How good was Mats Naslund?

[Lexus]

As the title says, just how good was Naslund and how much did the Habs fans like him?

Also this, for those who haven't seen it yet, this is a great tribute to the 'Le Petit Viking' made by my friend in honor of his NHL journey with 'Hockeysverige.se' to the U.S some year ago, they said that he cried watching the clip.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Ah, Markus Näslund's father...

 

[Albatros]

Everyone better than him from that time is in the HHoF.

 

[sr edler]

Better than Pat Verbeek.

Ah, Markus Näslund's father...

Markus Näslund's dad Sture, the priest, actually spells his name with two ä like this → Sture Nääslund.

 

[Staniowski]

Naslund was a beautiful hockey player. Extremely talented with the puck. He had a great array of shots - wonderful slapshot, wrister, great one-timer. Deft stickhandler, great on breakaways, dekes. Very good passer, he was great on the PP. There weren't very many players in the '80s who had Naslund's pure talent. Also smart and hard-working.

 

[sr edler]

Mats works as a carpenter nowadays. Photos below are from an article in the paper Byggnadsarbetaren ("the construction worker") from 2017.

 

[Habsfan18]

Le Petit Viking is quite underrated historically, IMO. Such a smart little playmaker from the wing. Very strong on the puck for a guy his size.

 

[wetcoast]

He was probably considered as a top 20-25ish forward in the world during his prime.

Maybe a slightly less of a player than Brian Propp who was more of a shooter than Mats was.

 

[GlitchMarner]

He's the last Hab to have finished in the top ten in scoring, surprisingly.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Everyone better than him from that time is in the HHoF.

I'm not sure about that. I would say Larmer and Middleton were better and Propp may have been as well.

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

In my opinion he played like Makarov-lite. And that's a compliment.

 

[tony d]

He was a very solid player. Retired to early though.

 

[Theokritos]

He was a very solid player. Retired to early though.

He was 35 when he retired and would have been 36 in the following season. Is that too early?

 

[Habsfan18]

He was 35 when he retired and would have been 36 in the following season. Is that too early?

He was likely referring to leaving the NHL at 31.

 

[Theokritos]

He was likely referring to leaving the NHL at 31.

That's possible, but leaving the NHL isn't the same as retiring. Of course Näslund was still playing professional hockey at a pretty high level from 1990-1994, including the 1991 Canada Cup.

 

[crobro]

Kinda hybrid player cross between Dennis Maruk and Sergei Makarov

 

[The Panther]

He was extremely skilled. For five years from 1984 to 1989, he was the top Habs' forward, and the Habs were a very good team (two Cup Finals' appearances). They generally relied on four-line, two-way hockey, so Naslund probably never had his chance to put up some really big numbers, but he did score 110 points in 1985-86 and was a 2nd-team All Star.

Forty games into the 1985-86 season, these were the scoring leaders:
1. Gretzky 103
2. Naslund 71
3. Lemieux 70

So, for half a season, he was out-scoring Mario! (The difference being, in the latter half, Mario racked up another 71 points, while Naslund scored 39.)

 

[Vikke]

He's the last Hab to have finished in the top ten in scoring, surprisingly.

What, really? That’s amazing and sad at the same time.

 

[decma]

He's the last Hab to have finished in the top ten in scoring, surprisingly.

He is also their last 100-point scorer.

As good as he was with Smith and Dahlin in 85/86, he was also very effective with Mondou and Tremblay during his first couple seasons with Montreal.

And, while the 81-82 team did not lack for regular season offense, they were a little weak at LW (especially in the playoffs with Shutt out), and I have always wondered if the Habs could have gotten past Que and made a deep run if they had signed and brought over Naslund a year earlier.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i think if it's the mid-to-late 80s, i probably have mats naslund, propp, mullen, and larmer as pretty equivalent players. obviously in an all-time sense they have varying levels of longevity (in the NHL), career arcs, team success, nationalities, etc. middleton belongs with them, but his prime was a little earlier than theirs. anderson probably belongs in that conversation too, but i don't have him in their tier defensively.

but they're all fairly consistent point producers who are good in the playoffs and have good two-way games. all had primes where they were better players than ciccarelli, gartner, and andreychuk, to name three contemporary wingers of theirs that made the HHOF.

 

[JianYang]

I think in terms of playing style, he was kind of like Martin St Louis.... And if I'm not mistaken, naslund was actually MSL's favourite player growing up.

The 80s were an especially tough environment for guys like naslund, but he found a way to thrive in it.

 

[JianYang]

He's the last Hab to have finished in the top ten in scoring, surprisingly.

I would have thought that was kovalev in 2008. I guess he may have barely missed it.

 

[ESH]

I would have thought that was kovalev in 2008. I guess he may have barely missed it.

That’s what I thought when I saw that comment too. Kovalev finished 11th though.

 

[The Panther]

I think in terms of playing style, he was kind of like Martin St Louis.... And if I'm not mistaken, naslund was actually MSL's favourite player growing up.

I know St.Louis liked Naslund, but I didn't think their styles were very similar (maybe a little). St.Louis was a much more dogged, aggressive, beat you one--on-one kind of player who would drive the net. Naslund was a bit more perimeter and more of a passer.

One guy a bit later who reminded me of Naslund a bit was Doug Weight.

 

[FerrisRox]

He was probably considered as a top 20-25ish forward in the world during his prime.

Maybe a slightly less of a player than Brian Propp who was more of a shooter than Mats was.

I'd rank Naslund ahead of Propp.