Toggle sidebar

Biggest legacy jump?

Whose legacy takes the biggest jump if they win the Conn Smythe this year?

  • Draisaitl

    Votes: 11 9.3%

  • Kucherov

    Votes: 7 5.9%

  • MacKinnon

    Votes: 7 5.9%

  • Matthews

    Votes: 75 63.6%

  • McDavid

    Votes: 18 15.3%
  • Total voters
    118

daver

Registered User
Apr 4, 2003
25,954
6,929
Visit site
Whose legacy takes the biggest jump if they win the Conn Smythe this year (along with winning the Cup)?

Draisaitl could get the rare Hart/Conn Smythe combo while outplaying McDavid

Kucherov gets a 3rd Cup and separates himself from MacKinnon and Draisaitl for #2 player of his era and gets surprisingly close to McDavid for #1 player

Matthews makes it a Big 5 for the era

MacKinnon cements his playoff legacy and joins McDavid as co-Best Player in the World

McDavid, at worst, joins Crosby in the #5 player all-time debate
 
Matthews AINEC, all the other guys have secured their legacies, they could retire tomorrow and they would go down as legends with amazing playoff performances.

Matthews if he retired tomorrow would go down as arguably the most disappointing player in NHL history, in his 55 playoff games there are other 100 other players who have had equal/better production. Matthews is a guy who literally has a non zero chance of breaking the all time goal record, yet you could easily make the case he isn't top 100 playoff performers of all time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ghetty Green, ottawa, TheLegend27 and 7 others
TheLegend27 said:
The easy answer is McDavid, but a sneaky one could be Ovechkin. With a second cup and Smythe, he may surpass Crosby or at-least have an argument over him for the all time rankings.
Click to expand...
There is basically zero chance that Ovechkin is winning a Conn smythe this year, have you watched him play?

I took Drai for the poll and every guys listed in the order of the OP.

Let's go backwards in the list.

McDavid is tracking top 5 player of all time, he doesn't need a Conn smythe and will probably still be in that area as he is trending that way.

Same thing for Matthews although I guess getting somewhere in the playoffs would certainly help his all time resume and legacy but his legacy is going to rest on his health the rest of the way IMO.

Mack and Kuch both have their legacies pretty much in place with their regular season and playoff resumes so far and hove they are trending as the undeniable top forwards on their teams.

Sure a Conn Smythe will add to any players legacy but still.

Drai is in the same place, except he plays with McDavid and the OP continually ignores Drai being injured in the playoffs but I would pick him for this poll even if that wasn't the case but it sure helps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Duke74 and TheLegend27
Among the realistic options, I’d say Draisaitl.

This season really shows he’s a second Batman on the same team and not a Robin. Winning a CS would raise his profile a ton.

McDavid is already seen as best of his generation. While it would help his legacy, the impact is lesser.

Kuch and MacK are already acknowledged as the offensive centrepieces of their respective teams so again I don’t see the impact being quite as large.

In a vacuum, obviously Matthews, but I really don’t see that as realistic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Duke74, Coffee and wetcoast
I'm surprised McDavid has such a large percentage of the votes. He's already won a Conn Smythe (and a strong one at that). I guess people are assuming he'll win the Cup if he wins the Smythe again this year (and yes, that would silence some people).

But the answer is Matthews. The other guys on the list have reputations for producing in the playoffs and being good playoff performers in general. He does not. If he wins a Conn Smythe and brings a Cup to Toronto, all the playoff failures will be forgotten and he'll be lionized both short and long term.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yozhik v tumane
GlitchMarner said:
I'm surprised McDavid has such a large percentage of the votes. He's already won a Conn Smythe (and a strong one at that). I guess people are assuming he'll win the Cup if he wins the Smythe again this year (and yes, that would silence some people).
Click to expand...

I think that’s what it is. There’s an assumption that another Conn Smythe means a Cup this time for McDavid and that has the double effect of getting the monkey off his back forever and taking up permanent residence as no worse than #5 all-time for the foreseeable future.

No other player on the list gains quite so much in so little time.

To be sure, they all would gain something very valuable and Matthews would probably be a close second, having all that pressure and perceived failure evaporate completely.
 
wetcoast said:
There is basically zero chance that Ovechkin is winning a Conn smythe this year
Click to expand...
Ovechkin is +4000 to win the Conn Smythe. That's an implied probability of 2.4 %. While yes, "basically zero" is not crazy far off, that has a lot to do with... well it's hard to win a Smythe as you basically gotta win the Cup (I guess once every 20 years exception) and then be the chosen one out of the 4-5 contenders on an individual team, which could have more variance to it than say, a regular season team MVP because it's only 16 wins to get there.

For comparison, Matthews and Kucherov are +3000. McDavid and MacKinnon have the HIGHEST odds of winning at +1500 each, which is implied probability of 6.25 % each.

The scenario for Ovechkin to win the Smythe isn't *that* crazy. It's basically Washington win the Cup and Ovechkin bangs in a bunch of goals en route to getting there. If you have watched Washington this year, you would know that's certainly possible given Ovechkin has a rather large lead in team goal scoring even with fairly substantial missed time.

He is the "co-favorite" amongst Washington with goaltender Logan Thompson also at +4000. The bigger hurdle is really that Washington is seen as a very unlikely Cup champion - in a 4-way tie for "5th favorite" at +1100 (implied probability of 8.33 %).

So sure your statement is not wrong, technically, but it's a rather manipulative way of framing it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lafleurs Guy, Voight, TheLegend27 and 2 others
I feel like it depends a lot on the nature of the conn smythe. Is it a legacy win like ovi or Crosby or Kane where they marginally won it and other players likely deserved it more? Is it a dominating performance? That means different things for different players.

I believe McDavid is far ahead of the pack as an individual player. I don’t think he has much to rise. If he wins a cup at all, which seems likely to me, he will be #5 all time. So he can’t really move up that much.

Matthews is an interesting case as he could shed himself of his biggest weakness in reputation. As I think about it more it’s him id likely pick as the most to gain.

Drai if he has a conn smyth that really carries the team, like Malkin with Crosby, could rise up like 20 spots on my all time list. But it looks like he is already going to rise 10 due to his year, and probable top 2 finish for the hart. IMO he deserves the hart, not the guy who is one goal up on Ryan donato. If mackinnon werent Canadian, with the full force of their hockey media he’d be 3rd in this years race behind Drai and Kuch and he would have lost to Kuch last year. In that case, MacKinnon would have the most to gain. Instead he’s had a significant award handed to him already, and probably will again soon.

Kuch already deserved the conn smythe in my opinion. Underrated player next to the rest, honestly, probably due to location and nationality. I don’t see him rising much. Hockey writers from Canada and the boobs that follow them, will still try to find some way to write him off. It’s the media that makes stories, another point for Matthews. He’s in hockey central, as important or more to the largest Canadian populace than his nationality, as well as being an east time zone team.
 
Last edited:
WarriorofTime said:
Ovechkin is +4000 to win the Conn Smythe. That's an implied probability of 2.4 %. While yes, "basically zero" is not crazy far off, that has a lot to do with... well it's hard to win a Smythe as you basically gotta win the Cup (I guess once every 20 years exception) and then be the chosen one out of the 4-5 contenders on an individual team, which could have more variance to it than say, a regular season team MVP because it's only 16 wins to get there.

For comparison, Matthews and Kucherov are +3000. McDavid and MacKinnon have the HIGHEST odds of winning at +1500 each, which is implied probability of 6.25 % each.

The scenario for Ovechkin to win the Smythe isn't *that* crazy. It's basically Washington win the Cup and Ovechkin bangs in a bunch of goals en route to getting there. If you have watched Washington this year, you would know that's certainly possible given Ovechkin has a rather large lead in team goal scoring even with fairly substantial missed time.

He is the "co-favorite" amongst Washington with goaltender Logan Thompson also at +4000. The bigger hurdle is really that Washington is seen as a very unlikely Cup champion - in a 4-way tie for "5th favorite" at +1100 (implied probability of 8.33 %).

So sure your statement is not wrong, technically, but it's a rather manipulative way of framing it.
Click to expand...
No I purposely worded it that way because Ovechkin isn't driving play, isn't a positive factor 5 on 5 and yes he is scoring goals but he's not going to play at a Conn Smythe rate if the Capitals actually win the SC.

This isn't even close to being a hot take, it's reality.
 
wetcoast said:
No I purposely worded it that way because Ovechkin isn't driving play, isn't a positive factor 5 on 5 and yes he is scoring goals but he's not going to play at a Conn Smythe rate if the Capitals actually win the SC.

This isn't even close to being a hot take, it's reality.
Click to expand...
Um no it's just you stirring up trouble. Of course it's unlikely Ovechkin wins the Conn Smythe, he's 39 years old. If Washington wins the Cup, he's got a great shot though, they don't give Conn Smythes for CF% most of the time. Goal production is often a huge factor in it and if Washington wins the Cup, their best goal scorer scoring a lot of them could likely play a huge role in it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lafleurs Guy
wetcoast said:
but he's not going to play at a Conn Smythe rate if the Capitals actually win the SC.

This isn't even close to being a hot take, it's reality.
Click to expand...

It's definitely a hot take.

Ovie's first 18 games this season:

15 goals and 25 points - which is a level of play that would often win a Conn Smythe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lafleurs Guy
zar said:
If McDavid wins another Conn Smythe, he’s winning the Cup. If he wins a Cup, he’s gets rid of that last thing that some people say he needs to be considered to be in that Mount Rushmore debate.
Click to expand...

Yes people say it, and it is very dumb.

So McDavid's 1300+ game career is going to hinge entirely on one game 7? It's just a bad way of evaluating a player IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheLegend27 and zar
Midnight Judges said:
Yes people say it, and it is very dumb.

So McDavid's 1300+ game career is going to hinge entirely on one game 7? It's just a bad way of evaluating a player IMO.
Click to expand...
Do not disagree with you at all… unfortunately people with dumb takes (many personally motivated) have access to voice their opinions and we tend to read them. It would be great if a McDavid Cup win could mitigate this… I say this even if it’s not with the Oilers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheLegend27 and Video Nasty
WarriorofTime said:
Um no it's just you stirring up trouble. Of course it's unlikely Ovechkin wins the Conn Smythe, he's 39 years old. If Washington wins the Cup, he's got a great shot though, they don't give Conn Smythes for CF% most of the time. Goal production is often a huge factor in it and if Washington wins the Cup, their best goal scorer scoring a lot of them could likely play a huge role in it.
Click to expand...
No I've watched him play and the stats back it up.

Second in offensive zone starts and 11th on the Capitals in terms of +/- and that's even with him often slipping off the cie as the puck goes back the other way.

He's 39 there is no shame in being an older player in the NHL and not being a legitimate Conn Smythe Candidate.

8 of his 36 goals are EN ones that's not going to happen in the playoffs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom