Guy Lafleur's six year peak

[daver]

In terms of individual accomplishments in the regular season and in the playoffs, and his team's success, which players had a better six year stretch than Lafleur?

I will start with the Big Four. One could make an argument against Mario but he did enough to show he the clearly the better hockey player, which, IMO, is the foundation for a player comparison.

Beliveau ('55 to '60) comes to mind with one more Cup but he wasn't as dominant in the playoffs as Lafleur was and had only one Ross.

Esposito ('69 to '74) was statistically more dominant in the regular season and was similarly dominant in the playoffs but not as consistent.

Jagr ('95 to '00) and McDavid ('19 to '24) had multiple Rosses but no playoff success although McDavid's 2024 run might as well count as a Cup. Hull has a similar story.

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[VanIslander]

The thing is: one is not like the others.

After Bowman left Montreal, Lafleur had just one great year at the tail end of his Matterhorn-steep half-decade peak.

The Flower went on to pedestrian years and 1st-round playoff exits until a late conference final run where... he contributed zero goals, three assists.

 

[VanIslander]

Peak vs. Career becomes more significant when the overall career sucks.

 

[daver]

The thing is: one is not like the others.

After Bowman left Montreal, Lafleur had just one great year at the tail end of his Matterhorn-steep half-decade peak.

The Flower went on to pedestrian years and 1st-round playoff exits until a late conference final run where... he contributed zero goals, three assists.

This has nothing to do with the OP.