I'd say he better than guys like...
No issues with any of this. Like, I'm not sure I can agree with each point in totality, but it's all reasonable.
If we're just talking about the period from '98-'01, then yes, you can put Yashin on Sundin's level as well, I'd say. Sundin was definitely the superior period across the longer dead puck era and had a much career overall, but there was a three or four year period during which Yashin was on his level. I'd say Yashin was better than Francis from '98'01.
Naw. I don't really think you can just look at how a player's most recent season went, and declare it the measure of the man. Sundin was just this hyper-competent centre who did everything he was asked to do, very well, every game, every season. And with Francis you had someone who was among the very best in the game defensively - enough so that I'd take his 70 points over just about anyone else's 70 points any time, and that you'd have to best that level of offense, by a large amount, consistently, before I'd let that go. A team with Francis or Sundin as their top centre in the late 90s knew what they were getting every year, and what they were getting was very good.
Yes, they were better. If you wanted to win.
You would not choose Rob Niedermayer or Steve Rucchin as your number one centre if you wanted to win. Don't be silly.
For that matter, Bobby Holik's tenure as the Devil's top centre suggests that having him in that position is actively detrimental to his team's success, given that they won 3 cups before and after the period I looked at, and zero playoff series during that time.
You're entitled to your opinion on Peca, and I can imagine (but wouldn't buy) some sort of tortured argument that Ricci was the primary reason those Sharks teams weren't basement dwellers but...man...
"Old Gretzky" was the NHL leader in assists in two of his last three seasons and the rags' top scorer his last season. It's laughable that you think any GM in his right mind would compare Gretzky at his oldest with Yashin at his, er, "best".
With Gretzky, you knew his decline and eventual retirement was coming. Nobody wants to make that comparison because it isn't any more pleasant that watching family members get old and frail, but if Gretzky was your top centre starting 1998, you had a guy who was already not taking his teams to the playoffs on his back, and was absolutely not going to get better. That takes him out of the conversation with Modano, Sakic, et al.
Oates is equally absurd! There's no universe in which Yashin>Oates.
....if you want, sure? But of the players listed, they still fall comfortably within the same large tier of bona fide first-line centres who aren't Joe Sakic.
(I haven't read this thread closely and might not be back because the thread title itself gives me a stomachache. The guy scored one mere assist in his last two postseasons in Ottawa, booed out of town, then scored a mere assist in his last two postseasons on Long island, booed out of town. **** him.)
I imagine lots of stupid moves have been made in past by GMs whose talented players "gave them a stomachache".
