Great idea baseball had with its Franchise Four’s designations unveiled at the All-Star Game, certainly good enough to steal by Slap Shots, if not at some future date, by the NHL as well.

We have created separate identities for Colorado and Quebec; Arizona and Phoenix; Carolina and Hartford; and Dallas and Minnesota; while Kansas City, Colorado and the Devils are single entries. We’ve created unique identities for Winnipeg (both editions of the Jets), Atlanta (the early Flames and hardly lamented Thrashers) and Minnesota (the North Stars and Wild).

ATLANTA: Tom Lysiak, Eric Vail, Curt Bennett, Ilya Kovalchuk. Consideration to Dany Heatley. By the way, which was worse: Syl Apps Jr. and Sheldon Kannegiesser for Glen Sather, or Bennett for Ron Harris?

ANAHEIM: Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer, J-S Giguere. Chris Pronger only played three seasons in Anaheim. Ryan Getzlaf ahead of Giguere, maybe?

ARIZONA: Shane Doan, Sean Burke, Teppo Numminen, Anthony Duclair. No, just kidding, replace Duclair with Keith Tkachuk. Heh, heh, Slats.

BOSTON: Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Raymond Bourque, Milt Schmidt. Johnny Bucyk ahead of Schmidt? Don’t think so. Eddie Shore ahead of whom?

BUFFALO: Gilbert Perreault, Dominik Hasek, Richard Martin, Pat LaFontaine. Danny Gare and Jim Schoenfeld knocking on the door. So are Michael Peca, Don Luce, Craig Ramsay and Chris Drury.

CALGARY: Lanny McDonald, Jarome Iginla, Al MacInnis, Theo Fleury.

CAROLINA: Eric Staal, Rod Brind’Amour, Ron Francis, Cam Ward.

CHICAGO: Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Glenn Hall, Jonathan Toews. Denis Savard a just-miss, Patrick Kane with much time to build more of a portfolio, and a case might later be made for Duncan Keith, rather than Pierre Pilote as the greatest defenseman in franchise history, to overtake the Great Hall on this list.

COLORADO: Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Adam Foote.

COLUMBUS: Rick Nash, Ryan Johansen, Sergei Bobrovsky, Nick Foligno. Or would you rather, David Vyborny?

DALLAS: Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Joe Nieuwendyk, Ed Belfour. Thisclose is Sean Avery.

DETROIT: Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom. Somehow it seems there should be a place for Terry Sawchuk, not to mention Alex Delvecchio, Sid Abel and Red Kelly.

EDMONTON: Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey. Or maybe you would go with Grant Fuhr.

FLORIDA: Pavel Bure, John Vanbiesbrouck, Roberto Luongo, Ed Jovanovski. Or would you like Brian Skrudland or Mike Keane? The Rangers once did.

HARTFORD: Ron Francis, Glen Wesley, Kevin Dineen, Mike Liut. Pretty much a toss-up between Dineen and Pat Verbeek.

LOS ANGELES: Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille, Dave Taylor. Or Rob Blake ahead of Taylor? And which two or three will be forced out to make room for Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick and Anze Kopitar?

MINNESOTA: Neal Broten, Mike Modano, Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu. Time still for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, but not for Bill Goldsworthy.

MONTREAL: Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Doug Harvey, Guy Lafleur. Set in stone, eh? But who is the Habs’ all-time goaltender: Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden or Patrick Roy?

NASHVILLE: Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne, Ryan Suter, Kimmo Timonen.

OTTAWA: Daniel Alfredsson, Alexei Yashin, Wade Redden, Dany Heatley. Hmm. Two of the four (Yashin and Heatley) demanded release. Maybe Jason Spezza for Yashin and Marian Hossa for Heatley?

PHILADELPHIA: Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, Mark Howe, Eric Lindros. You might prefer Bill Barber or Ron Hextall to No. 88. “Mr. Snider” might prefer everyone to Carl and Bonnie’s son.

PITTSBURGH: Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin. Locked for a long, long time.

QUEBEC: Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Peter Stastny, Michel Goulet. A hockey crime was committed by the NHL in allowing the Nordiques to go away.

ST. LOUIS: Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter. Just missed: Garry Unger, Bob Plager, Pavol Demitra.

SAN JOSE: Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Evgeni Nabokov, Owen Nolan. And not all that much competition except for perhaps Joe Pavelski and Dan Boyle.

TAMPA BAY: Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos, Brad Richards. You could just as easily flip a coin between Richards and Boyle, who just changed games wearing the Bolt.

TORONTO: Dave Keon, Mats Sundin, Borje Salming, Darryl Sitter. Leaving only a cast of thousands from the Original Six Era, after which the Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup. So maybe we should have Tim Horton, Ted Kennedy, Frank Mahovlich and Busher Jackson named with Keon. But then what about Doug Gilmour?

VANCOUVER: Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, The Sedins, Markus Naslund. See how I did that?

WASHINGTON: Alex Ovechkin, Rod Langway, Peter Bondra, Oli Kolzig. You can find a place for Dale Hunter on your list if you want.

WINNIPEG: Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson, Dale Hawerchuk. I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to do that. Sorry, but no double-dipping for you, Teemu.

DEVILS: Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Patrik Elias. Don’t foresee this changing for a few decades.

ISLANDERS: Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith. John Tavares trying to break into this quartet is tantamount to Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter trying to crash the Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio-Mantle party in The Bronx.

RANGERS: Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Andy Bathgate. Apologies to Bill Cook. Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle, Brad Park, Ed Giacomin and Harry Howell just miss. And though it’s tempting to go with Henrik Lundqvist over Richter based on numbers, 1994 trumps all until the King hoists the chalice.