The Panther
Registered User
Interesting.My conviction is that Pronger was the most valuable playoff player in this century. Tilted the ice moreso than anybody else.
I'm not sure I agree, but it's certainly food for thought.
At evens, from 2001 playoffs to 2010 playoffs, Pronger went +47 in 121 playoff games. In comparable numbers of games, Rafalski was +38 and Lidstrom +32. Pronger, in fact, had the highest 'plus' of any NHLer over that span.
Pronger was also 11th in ES scoring over that span, though one point behind Rafalski among D-men. But his ES point production was higher than Niedermayer or Lidstrom in this period, and he had a higher plus/minus.
So, the stats certainly look impressive, and anyone who watched Pronger in his prime during a Cup run knows how strong he was. The only caveat is that his stats here don't really look any different from Brian Rafalski's, a non-Hall of Famer.
Would Connor McDavid not (by this point) trump Pronger for "tilting the ice", though?
Since McDavid's first playoff 8 seasons ago, he has more playoff points than any NHLer except Kucherov, and he's only 8 points behind him in 26 fewer games.
Over the past five years, McDavid has scored at a 145-points-per-82GP pace in the playoffs. Nobody else is even close to that.
(McDavid also has the best plus/minus the past three seasons, despite not winning a Cup.)