Crosby and Ovechkin, of course, and a Wild pick

By Michael Farber

SI senior writer Michael Farber picked his three NHL Dream Teams -- one for the best of all time, one that will win right now and one built for five years from now. How did Farber do? What changes would you make to his lineups? Weigh in at the bottom of the page.

The salary cap is besides the (decimal) point. My first thought was just to take Anaheim's third line of Sami Pahlsson, Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer intact, because it badly outplayed the NHL's No. 1 line of Ottawa's Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson in the Stanley Cup Final, but decided to abandon judgment for sugary indulgence. (Discussion point: How did my colleagues in the Professional Hockey Writers Association choose Rod Brind'Amour over Pahlsson or Jay Pandolfo for the Selke Award? Talk amongst yourselves.)

FORWARDS C | Sidney Crosby | Pittsburgh Penguins He turns 20 next month and already is, with apologies to Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, the best player in the NHL. Crosby is not Wayne Gretzky, but he's clearly on the Gretzky track, capable of piling up numbers that will dwarf contemporaries. He managed to channel some of his aggressiveness during his second season, which augers well for his career. Selflessness coupled with self-control. He will continue to get faster and stronger, and his faceoffs should dramatically improve. He will also benefit from the Penguins' upgrade in talent, playing with wingers who can bury some pucks and further burnish his reputation. LW | Alexander Ovechkin | Washington Capitals If you had to pay to see one player in the NHL, flip a coin -- assuming you still had any left after shelling out for a pair of platinum tickets in Toronto -- between Crosby and the dashing Capitals winger. There is such a palpable joy to Ovechkin's game. The danger: He is a fabulous marriage of skill and enthusiasm, but unless owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee do something to upgrade the talent around Ovechkin immediately -- and center Michael Nylander's second tour of duty in Washington is only a start -- they run the risk of draining his spirit. RW | Jarome Iginla | Calgary Flames Martin St. Louis will get more points. Marian Hossa and Daniel Alfredsson are more complete players. But I want a power forward who brings skill and toughness. Iginla is the modern prototype for the position, as Cam Neely was in the late 1980s and early '90s. Although he just turned 30 and should be in his prime, Iginla still has an untapped upside, something that might be realized if Calgary ever finds a proper No. 1 center for him. (Craig Conroy was a nice fit during the 2004 Stanley Cup run, but hardly a legitimate No. 1.) The dynamic between new Flames coach Mike Keenan and Iginla is worth watching. DEFENSE D | Nicklas Lidstrom | Detroit Red Wings He is, simply, textbook. No one plays the position like Lidstrom because no one plays as well positionally -- separating forwards from the puck without taking penalties, getting his stick into shooting lanes, clearing rebounds. He also organizes the Detroit power play, joins the rush five-on-five and controls the tempo of games. He most closely resembles Raymond Bourque in his all-around play, but is an even better, if less physical, one-on-one defender than the Hall of Famer. Lidstrom, who is as bland as vanilla ice cream, will be fully appreciated only after he goes home to Sweden. D | Scott Niedermayer | Anaheim Ducks Yes, he's likely to retire. (One general manager told me recently that the likelihood was "80 to 90 percent," but until Niedermayer announces it officially, he's on this team.) He's the most decorated defensemen in history, and his career probably was capped off with the Conn Smythe Trophy that went with the fourth Stanley Cup that he won last month. Niedermayer is a fluid skater, an original thinker, a capable, steady, if not overwhelming, defender. Maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald was right about there being no second acts in American lives, but there will be one for this charmed Canadian. G | Robert Luongo | Vancouver Canucks The torch has been passed. Martin Brodeur surely will suceed Patrick Roy as the winningest goalie in NHL history, but Luongo, in his first season in Vancouver, showed that he could be more than a great goalie on a terrible team, just like his bad old days in Florida. He has a chance to do in Vancouver what Dominik Hasek once did in Buffalo: carry a team far past its resonable playoff expectations. Luongo doesn't handle the puck as well as Brodeur, but there's no one better at stopping it. COACHES Head Coach | Jacques Lemaire | Minnesota Wild Sure, this team might not like his defense-first style, but they don't have to play any real games, remember? Lemaire probably has forgotten more hockey than half of the NHL's coaches ever will know, and he winds up making players better in the end, even if some are loath to admit it. Asst. Coach | Mike Johnston | Los Angeles Kings With Barry Smith coaching in St. Petersburg next season, Johnston is now the NHL's top X-and-Os assistant. There is admirable attention to detail by the men who work in the Hockey Canada program -- Andy Murray, Dave King. Johnston is a nice buffer for the whipsmart, but sometimes combustible, Marc Crawford. RESERVES POSITION PLAYER C Vincent Lecavalier, Joe Thornton, Joe Sakic LW Henrik Zetterberg, Simon Gagné, Thomas Vanek RW Martin St. Louis, Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson D Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Sergei Zubov, Anton Volchenkov G Martin Brodeur Weigh in with your comments and selections at FanNation.

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