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Best player in the world by year: 1998

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Best player in the world: 1998

  • Total voters
    241
  • Poll closed .
FrankSidebottom

FrankSidebottom

Registered User
Mar 16, 2021
635
742
Timeframe here is pretty simple: 1998-2017. Starts in 1998 because otherwise it would be all Gretzky and Lemieux with rare exceptions or too early for a common fan, ends in 2016 because I feel 2017 is where McDavid becomes the consensus or near consensus pick. I’ll make a poll for every year.

It’s not about who swept every award that year but rather who you think was the best in his abilities even if he had a bit of a down year, bad luck or many injuries preventing from some real dominance. For example Forsberg didn’t play the entire 2001-2002 regular season but I’ll add him to the list for 2002.

Initial lists of players will come just from me, but I hope you will find them somewhat reasonable and objective. I might forget someone obvious, feel free to give your additional options. The only pure voluntarist decision of mine is to completely remove Lemieux from polls as it’s really hard to place him properly after the first retirement. Obviously there is an extremely strong argument for him being the best during all the missed and partial seasons, but still.
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If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay/Pearson, they are almost certainly the best player in the world in a given year.

A lot of the posters in these types of polls will give their guy a grace period but not the other players. Basically, it invites history revision.

Here's my list:

1998: Hasek (won Hart and Pearson)
1999: Jagr (won Hart and Pearson)
2000: Jagr (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2001: Sakic (Hart and Pearson)
2002: Up for debate
2003: Up for debate
2004: Martin St. Louis
2005: Lockout
2006: Up for debate
2007: Crosby (Hart and Pearson)
2008: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2009: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2010: Ovechkin (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2011: Up for debate
2012: Malkin (Hart and Lindsay)
2013: Up for debate
2014: Crosby (Hart and Lindsay)
2015: Price (Hart and Lindsay)
2016: Kane (Hart and Lindsay)
2017: McDavid (Hart and Lindsay)
 
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Midnight Judges said:
If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay, they are pretty much the best player in the world in a given year.

A lot of the posters in these types of polls will give their guy a grace period but not the other players. Basically, it invites history revision.
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Imagine Gretzky getting injured in 1984 and missing 40 games along with the Hart/Art Ross. It’s an extreme example, but sometimes it should be considered. The poll is not about who should have won the Hart.
 
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Midnight Judges said:
If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay/Pearson, they are almost certainly the best player in the world in a given year.

A lot of the posters in these types of polls will give their guy a grace period but not the other players. Basically, it invites history revision.

Here's my list:

1998: Hasek (won Hart and Pearson)
1999: Jagr (won Hart and Pearson)
2000: Jagr (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2001: Sakic (Hart and Pearson)
2002: Up for debate
2003: Up for debate
2004: Martin St. Louis
2005: Lockout
2006: Up for debate
2007: Crosby (Hart and Pearson)
2008: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2009: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2010: Ovechkin (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2011: Up for debate
2012: Malkin (Hart and Lindsay)
2013: Up for debate
2014: Crosby (Hart and Lindsay)
2015: Price (Hart and Lindsay)
2016: Kane (Hart and Lindsay)
2017: McDavid (Hart and Lindsay)
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Bolded is Forsberg. The question was who was the best player in the word, not who played the most games.

You can’t look at awards to determine who the BEST player was, cause that automatically excludes all players who played like less than 72 games or so. It’s like saying, Makar can’t be the best Dman currently in the NHL cause he didn’t win the Norris last season. If Karlsson doesn’t repeat next season while Cale stays healthy it will probably be commonly accepted for the afterworld that Makar was the top dog Dman for the entire time frame, including last season despite missing time. The same way Forsberg was the best player in the league from the 2002 playoffs until his mid season injury in 2006 despite all the games he missed in total during that period, and that’s pretty commonly accepted among people who have looked into the case.

For the record: It’s an absolute joke to claim St Louis was a better player than Forsberg in 2004, I think most hockey fans with any kind of knowledge agrees on that.
 
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Midnight Judges said:
If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay/Pearson, they are almost certainly the best player in the world in a given year.
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Forward.

If you want to proceed with the notion that forwards are inherently better players than defensemen with the exceedingly rare goalie mixed in, let's just announce that on the onset and save a lot of time.

I, of course, disagree with that notion.
 
Midnight Judges said:
If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay/Pearson, they are almost certainly the best player in the world in a given year.
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What a rubbish argument. No, obviously awards don’t always determine who the BEST player is since you usually have to play at least ~75 games to be considered. A lot of elite players through the years have played less games than that while still being the best player.

norrisnick said:
Or you know, Lidstrom. Who actually played and was better to boot.
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Except he wasn’t
 
The best player based on talent/abilities but award finishes, injuries, form, etc don't matter? Everyone is just going to give their favourite player because how exactly is that supposed to be measured? Based on the criteria I'd say

97/98-05/06: Jagr
06/07: Crosby
07/08-09/10: OV
10/11-15/16: Crosby
16/17-present: McDavid
 
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Voted Jagr. He outscored the second highest scorer (Selanne) by 20 points that season and his next-highest scoring teammate (Straka) by 44 points.

And for the record I don't think McDavid was better than Crosby in 2017. Btw I'm a Flyers fan so I'm anything but a Penguins fan in case anyone thinks my Jagr and Crosby comments are biased.
 
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Turin said:
Crosby was .1 ppg lower but won the Rocket, Conn Smythe and Cup. McDavid era started 2018.
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Yah, Crosby scored more goals, scored at basically the same rate and played much better defense. Probably should have won the Hart.
 
Houndstooth said:
Voted Jagr. He outscored the second highest scorer (Selanne) by 20 points that season and his next-highest scoring teammate (Straka) by 44 points.

And for the record I don't think McDavid was better than Crosby in 2017. Btw I'm a Flyers fan so I'm anything but a Penguins fan in case anyone thinks my Jagr and Crosby comments are biased.
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Wrong. Forsberg was the 2nd highest scorer 11 points behind Jagr with 5 fewer games played and a superior 2 way game. I’d say it’s a toss up between Forsberg and Jagr in 98 who the best player was. Both had a significant margin to the rest of the league in points per game too.

(Side note: Selanne was only 8th in scoring so you’re obviously looking at the wrong season.)
 
Midnight Judges said:
If a player wins the Hart and Lindsay/Pearson, they are almost certainly the best player in the world in a given year.

A lot of the posters in these types of polls will give their guy a grace period but not the other players. Basically, it invites history revision.

Here's my list:

1998: Hasek (won Hart and Pearson)
1999: Jagr (won Hart and Pearson)
2000: Jagr (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2001: Sakic (Hart and Pearson)
2002: Up for debate
2003: Up for debate
2004: Martin St. Louis
2005: Lockout
2006: Up for debate
2007: Crosby (Hart and Pearson)
2008: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2009: Ovechkin (Hart and Pearson)
2010: Ovechkin (2nd for Hart and Pearson)
2011: Up for debate
2012: Malkin (Hart and Lindsay)
2013: Up for debate
2014: Crosby (Hart and Lindsay)
2015: Price (Hart and Lindsay)
2016: Kane (Hart and Lindsay)
2017: McDavid (Hart and Lindsay)
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Definitely Iginla in 02. Was robbed of that Hart due to some shady voting in MTL as I remember
 
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