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Favorite NHL Player of All Time - Your Top 3

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Alexei Kovalev
Brian Leetch
Pavel Bure

Honorable mentions to James Patrick and Darren Turcotte.

Didn't see enough of in-his-prime Gretzky to rank him, and Lemieux caused me too much pain to put him on the list.

I have to say that Connor McDavid sure is rising up the ranks recently...
 
BrooklynRangersFan said:
Alexei Kovalev
Brian Leetch
Pavel Bure

Honorable mentions to James Patrick and Darren Turcotte.

Didn't see enough of in-his-prime Gretzky to rank him, and Lemieux caused me too much pain to put him on the list.

I have to say that Connor McDavid sure is rising up the ranks recently...
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Surprised you didn't see much of Wayne. Wayne has to be pretty close in age to James Patrick.
 
sabremike said:
True story: I was at the game where Richter tied the record for consecutive wins by a goalie. Was like 14 or 15 in my green Whalers Jersey down by where the visiting team entered and exited at MSG. When the Whalers were coming off the ice I saw Big Jim McKenzie (another one of my faves) had picked up the puck and I asked him if I could have the puck. He saw me in a Whalers Jersey in a sea of Rangers fans and dutifully flipped me the puck. So somewhere in my Mom's house in a closet rests a piece of hockey history: The puck from when Richter tied the consecutive wins record.
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That's a cool story.

Sorry the economy changed in the area because the Whalers fans were loyal and it was a loud arena.

Also, aside from the tail end of the franchise in the civic center, they actually iced some pretty good teams that weren't quite good enough to the larger market teams.

The Penguins trade was one of the worst in NHL history and it was the death knell for Hartford.

Also, ewww…on the Pierre McGuire thing.
 
Inferno said:
I'm 100% sure nobody will agree with me, but imho, if you ignore heart/effort, and hockey sense. Alexei Kovalev is the 2nd most talented player of all time behind Jaromir Jagr. I'm talking about skating, hands, passing, shooting, dangle, etc, etc, etc. Those are the guys who consistently had my jaw on the floor.

AK27 was an incredible player to watch..and if he didnt have some long bouts of laziness he'd be a first ballot hall of famer. And he's still got a 1000 nhl points.
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Bouts of knee injuries and linemates that weren't even reading the same book*

Still hate reading of laziness, when people were watching him "being lazy" they couldn't tell me where the other guys were on the ice or what those guys were doing all the while.

The best other example I've seen of the sort was watching Keith Ballard and Kris Versteeg in their last Panthers seasons. They'd try to take the puck up, get to point of conversion, then his teammates were standing around looking stupid instead of getting open for a pass. Then the great minds like those writing for the Hockey News would write about their turnovers instead of what I saw from 14 rows off the ice. Frustrating as hell.

Best hands this game ever seen and my favorite player growing up.

1)Kovalev/Lundqvist
2)Richter
3)Bure

Kovalev and Richter belong in the HHOF. I respect no argument against.
 
CHGoalie27 said:
Bouts of knee injuries and linemates that weren't even reading the same book*

Still hate reading of laziness, when people were watching him "being lazy" they couldn't tell me where the other guys were on the ice or what those guys were doing all the while.

The best other example I've seen of the sort was watching Keith Ballard and Kris Versteeg in their last Panthers seasons. They'd try to take the puck up, get to point of conversion, then his teammates were standing around looking stupid instead of getting open for a pass. Then the great minds like those writing for the Hockey News would write about their turnovers instead of what I saw from 14 rows off the ice. Frustrating as hell.

Best hands this game ever seen and my favorite player growing up.

1)Kovalev/Lundqvist
2)Richter
3)Bure

Kovalev and Richter belong in the HHOF. I respect no argument against.
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He gets flack because not because he was necessarily lazy, but because he was very stubborn. He also had his best days outside of New York. On the Rangers, Kovalev maxed at 24 goals and 58 points, both of which happened in 1996 before the NHL dead puck era and the Rangers dark era.

He tried to play his own game a lot. He also wasn't even as good as Fedorov on offense let alone being the 3 zone player Fedorov was.

His raw talent was without question, but his insane stickhandling white washed his bad team play at times.
 
ReggieDunlop68 said:
He gets flack because not because he was necessarily lazy, but because he was very stubborn. He also had his best days outside of New York. On the Rangers, Kovalev maxed at 24 goals and 58 points, both of which happened in 1996 before the NHL dead puck era and the Rangers dark era.

He tried to play his own game a lot. He also wasn't even as good as Fedorov on offense let alone being the 3 zone player Fedorov was.

His raw talent was without question, but his insane stickhandling white washed his bad team play at times.
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Pretty much!
 
CHGoalie27 said:
Bouts of knee injuries and linemates that weren't even reading the same book*

Still hate reading of laziness, when people were watching him "being lazy" they couldn't tell me where the other guys were on the ice or what those guys were doing all the while.

The best other example I've seen of the sort was watching Keith Ballard and Kris Versteeg in their last Panthers seasons. They'd try to take the puck up, get to point of conversion, then his teammates were standing around looking stupid instead of getting open for a pass. Then the great minds like those writing for the Hockey News would write about their turnovers instead of what I saw from 14 rows off the ice. Frustrating as hell.

Best hands this game ever seen and my favorite player growing up.

1)Kovalev/Lundqvist
2)Richter
3)Bure

Kovalev and Richter belong in the HHOF. I respect no argument against.
Click to expand...

Kovalev had lights out talent but it took him a while to learn how to use it. I remember seeing him in Binghamton a couple times in his rookie pro season and he would skate through and around guys and through and around them again and then through and around them again--all in just one shift--once he got the puck nobody else touched it until he left the ice. She opposing team couldn't get the puck away from him but OTOH his ragging the puck into and out of and into and out of the offensive zone again and again without sharing it with his teammates or getting any really good attempts on goal--it was just ridiculous. He had the skill and the stamina where he could hang on the puck for a 5 minute shift--it's just that he wasn't getting anything done.

In some respects early Kovalev resembles early Kreider. Chris though would be flying around at full speed--not knowing where he should be--not knowing who he was covering and in as phenomenal shape as he was coming back to the bench absolutely gassed. Hockey IQ is something both of these guys needed to work at and neither one of them ever going to be a genius when it comes to that. Kovalev's skill level was just lights out though--it's up there with Brian Leetch--as good as anyone I've ever seen put a Rangers jersey on. Leetch was a lot smarter player though.
 
eco's bones said:
Kovalev had lights out talent but it took him a while to learn how to use it. I remember seeing him in Binghamton a couple times in his rookie pro season and he would skate through and around guys and through and around them again and then through and around them again--all in just one shift--once he got the puck nobody else touched it until he left the ice. She opposing team couldn't get the puck away from him but OTOH his ragging the puck into and out of and into and out of the offensive zone again and again without sharing it with his teammates or getting any really good attempts on goal--it was just ridiculous. He had the skill and the stamina where he could hang on the puck for a 5 minute shift--it's just that he wasn't getting anything done.

In some respects early Kovalev resembles early Kreider. Chris though would be flying around at full speed--not knowing where he should be--not knowing who he was covering and in as phenomenal shape as he was coming back to the bench absolutely gassed. Hockey IQ is something both of these guys needed to work at and neither one of them ever going to be a genius when it comes to that. Kovalev's skill level was just lights out though--it's up there with Brian Leetch--as good as anyone I've ever seen put a Rangers jersey on. Leetch was a lot smarter player though.
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Exactly.

Today people say "what could he have been", and I always say he "was what he was".

He rounded out his game later in his career. I didn't expect him to be a good captain for Montreal, but he did pretty well in that role. I think that at some point even he couldn't rely on just skating through everyone.

Also, one thing that irks me with the general Kovalev analysis isn't so much just about him.

It's more to do with current talent analysis when people get blinded by raw skills when rating the quality of an NHL player.

The fact is the best NHL players end up having the best results. I'm not just saying a cup, but overall their effectiveness in the league in readily witnessed overtime. Whereas a lot of individually gifted players never seem to "put it all together" when in reality they don't bring synergy to a team at the elite NHL level.
 
My favorites who never played for the Rangers would be Karlsson, Hasek, and Keith. HM to Subban and Iginla.

Kevin Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith also would have been high up that list but now they're home :yo:
 
Oh and I almost forgot! I love Zdeno Chara because he's big and he's scary but he's actually really good.

And because he's so big and scary he doesn't get credit for the skill he has or the work he puts in. He's an extremely intelligent player.

If he were 5'10", obviously his style would change, but he's absolutely still an NHL player.
 
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