The joke is the stuff of legend. When the witty and long-retired Babe Pratt was asked back in the 1970s how many goals the great Cyclone Taylor would score if he played in today's NHL, he answered calmly, "Oh, about 20." The interviewer was dumbstruck and followed up, "But, Babe, Cyclone was the greatest player of his day! How can you say he'd score only 20 goals now?" Nonplussed, Pratt said, "Yes, but the man's 90 years old." Such were the abilities of Taylor, without doubt the greatest player never to play in the NHL. Taylor started playing professionally in the fledgling IHL in 1905 with Portage, but after two years he was lured east to play for Ottawa. He helped the Senators win a Stanley Cup in 1909 before joining Renfrew in the NHA. Three years later, he became the highest-paid player in the game thanks to the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA. It was there he played the last nine years of his career. Taylor was far and away the best skater in the game, so much so that he is the subject of a story which says that in 1910, with Renfrew, he scored a goal by skating backwards through the entire team. True or false, his skating ability was such that if he didn't score a goal like that, he could have. The west was good to Taylor and he to it. He led the league in scoring three times and brought Vancouver its one and to this day only Cup win, in 1915. Although he had been a defenceman all his years, when he got to Vancouver he converted to forward. By the time he retired in 1921, his place in history had been set,a great skater who conquered the west.