed in alphabetical order.

Patrik Elias

There aren't many left in the NHL who can claim what Patrik Elias can.

Every game he has played in the NHL has come for the same team: The New Jersey Devils. His tenure with the team is so strong that it survived him being stripped of the team captaincy by then-coach Brent Sutter.

Elias holds Devils franchise records for goals, assists, points, game-winning goals, and playoff goals, among other categories. In the middle of a three-year deal, it appears he isn't done making history, as Elias is just 17 points short of 1,000, and seven goals shy of 400 for his career.

The Cleveland-born Ellett won an NCAA title at Bowling Green before moving on to a very strong professional career.

Ellett entered the NHL as a solid offensive defenseman. After scoring 15 goals for Bowling Green in its 1984 title season, he posted double-digit goals for seven straight NHL seasons between Winnipeg and Toronto. His offensive game tailed off a bit after that, but Ellett still finished his career with 158 goals and 563 points while playing more than 1,100 games.

Since Ellis played for the Maple Leafs in the 1960s, he can actually claim to have his name on the Stanley Cup (1967, to be precise).

Beyond that, Ellis had a very good pro career, though he never left Toronto and therefore never again got to hoist the Cup. In more than 1,000 games for the Leafs, Ellis totaled 332 goals and 640 points. His consistency over a 14-year stretch was quite impressive.

In those 14 years, Ellis never scored fewer than 12 goals, topped 20 goals 11 times, and hit the 40-point mark 11 times.

The list of accolades Phil Esposito earned as a pro hockey player is staggering. Instead of giving you a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about him, here's a look:

Not that it's necessarily relevant to Phil Esposito's career, but his brother was pretty good, too.

While Phil was an elite center, Tony's job was to stop Phil's type from scoring. And he was really good at it.

Tony Esposito was in net for 423 wins, all but five as a member of the Blackhawks. He won 30 or more games eight times, including seven years in a row to start his career. He won three Vezina Trophies and the 1970 Calder Trophy.

Oh, and Garth wore his jersey in the Wayne's World movies. Pop culture, yo.