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All time Soviet league scoring leaders

Peter25

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Sep 20, 2003
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Here are the stats: Elite Prospects - Soviet Stats All-time totals

A few surprises there for me:

- Vladimir Petrov being considerably ahead of Boris Mikhailov and Valeri Kharlamov. Petrov was usually considered as the least offensively gifted player on that line.

- Helmut Balderis as 4th overall. He is usually not ranked as a top 10 Soviet forward of all time, but statistically he should be there.

- Sergei Makarov so much ahead of Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov. Makarov was the force of that line in the Soviet league even if Krutov often was the most dangerous one in international games.

- Only three defensemen in top 100 (Vyacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov and Vasili Pervukhin).

- Vasili Pervukhin being 3rd leading scorer among the defensemen ahead of likes of Valeri Vasilyev, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, Vladimir Luchenko, Gennady Tsygankov, Yuri Fedorov, Yuri Lyapkin and Nikolai Makarov. In the national team Pervukhin was usually regarded as a steady defensive defenseman who didn't contribute much offensively.

- Alexander Maltsev being "only" the 6th leading scorer of all time. He had a very long and injury-free career and was the big star of Dynamo Moscow all those years. It is surprising that likes of Balderis and Viktor Shalimov are ahead of him.

- Nikolai Drozdetsky who had his career cut short and being in the Tikhonov doghouse for the big part of his career is ahead of Larionov who played with Krutov and Makarov all these years.

- Alexander Golikov had a more productive career in the Soviet league than his brother Vladimir. Vladimir was still the better of the two.

- Andrei Khomutov and Vyacheslav Bykov are lower than their actual skill would indicate. Playing behind the KLM line took its toll on their scoring. Had they played with another club like Spartak or Dynamo both of them would probably be in top 10-15.
 
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- Only three defensemen in top 100 (Vyacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov and Vasili Pervukhin).

Not too surprising. As someone that teaches Tarasov's weaving concepts, defensemen don't carry the puck, nor as they prone to picking up assists...there's too many passes in the NZ and high attack zone...and they don't headman the puck for purposes of gaining the zone, they generate speed behind the puck for the purposes of cleaner entries against flat-footed d-men...
 
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Actually regarding Balderis, he had the second highest PPG ratio of 1,253. Only Makarov with 1,368 had higher. I didn't realize before how good Balderis actually was in the Soviet league.
 
Here are the stats: Elite Prospects - Soviet Stats All-time totals

A few surprises there for me:

- Vladimir Petrov being considerably ahead of Boris Mikhailov and Valeri Kharlamov. Petrov was usually considered as the least offensively gifted player on that line.

Considerably ahead of Kharlamov for sure, but is Petrov considerably ahead of Mikhailov? Especially, since Mikhailov started earlier in the Soviet league (EDIT: actually, he played in the lower leagues in 1962-1965), and the further back to the years we go, the less reliable and complete are the stats. I'm not so sure that Elite Prospects provide the definitive Soviet league statistics.
 
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Considerably ahead of Kharlamov for sure, but is Petrov considerably ahead of Mikhailov? Especially, since Mikhailov started earlier in the Soviet league (by a couple/few years I think), and the further back to the years we go, the less reliable and complete are the stats. I'm not so sure that Elite Prospects provide the definitive Soviet league statistics.
Petrov has 64 more points than Mikhailov while both played around the same number of games.
 
I still think that the real question is; why did Kharlamov do so much worse than either, points-wise? Or maybe rather; why did he miss so much more games?
Kharlamov played less games than Petrov and Mikhailov due to injuries. Kharlamov actually has slightly better PPG than Mikhailov.
 
Actually regarding Balderis, he had the second highest PPG ratio of 1,253. Only Makarov with 1,368 had higher. I didn't realize before how good Balderis actually was in the Soviet league.

Balderis was a brilliant player in the Kent Nilsson mold--extremely gifted but usually underrated due to lack of intensity and intangibles. Skill wise, Balderis was absolutely world class. Makarov's motor was second-to-none. One of the best forwards ever--regardless of league--IMHO.
 
Balderis was a brilliant player in the Kent Nilsson mold--extremely gifted but usually underrated due to lack of intensity and intangibles. Skill wise, Balderis was absolutely world class. Makarov's motor was second-to-none. One of the best forwards ever--regardless of league--IMHO.
He was known as the Soviet Guy Lafleur.
 
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Guys, look closely at Yakushev’s, Starshinov’s and Firsov’s numbers.

Yeaaah, I don’t know about this data.
 
Kharlamov played less games than Petrov and Mikhailov due to injuries. Kharlamov actually has slightly better PPG than Mikhailov.

I don't think a slightly better PPGA means much when you've played something like 150 less games.

We all know about Kharlamov's big injuries suffered in 1976, which made him miss a part of the 1976-77 season, but he seemed to play less games than his linemates during many other seasons too. Was he injury-prone (maybe partly because he was the target of dirty play?) or was he sometimes 'spared' so that he could be at his best at the World Championships/Olympics etc?
 
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