How did Peter Stastny separate himself so much from Marian and Anton when that wasn't the case in the Czechoslovakian league?

[Felidae]

Didn't want to derail the other thread with this question, but I'm legitimately curious. If you look at how they did in the Czechoslovakian league, Marian and Anton were just as productive as Peter, and that wasn't the case when they arrived in the NHL. They all played on the same team too, which makes it all the more interesting.

Let's look at Marian Stastny's production before Anton and Peter joined the team (or before the stats were available for them)

In 74-75, he was 21 years old. 63 points, 36 goals in 43 games. He was 3rd in the league in both goals and points.

75-76, Peter Stastny's stats are available as a 19 year old. Marian and Peter both finish the season with 28 points.


In 76-77, Marian was only 2 points behind Stastny. (48 to 50). Basically the same amount of games played, with Marian scoring 4 more goals.


In 77-78, Marian leads the team in points with 56, Peter is only 3 points behind. Anton enters the picture as an 18 year old with a solid 36 point campaign. They are all within 1 or two games of each other.



78-79, Marian has a 19 point lead over Peter with 74 points. Anton Stastny has 51 points, only 4 behind Peter despite being 3 years younger.

And in 79-80 (their final season), Anton leads the team in points with 56, 6 ahead of Peter. Marian only plays 22 games but actually leads the team in PPG. (A 65 point pace had he played the same amount of games)

So Marian's 21 and 25 year old seasons in the czechoslovakian league are the best between the 3 players. Yes, Peter left at 23 years old, but his 21 and 22 year old seasons don't come close to Marian's 21 year old season.

And Anton's trajectory seemed to be better than Peter's. Outproducing Peter's 19 year old season by 51 to 28. Even Anton's 18 year old season was more productive (36 to 28). Then in their final season together, 20 year old Anton eventually outproduces both Peter and Marian.

Then they all enter the NHL, and the rest is history.. neither Anton nor Marian even reach the 100 point mark in the NHL, Peter goes on to have 7 100 point seasons (Though Marian likely would have in his 29 year old season, finished 9th in PPG). Marian at least has the excuse of being older and dealing with some injuries at the time, though Peter still managed 5th and 6th place point finishes at 29 and 31..

So what gives? What was it that made Peter separate himself so much from Anton and Marian production wise when that wasn't really the case in the czechoslovakian league?

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[VanIslander]

Irbe has a similar perception problem...

Irbe was honoured as the best goalkeeper of the 1990 tournament. He refused to play for the Soviet Union in 1991 because Latvia had proclaimed independence from the Soviet Union on 4 May 1990 and the Soviet government attempted to use military force in January 1991 to stop Latvia's independence. When the Moscow government sent tanks rolling to Riga, Irbe was among those who took to the streets and put up barriers to protect buildings, radio stations, TV towers, and historical landmarks.

 

[JackSlater]

Wouldn't hurt that Peter was the biggest of the brothers. Talent gaps also don't always become apparent until players go up to a higher level. It's not provable but I'm confident that various NHLers through history that people consider comparable would have a sizable gap if there were a tougher league for them to go to, sort of like how there are junior scoring stars that people just know won't amount to much once the NHL hits.

Peter was also selected as Czechoslovakian player of the year in 1980 even though Anton comfortably outscored him (Marian missed half the year but had much better points per game) but I assume some of that is Peter having a better Olympic tournament. Even then however Novy outscored Peter both in the league and at the Olympics.

 

[Felidae]

Wouldn't hurt that Peter was the biggest of the brothers. Talent gaps also don't always become apparent until players go up to a higher level. It's not provable but I'm confident that various NHLers through history that people consider comparable would have a sizable gap if there were a tougher league for them to go to, sort of like how there are junior scoring stars that people just know won't amount to much once the NHL hits.

Peter was also selected as Czechoslovakian player of the year in 1980 even though Anton comfortably outscored him (Marian missed half the year but had much better points per game) but I assume some of that is Peter having a better Olympic tournament. Even then however Novy outscored Peter both in the league and at the Olympics.

Hmm..

It does make sense, but I think i'd be more convinced if they were 18-19 year olds and not fully developed as players. (Marian and Peter)

Anton was just entering his prime, and Marian and Peter were already in theirs when they entered the NHL. Granted, Marian was 29 years old, so he was on the backend of his.

Interestingly, Marian did not play hockey in 1980-81. I'm not sure why, but that couldn't have helped his transition entering a completely new league.

Im his 2nd year however, he went from 25th in PPG to 9th in PPG, so maybe he shook off the rust and acclimated. Unfortunately, he also missed 22 games that season, so I wonder if that injury contributed to him not coming close to a PPG ever again, as he would continue to miss 14 and 32 games the following 2 seasons.

Another part of the puzzle as you said, is that peter was heavier and taller than the others.

Peter had 2 inches and 5 pounds on Marian, and an inch and 12 pounds on Anton.

A noticeable amount for sure, but not overly so. I'm not sure I entirely buy that explanation. Or at least, not to the degree that it would fully explain the gaps in their production at the NHL level.

 

[MadLuke]

Carbonneau said Peter was the player he hated playing against the most, Gretzky-Lemieux were better with more vision and harder in a way, but playing against Peter physically hurt, he had quite the mean streak and incredibly strong.

There could be more nhl style and the bigger, but Marian entered the league the age Anton was out of it, his numbers in Czech league had already going down and took an off year ?

How big of a difference there was could be exaggerated by him being post his peak by the time he enters the nhl.

 

[Overrated]

It was just Anton who underwhelmed.

Marian did not play for a year before defecting yet when he came back out of retirement in his first two NHL seasons which happened from 28 to 30 so already post peak he was 15th in PPG. I think that's quite impressive. Old Marian wasn't that much worse than Kurri, Messier or Nilsson. It shows how weak the forwards were back then. It's obvious Makarov Krutov or the KPM troika in the 1970s would dominate the NHL.