Si Griffis picks the greatest hockey player of all time

From his earliest days on ice, Lester Patrick was regarded as an outstanding hockey player and innovator, and later he was lauded for his coaching. But the greatest player ever? At least one person thought he deserved the title. Ninety-one years ago today, a story appeared in The Vancouver Sun (seen at bottom) in which Si Griffis, who played for the Vancouver Millionaires from 1911-19, declared it was so.

Si Griffis, as a member of the 1913-14 Vancouver Millionaires. (City of Vancouver Archives AM1535-:CVA 99-126)

“My man could play defense or go on attack,” Griffis said. “He could play goal and did on two notable occasions when he had to.” (Lester actually played goal on at least seven occasions, but Griffis may not have been aware of them, or else felt they weren’t notable enough.)

“In addition to super-playing qualities my man had height, weight and brain. He had speed, dynamic forcefulness. He was, and is, a master strategist.

“When his playing days were over he became coach, manager and club owner. Always his clubs were in the thick of the fighting. A winning player, he proved a winning leader.

“And where is he today but leading his Stanley Cup winners toward another series? He is where he belongs. He’s vice-president of Madison Square Garden Corporation and they call him the ‘Silver Fox’ of hockey, many of them without knowing why.

“But I know. He earned everything he has been given. Player, leader and all-round man, I give you Lester Patrick as the greatest hockey player of all time and his record unsullied over better than 30 years I think abundantly proves the proposition.”

On his side Griffis would have had Lester’s brother Frank, who in 1958 declared Lester simply “the best.” Lester himself was always quick to answer who he thought the greatest player of all time was. In the Springfield Morning Union, Oct. 30, 1957, he said: “I’m always asked that same question. And I’ve always got the same answer. Cyclone Taylor.”

The Vancouver Sun, Jan. 23, 1934