Is Ed Belfour underrated? | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

Is Ed Belfour underrated?

LightningStorm

Lightning/Mets/Vikings
Dec 19, 2008
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Pacific NW, USA
It seems like Ed Belfour always gets lost in the discussion for the all time great goalies. He's 3rd in wins and 9th in shutouts, and in the playoffs, he's tied for 4th in wins (with Billy Smith) and tied for 5th in shutouts.

It seems like he often gets forgotten because his prime coincided with the primes of Hasek, Roy, and Brodeur, so he ended up getting overshadowed by them. While Hasek was definitely the best, I think the gap between Belfour and the level Roy and Brodeur were at is smaller than most people think.
 
i think for a brief period, between '98 and 2000 when dallas beat colorado twice and made the WCF then back-to-back finals, belfour was on the other guys' level. but ultimately, i don't think he put together a long enough stretch at that level to be in their league career-wise.
 
I always liked Belfour, technically very very solid goaltender, my favourite from that era actually. He & Roy, both strange characters... Eddies Million Dollar offer to a member of Law Enforcement etc etc etc. Apparently one time while playing in Vancouver, for whatever reason he untied & removed all of the cording from his trapper, special tools & technical expertise required to re-string it & only available back in Toronto from Canstar his sponsor. Couldve simply used another, but because he was so meticulous to the point of being obsessive about his gear & game instead pay's for a flight & accommodation for a rep to haul ass out to the westcoast to fix it. All kinds of Eddie Stories floating around out there.
 
I always liked Belfour, technically very very solid goaltender, my favourite from that era actually. He & Roy, both strange characters... Eddies Million Dollar offer to a member of Law Enforcement etc etc etc. Apparently one time while playing in Vancouver, for whatever reason he untied & removed all of the cording from his trapper, special tools & technical expertise required to re-string it & only available back in Toronto from Canstar his sponsor. Couldve simply used another, but because he was so meticulous to the point of being obsessive about his gear & game instead pay's for a flight & accommodation for a rep to haul ass out to the westcoast to fix it. All kinds of Eddie Stories floating around out there.

It was actually a billion dollars!
 
It was actually a billion dollars!

:laugh: is that right?... at anyrate, ya, late bloomer was Belfour. Inducted into the HHOF in 2011. Apparently he's a minority owner of the CHL's Allen Americans in Texas with Modano and a few others, working in a part time sales capacity, community ambassador, a little bit of goalie coaching. Last time I checked, the team at the top of the standings, having only lost 14 out of 57 or so games.
 
Growing up young even as a habs fan in the early 90s, I was a bigger Belfour fan than a Roy fan oddly enough. I played goalie as a kid and was lucky enough to follow him during his epic rookie season, easily the most underrated goalie of his era by far.

I remember being upset when he got traded to the Sharks lol, loved the early 90s hawks, my favorite team after the habs back then.
 
Not the most supportive guy if you happened to be his backup. Apparently viewed his understudy as a potential threat and treated him very coldly. Paranoid as hell but there's still a billion reasons to love him.
 
Belfour probably had as much talent as Brodeur, but for a good portion of his career he was known for making *really* costly blunders. He'd make 30 awesome saves to keep his team in the game, and then let in the game winning goal while slashing a player near the net. Or he'd misplay the puck right to an opponent when his defenseman was in perfect position to play it. Or whiff on a shot from the blue line. And these things always seemed to happen at the critical moments of games or playoff series. Stuff like that kept happening to him until he finally locked it down in Dallas.

Most goalies are nut-jobs, but Belfour's nuttiness often showed itself at the worst times, and thus his status among the all time greats isn't as high as it could have been.
 
No, he isn't underrated. He would have plenty of erratic moments though. In many ways he was a lot like Ron Hextall in critical times. Early in his career or even throughout his entire Blackhawks career he may have won a couple Vezinas but he always seemed to falter in the postseason. Up until 1999 when he finally won a Cup it was a very common thing to believe that you couldn't win with a loose cannon like Belfour. After 1999 he was thought to be more trustworthy and reliable. He was picked for the 2002 Olympics while being shunned in 1998 and the 1996 World Cup. He still had that edge to him but we was a winner now and was even good late in his career as a Maple Leaf. He's kind of all alone by himself in his era. He's behind Roy, Hasek and Brodeur, but ahead of Joseph or Richter or even Barrasso significantly.
 
What about his Chicago days?

Belfour probably had as much talent as Brodeur, but for a good portion of his career he was known for making *really* costly blunders. He'd make 30 awesome saves to keep his team in the game, and then let in the game winning goal while slashing a player near the net. Or he'd misplay the puck right to an opponent when his defenseman was in perfect position to play it. Or whiff on a shot from the blue line. And these things always seemed to happen at the critical moments of games or playoff series. Stuff like that kept happening to him until he finally locked it down in Dallas.

i think belfour's chicago run, at least the first three or four years, was at a very high level. obviously, good enough to win two vezinas. but i don't think that was at the the standard that roy/hasek/brodeur put together for long stretches of their respective careers. more of a lundqvist vezina than a hasek (or even thomas) vezina, if you know what i mean. better than a kolzig or miller vezina, obviously, but still not quite at the highest level.

as i said earlier in this thread, i think belfour actually got to that level between '98 and 2000. but belfour doesn't have a defining stretch of his career (like roy '88-'93, hasek '94-'01, or brodeur '03-'08) where he lays his claim to being one of the greatest of all time. if he'd pushed that dallas run for just a couple more years, we might be talking about belfour vs. dryden or belfour vs. tretiak.

instead, belfour is still very good after the NJ stanley cup win in 2000, but to me that's when he dropped a level and became far and away the cream of the josephs/barrassos/beezers but still in that crop, instead of a guy who belonged in the discussion with roy/hasek/brodeur.
 
Does a goaltender out of college hockey even get a chance in a 6-team league?

Good point - one of these days I'll resurrect my thread on the topic as I find it interesting to consider.

In a 6 team league I think he'd end up with more awards and probably greater playoff success, but so would Hasek, Roy and Brodeur.
 
I think he's underrated. Not by a lot, but by a bit anyways. He automatically gets shoved to the back of the pack when discussing the top 4 from his era - which I guess is fair - but he's a lot closer to them than what some people want to believe. A lot of his career he was every bit as good and at times better. If you come out of the gates like he did in any sport, you'd better win a championship right away or you'll be labeled, and that's what happened to him.

He's 15th on the all-time list on these boards, but there are some real oldies ahead of him who could just as easily be placed behind him. He could be argued in to the top 10 - where I think he belongs. I think you have your top 6, and then about 4-5 that could be argued in to that next group and he's in there.
 
belfour as you can tell is my favriote player of all time however he was a loose cannon i remember him fighting alex auld in a bar in his time in florida hes a teir below hasek and roy but probally on the same teir as brodeur joseph and osgood but there where 2 streches 90-93 and 97-01 where he was arguablally the best goalie in the leauge even as late as 03-04 hes among the best and he was 39 at the time
 
eddytheeagle20 you're throwing interesting names into comparision.. Osgood is nowhere near Belfour and I respect Osgood for his career a lot more than many people here.
 
If someone here were to be considered "off of the rails" a wee-bit, who might that be?

... Im sure I wouldnt know Mr.Bonvie, though Taco's a bit worrisome. Between the Christopher Walken & Space Oddity avys I do wonder about that one from time-time. :D
 
eddytheeagle20 you're throwing interesting names into comparision.. Osgood is nowhere near Belfour and I respect Osgood for his career a lot more than many people here.

now after ive thought about it i would change my comparaison osgood belongs in the next group down with khabbibouln(sp?)
 
now after ive thought about it i would change my comparaison osgood belongs in the next group down with khabbibouln(sp?)

IMO, the next group down from Belfour are guys like Curtis Jospeh and Tom Barrasso. Maybe John Vanbiesbrouck. I think that Osgood and Khabibulin are another step down from those guys.
 

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