Greatest 'Foreign' player ever who graced the NHL?

[BlueSeal]

Objectively, sure, but in terms of starting his NHL career for purposes of comparing the greats, he was 26 when he came over. Martin Brodeur was 20/21 when his career began, and so was Roy.

Hasek starting his NHL career at 26 and doing all he's done just makes what he's accomplished even more insane. It's like he gave everyone else a head start before he steamrolled.

 

[psycat]

Hasek
Jagr
Lidström
Ovechkin

In that order but really they are all pretty much interchangeable depending on what you value and due to the fact that it's hard to compare goalies, defencemen and forwards. Now number 5 is where it's hard to pick.

 

[Chet Manley]

'Greatest foreign player who ever graced the NHL'?

Easy answer: Hasek. Name me another player who carried an entire team single-handedly to Olympic Gold. Six Vezinas. And that's tip of the iceberg.

Done here.

This isn't how I remember it but it's been decades. Jagr was nearly the sole focus of the other teams defence yet was still a handful to contain and opened up the ice for his teammates. He didn't slay in points but there's no way that team wins gold without him. That was my impression at the time anyway.

 

[Svechhammer]

Given the Cup has remained in the US for the last 31 years making the NHL a US sport, I'll go ahead and say Wayne Gretzky

 

[TheStatican]

I can’t get on board with your 2,150-2,250 or more prediction had he stayed in the NHL though. 1) he may not have been able to hold up had he stuck around in NHL vs playing in Europe and 2) he scored 71pts the year before he left and 54pts the year he came back…those predictions would require him to have been scoring 76-110pts each of those years. So, the low end guess I think would have fairly unlikely and the high end basically impossible

Seems like you're overlooking 1994-95 and 2004-05. By '95, Jagr was one of the league’s top two players in the game and missed out on around 50 points (including 20 goals) due to the lockout. The impact of 2005 is less certain, depending on whether the league would have made the same scoring changes as they did in '06. Either way, he was still performing at a point-per-game level, so conservatively, we're looking at 80 points and in the range of 30-40 goals. But hitting 100 points that season also isn’t entirely unrealistic, as leaving Washington rejuvenated his career.

As for the three years he played in Russia, an additional 200-210 points (with 80-90 goals) is more than reasonable. Though personally I have a hard time believing he would have just been a high 60 high 20 goal guy in everyone of those years, he had years where his scoring popped when he was much older. That said I do agree he would have retired earlier because of that extra mileage, though considering the dude is still playing hockey today I don't think he loses more than 3 years - his longevity is legendary, second only to Howe. That cuts off 44 goals and 119 points from his totals. Taking all that into account and his career totals end in the range of 2,130 and 2,160 points and 850-870 goals.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Ovi> Jagr

 

[Kegs]

Wayne Gretzky

 

[the valiant effort]

There's also the argument that the competition for the Norris between 2001 and 2001 was weak. Bourque, Chelios and MacInnis all got old. Pronger got hurt. Who else was there competing for the Norris those years? Neidermeyer? Blake? Phaneuf?

Exactly. Way too much stock is put into hardware.

 

[Killswitch]

Hasek. OV, Jagr and Lidstrom were great but, Hasek wasn't just great. He broke men and for one night, destroyed a country

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think it's cool that Jagr, Ovechkin and Hasek are all not just great players but memorable personalities. You could say the same about Kucherov, who will be up there when his career ends as well

 

[Dirty Dog]

It’s impossible to compare goalies and skaters. But I have it as Jagr

 

[boompuffboom]

loaded question.

i think im going with Lidstrom. All of the above are insanely close.

 

[DJJones]

Ya if I had a time machine and knew their careers I'd probably go Lidstrom in terms of who do I draft first