Which NY Islanders alum made the ESPN Top 25 NHL players of the 21st century list?

If ESPN had made a list of the top 25 NHL players of the 20th century, there's a good chance that three, maybe four, or five New York Islanders would've made it. The 21st century hasn't been nearly as successful for the Isles (thus far), but hey, at least there are still 76 seasons to go, so we'll see.

On Monday, the "World Wide Leader" published a list ranking the top 25 NHL players of the 21st century. The Islanders are not well represented, but plenty of their division rivals made the cut. The Penguins' Sidney Crosby, who has scored more points against the Islanders than any other team, is in the top spot. Crosby is followed by the great Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers' star Connor McDavid, who has a chance to end up No. 1 on this list in ten years.

Later down the list is a pair of metro-area goaltenders in New Jersey's Martin Brodeur (No. 7), who already had one Stanley Cup before the start of the century, and 2023 Hall of Fame inductee Henrik Lundqvist (No. 8) of the New York Rangers. While you'll find many players who haunted the Islanders for the first quarter of the century, there's only one who played for the team on Long Island.

That player is Zdeno Chara, who started and ended his illustrious career with the Islanders and, in between, became one of the most decorated defensemen and highly respected leaders in the game.

"Big Z," as he came to be known, was drafted by the Islanders in the third round of the 1996 NHL Entry and debuted during the 1997-98 season before being traded to the Ottawa Senators in the blockbuster that brought Alexei Yashin to Long Island. With the Sens, he turned into one of the best defensemen in the league and took his game to the next level after signing with the Boston Bruins as an unrestricted free agent before the 2006-07 season.

With the Bruins, he won the Norris Trophy, awarded to the league's best defenseman in 2009, and won the Stanley Cup in 2011 as the team's captain. He spent one season with the Capitals before signing a one-year contract back with the Islanders, where he broke Chris Chelios' record for most games played by a defenseman.