From EB:
With our 3rd selection, the 89th overall in this year All-Time Draft, the Detroit Falcons are very excited to select
Left Winger Anatoli Vasilievich Firsov
The ATD cannon are screaming ''NOOO!'', but I truly believe that Anatoli Firsov isn't only the best left winger available (I'm well aware as who's on the board), but the best player available. I still have alot to learn and research on him, but in a couple of points:
The Pros:
- Speed. Anatoli Firsov was not only fast, he was perhaps one of the fastest player of All-Time. He was well recognize as being faster than Valeri Kharlamov.
- Anatoli was an excellent goalscorer and easily had one of the hardest shot of his generation. No wonder he was compared as the 'European Bobby Hull'
- Smart. It was said that the only thing faster than Firsov was his brain. A very smart player.
- Renown as a very clever stickhandler
- Strength. I'm still unsure if Firsov was the kind of player who threw his body around, but his conditional was better than 99.9% of the hockey players population. He was strong as an ox.
- Willingness to win. A good leader.
Both of the first two points are extremely important to the fast transition team I want to built. With Harvey and Lach feeding passes to Firsov, the trio would be a threat to watch. So with so much going on for him, why a guy like Firsov gets taken this late (and later) in numerous draft?
The Cons:
- The competition level Firsov played against through his career (mostly 1960's). This point alone and what you think of it is the difference of someone thinking Firsov as the best russian player of All-Time and Top-50, or if you barely see him as a Top-100 hockey player. I'm not good doing those king of crunching number kind of research, but I'll see what I can find. If anyone knows a good research or information on this subject, feel free to help me on that!
- Anatoli Firsov played his best hockey and for many years with one coach, who he considered his adoptive father. At the trail of his career, when that coach was left behind, he had various trouble playing for any other coach. It's probably the main reason why he was not selected to play in the Summit Serie. He played under various other coach, but he's player who I think need a certain kind of coach to thrive.