All-time underrated players

[DitchMarner]

Maybe guys like Brenden Morrison and Craig Conroy?

Players who were often talked about as not being true number one centres but had the intelligence and skill to have been able to make good second line centres.

 

[Staniowski]

 

[VanIslander]

https://www.reddit.com/r/leafs/s/ltEVX4nz9x

 

[Johnny Engine]

3) Steve Duchesne
- Undrafted D-men
- Perennial 50-70 points D-men
- 752 points in 1113 games
- Won SC with Red Wings in his last season

This is an interesting player to me, in a kind of "maybe underrated, maybe rated just fine, but warranting further conversation" sort of way. And maybe that's just me, but here's some things:

- He was on two separate, extremely young and green teams that made the jump to the playoffs, where Duchesne was clearly the most experienced and prominent defenseman on the team. The 1993 Nordiques had a 21 year old Adam Foote, 23 year old Curtis Leschyshyn as well as a 28-but-newer-to-Canada Alexei Gusarov, and he led the blue line in points by a mile. The 1997 Senators had a teenaged Wade Redden on their team, and not a whole lot of depth. I don't have TOI available, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was leaned on extremely heavily in both places. Then he was gone the next season both years. The Senators stayed good but the Nordiques cratered in 1994 before getting back on track in 1995 (adding Krupp and Lefevbre definitely helped there). Knowing more about his role on both teams - especially as it concerns Foote and Redden - would shed a lot of light on what he brought to the table.
- Nobody cares (or should care) about what players do in the ATD, but this might be somewhat illustrative: in the usual 30ish-team ATDs, there's usually a late run on PP2 guys for the 3rd pair that look more or less interchangeable on paper once you get past a few guys like Rafalski (won a lot), and Housley (cartoonish numbers if bad at other things). Duchesne is usually in that tier, but if you stack his numbers - whether we're talking adjusted, finishes among defense, VsX among defensemen, you name it - Duchesne handily clears players like Schneider, Kaberle, etc, even if you take away some of his Gretzky adjacent seasons. So in that exercise maybe you'd draft him higher than the rest of that tier. Doesn't tell you squat about his overall talent level, but he really did put up loads of points.
- I think it's a bit difficult for fans to find the words to talk about the guys who fall somewhere between a thunderingly incompetent defensive defenseman like Housley or Barrie, and someone you'd actually give the label "two-way" to. Obviously Duchesne wasn't pushing anyone around, but I think guys of his ilk are underdiscussed when it comes to their overall game - even if it wasn't very good, what skills were particularly deficiency and which ones were OK?

 

[overpass]

- He was on two separate, extremely young and green teams that made the jump to the playoffs, where Duchesne was clearly the most experienced and prominent defenseman on the team. The 1993 Nordiques had a 21 year old Adam Foote, 23 year old Curtis Leschyshyn as well as a 28-but-newer-to-Canada Alexei Gusarov, and he led the blue line in points by a mile. The 1997 Senators had a teenaged Wade Redden on their team, and not a whole lot of depth. I don't have TOI available, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was leaned on extremely heavily in both places. Then he was gone the next season both years. The Senators stayed good but the Nordiques cratered in 1994 before getting back on track in 1995 (adding Krupp and Lefevbre definitely helped there). Knowing more about his role on both teams - especially as it concerns Foote and Redden - would shed a lot of light on what he brought to the table.

Duchesne scored the biggest goal in the short history of the Senators franchise in 1997, putting them in the playoffs. And he was the best defenceman in the short franchise history to that point.



He moved on not long after and others surpassed him, but he'll always have a place in Senators history.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Duchesne scored the biggest goal in the short history of the Senators franchise in 1997, putting them in the playoffs. And he was the best defenceman in the short franchise history to that point.



He moved on not long after and others surpassed him, but he'll always have a place in Senators history.

I went to a game that season, which was all the more special given I'm from Newfoundland and don't get a chance to see the NHL live that often. It was the New Years game where Yashin dangled Scott Bailey while flying from getting tripped, Daigle ripped in the rebound from a shot off the post by Cunneyworth, and Oates scored a shortie while getting waterskied by two Senators.
Any thoughts on the Duchesne for Kravchuk trade that summer? Looks like they basically swapped out their veteran minute-eater for one of a different style, while Redden got one year older and presumably played a little bigger role. And then on the Blues end it's their #3 position behind MacInnis and Pronger that they're addressing. Was there a pressing hockey need to do this on either end, or just a shakeup or business decision?

 

[blundluntman]

Tomas Vokoun's one of the most underrated goalies of all time. If you look at his numbers from 2002-2013, you'll see he has a handful of seasons that should've been vezina candidates and a bunch of elite seasons sandwiched in between. Unfortunately, he spent most of his career underachieving on subpar Nashville and Florida rosters.

 

[overpass]

I went to a game that season, which was all the more special given I'm from Newfoundland and don't get a chance to see the NHL live that often. It was the New Years game where Yashin dangled Scott Bailey while flying from getting tripped, Daigle ripped in the rebound from a shot off the post by Cunneyworth, and Oates scored a shortie while getting waterskied by two Senators.
Any thoughts on the Duchesne for Kravchuk trade that summer? Looks like they basically swapped out their veteran minute-eater for one of a different style, while Redden got one year older and presumably played a little bigger role. And then on the Blues end it's their #3 position behind MacInnis and Pronger that they're addressing. Was there a pressing hockey need to do this on either end, or just a shakeup or business decision?

I was young but I understood Duchesne was traded away because he was going to make too much and Kravchuk was more affordable. It was disappointing and not a popular trade in Ottawa, because with Duchesne it really did feel like the Sens had a legit #1 defenceman. He was part of the Sens becoming a playoff team, and trading him away felt like a step back.

Looking back now I know Kravchuk was a solid defender, Soviet-trained, who could play in all situations. And he did lead the Sens in minutes played in his first two seasons so Jacques must have liked him. But I just remember him being hated for being soft and for bad turnovers. And he was a minus 12 in 21 playoff games. Not a fan favourite at all.