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.

Click to read more...

 

[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.

 

[VanIslander]

This has nothing to do with the OP.

A:"Which player had more goals in their first three seasons?"
B: "One of those guys never scored after year 4."

A legit reply.

Why tailor-make 6 years to Lafleur's great years?

Usually it is 5-year or 7-year or 10-year spans.

If you wanna say: Who was better over a 6-year span than Lafleur then throw the gauntlet down and make your intentions clear!

Otherwise, related comments are common.

 

[daver]

A:"Which player had more goals in their first three seasons?"
B: "One of those guys never scored after year 4."

A legit reply.

Why tailor-make 6 years to Lafleur's great years?

Usually it is 5-year or 7-year or 10-year spans.

If you wanna say: Who was better over a 6-year span than Lafleur then throw the gauntlet down and make your intentions clear!

Otherwise, related comments are common.

Because I wanted to. If you want to make a thread about other spans, go right ahead.

I have no agenda other than to highlight Guy's peak level; something that can be downplayed given the lead up to and the years after.

 

[VanIslander]

The most pp goals by far with 108 powerplay goals the last 6 years is is by whom?

Not runner-up 74-goal Reinhart nor 72-goal tied third Kreider, Pastrnak, Zibanejag. Nor distant Mc, Mac, Matthews.

The last six-year peak in pp goals is by far by... Draisaitl!!!

The only better powerplay point scorer than Lafleur during the 1970s was Espo, Perreault, Dionne!

 

[MadLuke]

If you wanna say: Who was better over a 6-year span than Lafleur then throw the gauntlet down and make your intentions clear!

Well that almost the exactly the thread, no ? Depending how much people take team success into it.

82-87, 83-88 and 84-89 Gretzky would be the 3 first 6 years span that come to mind.

Ridiculous amount of success (you have 84-87 cup canada in there as well)

 

[Matsun]

Gonna mention 2 guys that had their runs in the shadow of better players. Sakic:

Season	GP	P	PPG	PPG Rank	Playoff GP	Playoff P	Playoff point rank
95-96	82	120	1,46	5th	22	34	1st
96-97	65	74	1,14	11th	17	25	2nd
97-98	64	63	0,98	16th	6	5	-
98-99	73	96	1,32	3rd	19	19	4th
99-00	60	81	1,35	5th	17	9	-
00-01	82	118	1,44	1st	21	26	1st

Kucherov:

Season	GP	P	PPG	PPG Rank	Playoff GP	Playoff P	Playoff point rank
18-19	82	128	1,56	1st	3	2	-
19-20	68	85	1,25	8th	25	34	1st
20-21	-	-	-	-	23	32	1st
21-22	47	69	1,47	2nd	23	27	4th
22-23	82	113	1,38	5th	6	6	-
23-24	82	144	1,76	1st	5	7	-

Kind of similar runs. 2 cups as highest scorer. 2 super strong seasons. 1 very nice season (99/23) and 1 nice playoff run and some injuries.

 

[VanIslander]

Speaking of ridiculous success, this 29-year-old who had been best "rookie" two years prior, started the majority of games for the first time in the NHL and over that 6-year stretch:

• 5 Hart trophy finalist nods (two wins);
• 5 Vezinas (of course 1st team all star);
• 6-time consecutive leader in NHL save %
• The greatest international performance outside of the Summit Series.
• A Conn Smythe-robbed Game 6 Stanley Cup Finals run with a bunch of nobodies in Buffalo; a bad ref decision cost him a Game 7 chance to show that a team with zero HHOF skaters could win the cup over 7 HHOFers! He was that good.

A ridiculous NHL playoff game (talented NJ would go on to eke out a Game 7 win - only to face Messier's Game 7 guarantee later that 1994 spring):

Note: the 25th save was called "the save of the day!" but several candidates later came, including the clearly best 67th save.

 

[Overrated]

It's not going to be that many players since you purposefully picked a completely arbitrary "6 year" period. Impossible to make an argument against Lemieux I think. Gretzky who was Mario's equal peaked just a few years after Lafleur with 80 points more on average per season so it's safe to say that between the years 87/88 and 00/01 Mario's very worst season was still better than Lafleur's very best one.

Bossy had a better 6 year period imo. Better goal scorer, better defensively, better internationally. I'd probably pick all Beliveau, Hull and Esposito though I am not sure due to the specificity of the "6 year period". Sergei Makarov for sure was a superior player. I'd pick Yzerman, Jagr, Hasek Crosby, Ovechkin, McDavid too. There might be others but I am not sure it's gonna be close with a lot of players.

 

[MadLuke]

Do you have (not for Bossy which has an excellent argument) team success in account in that list of named player ? Prime Yzerman did not won much and was not even making team Canada to be better than Lafleur at it.