Tim Benz: Ideas for ESPN's next docuseries after 'The Last Dance.' Cast your vote. - TribLIVE

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ESPN’s “The Last Dance” has been quite a hit. The 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Bulls of the 1990s is generating an incredible buzz.

Pittsburgh Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer joined me for our usual “Breakfast With Benz” hockey podcast, and we spun the conversation into a hockey chat.

From a hockey standpoint, who would be the best possible person — or team — to focus on for a 10-part documentary?

Wayne Gretzky is the easy choice internationally. Aside from the controversy surrounding his exit from Edmonton to Los Angeles, though, I don’t think that Gretzky had enough spice or conflict in his career to make the series saucy enough.

Gretzky’s shortcomings late in his career with the St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers — even coaching with the Arizona Coyotes — weren’t dynamic enough to create drama.

I’d say any combination of the following hockey topics could work better as a documentary subject:

• Mario Lemieux: His career arc is shockingly similar to Jordan’s. Plenty of eye-popping individual highlights in the mid-80’s, shrouded in team disappointment. Resurrecting a moribund franchise. Then multiple championships.

Jaromir Jagr as his Scottie Pippen. Burning through multiple coaches. The Gretzky comparisons. The 1987 Canada Cup. The battles against injury and cancer.

The comeback. The ownership. The new arena. Winning as an executive. Some of the heat he took from Pittsburgh for playing with Team Canada in Salt Lake City. Saving the team twice. Passing the torch to Sidney Crosby who lived at his house.

Yeah. You could get 10 episodes out of that. Twenty even.

• Jaromir Jagr: This is the idea Metzer likes. Jagr has provided many visual highlights. He’s won. He’s become a sort of iconic “man of myth” within the sport for playing as long as he has.

All the teams he’s played for. All the countries he played in. And his exploits on the ice and in casinos are the stuff of legend.

His emotional ups and downs from the glory years in Pittsburgh to the sour days on the way out. His roller coaster spins through Washington and New York. Dissing the Pens before going to Philadelphia. Beating the Pens with Boston. The complicated relationship with Lemieux.

It’d all be great. Could Jagr be his own narrator in English the way Jordan has been for this piece? That might be an issue, and you may have to lean on others to move the stories along in that regard.

But I’d watch every minute.

• Sid & Ovi: At this point, could you get 10 episodes out of either by themselves?

From a strictly hockey standpoint? Yes. From a storytelling standpoint? I don’t know.

Crosby is too squeaky clean. The only thing resembling controversy for him was a concussion. And would Alex Ovechkin be as engaging for 10 hours as Jordan? No way.

But link the two of them together, and now you are onto something. You can’t properly tell the story of one without the other anyway. Plus, Evgeni Malkin played with Ovechkin for Team Russia and with Crosby in Pittsburgh.

Geno should get his own hour for himself!

Keep in mind, it’s hockey. We love it in Pittsburgh. And other diehard markets do, too. But some guy in Topeka or Santa Fe ain’t watching 10 episodes about anybody from Canada or Russia on a sheet of ice.

Therefore, none of these ideas would be an ESPN thing. The appeal wouldn’t be as large. And hockey isn’t their sport. These ideas would have to be an NHL Network or NBCSN project. And it may be less drama and more a love letter. However, all of them could — and should — be done.

But what will ESPN do next as a subject if they want to follow up “The Last Dance” with another similar 10-part docuseries? Here are six worthy candidates.

My vote would be the Brady-Belichick Patriots. The personalities. All the Super Bowls. The Super Bowl losses to the Giants. Spygate. Deflategate. The massage parlor. The foiled perfect season. Rob Gronkowski. Aaron Hernandez. Randy Moss.

But we may need another five to 10 years for the dust to settle on that story now that Bill Belichick is coaching in New England while Tom Brady and Gronk have gone to Tampa Bay.

Same thing with LeBron James’ new career in Los Angeles. Plus, ESPN has already done a docuseries much longer than 10-parts featuring LeBron. It’s called “SportsCenter.” Ever heard of it?

The Bonds and Woods options would be almost as compelling as the Patriots series. Unfortunately, I doubt they would be honest enough to talk in depth about the juiciest subplots during their competitive years. If Woods doesn’t talk about his extramarital issues and Bonds does little more than no comment away the steroid discussion, then there is no series.

Plus, in Woods’ case, does 10 hours of golf footage hold up the same way 10 hours of dunks, touchdowns and home runs do?

Tyson is a real good option. It’s just that Jordan played in about 1,200 games. Tyson had 58 fights. Many of which lasted about 58 seconds. Filling out the footage of actual competitions may be tough. So maybe “Iron Mike’s” is only about seven or eight episodes.

The Yankees one would be the quickest, easiest and most tidy to produce between now and 2021 or 2022, if they wanted to do it. The fan base is obviously there to support it. And the hatred of the franchise is there to support it, too.

I just need another Hallmark card to the Yankees like I need a hole in the head.

But you can cast your vote above. And click the podcast below as Metzer and I talk about our hockey documentary ideas, the potential “podding” system for a rebooted NHL season, and how hockey coverage may change in the future.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss hockey documentary ideas, a ’podding’ system for rebooted NHL season, and how hockey coverage may change

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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