Kane vs Selanne vs Bure

Who is the best among three:

  • Patrick Kane

    Votes: 59 45.0%
  • Teemu Selanne

    Votes: 43 32.8%
  • Pavel Bure

    Votes: 29 22.1%

  • Total voters
    131

Weztex

Registered User
Feb 6, 2006
3,137
3,833
Selanne was the better goalscorer but Kane was the more impactful player overall. As of now they’re probably in the same tier all-time, even with Selanne having 6 seasons on Kane.

Bure doesn't belong with those two. He's a massive step below.
 
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Evergreen

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Sponsor
May 22, 2008
10,011
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Selanne was the better goalscorer but Kane was the more impactful player overall. As of now they’re probably in the same tier all-time, even with Selanne having 6 seasons on Kane.

Bure doesn't belong with those two. He's a massive step below.
Bure outscored Selanne in pretty much every season during their primes, so I think it's pretty absurd to say he's a massive step below Teemu.

Either way the answer here is Kane. Despite being the worst goal scorer of the group, he's the most impactful player overall due to his playmaking, which is miles ahead of that of the other two.
 

norrisnick

The best...
Apr 14, 2005
31,219
16,558
Selanne was the better goalscorer but Kane was the more impactful player overall. As of now they’re probably in the same tier all-time, even with Selanne having 6 seasons on Kane.

Bure doesn't belong with those two. He's a massive step below.
If Selanne had retired rather than play through the mire of SJ years, the lockout recovery, and then the resurgence, he and Bure would be practically identical. I'm not sure that the 2nd half by Teemu elevates him that much.
 

bobholly39

Registered User
Mar 10, 2013
23,420
16,813
Give all 3 perfect health, Bure is #1. Since question is "best" i voted for him.

But this is actually a really good poll, all 3 quite close. For career, Kane is #1 but Selanne isn't too crazy far behind, with Bure#3.
 

sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
12,135
6,617
I like Kane's skillset a lot, and I remember pumping him up during the 14–15 season, around the time when he got injured by Petrovic when he was in the Art Ross race (eventually won by Benn). This was before his big break-out season when he actually won the Ross (and it became cool among the kids to hype him).

That said, I think he's become a little bit overrated in general during the last few years, and I think a fairly big part of that is all the rabid Toews hate. To minimize Toews to the level some people want to minimize him you kinda also have to simultaneously pump up Kane to these otherworldly fantasy levels, it just kinda comes with the territory.

Look what Kane's done in two best-on-best Olympics with the US national team, for instance, or in the 2016 best-on-best World Cup. Not a lot of his famous Blackhawk clutch-i-ness there, no. He wasn't necessarily bad in any of these instances (?), at least production wise, 11 points in 15 games is okay I guess (?), but still outplayed on his own teams by names such as Ryan Miller, Ryan Kesler and Phil Kessel. Fairly quiet or pedestrian showings for such a big name player, a slam dunk HHOFer.

Also, Kane is a soft perimeter player who never threw a hit in his life, and this in a buttersoft league. Selänne and Bure actually played in a hard league, as in a rough league, and had to defend themselves in these environments. I think it's a bit hard to compare these two groups of players simply off of this reality.

All these 3 players are irrelevant defensively 5-on-5, but at least Bure was a PK mainstay on all of his teams all throughout his career, and one of the deadliest players going the other way (SH point production) in sport history.
 

Weztex

Registered User
Feb 6, 2006
3,137
3,833
Bure outscored Selanne in pretty much every season during their primes, so I think it's pretty absurd to say he's a massive step below Teemu.

Either way the answer here is Kane. Despite being the worst goal scorer of the group, he's the most impactful player overall due to his playmaking, which is miles ahead of that of the other two.
Ok, ''massive'' may be a bit harsh but I put emphasis on their career accomplishments here.

Peak Bure is one of the most spectacular and electric player of the last 30 years. He was a magnificent goalscorer with absolutely blazing speed. But by the time he was a 27 years old Florida Panther, he had pretty much become a floater, hardly bringing anything outside of goalscoring. While the other 2 weren't defensive stalwarts either, they could bring their share of scoring while also being gifted playmakers elevating their linemates to a certain degree. In his later years he also had the reputation to be a selfish player, which is something we certainly cannot pin on Kane or Selanne.

As far as pure talent goes, the comparison makes sense up to a certain point. Still, by their mid 20's onward I'd still pick Bure last. In an all-time sense the gap is substantial.
 

Mulletman

Registered User
Feb 23, 2013
4,085
4,018
The fact that Kane was outscored as a 22 and as a 23 year old by a 40 and 41 year old Selanne in both 2010-11 and 2011-12 makes it really hard to put Kane over Selanne in the all time ranking. Especially since Kane doesn't have any good argument to why he was outscored by old man Selanne...
 

Cape

Registered User
Dec 31, 2019
152
156
Finland
Legendary HF Boards. A while back there was a thread about top 5 russians All time. There was many who arqued that Bure was better than Malkin. And now Bure is losing this one to two players who are seen as not as good as Malkin. Kane maybe near the same level.
 

norrisnick

The best...
Apr 14, 2005
31,219
16,558
Ok, ''massive'' may be a bit harsh but I put emphasis on their career accomplishments here.

Peak Bure is one of the most spectacular and electric player of the last 30 years. He was a magnificent goalscorer with absolutely blazing speed. But by the time he was a 27 years old Florida Panther, he had pretty much become a floater, hardly bringing anything outside of goalscoring. While the other 2 weren't defensive stalwarts either, they could bring their share of scoring while also being gifted playmakers elevating their linemates to a certain degree. In his later years he also had the reputation to be a selfish player, which is something we certainly cannot pin on Kane or Selanne.

As far as pure talent goes, the comparison makes sense up to a certain point. Still, by their mid 20's onward I'd still pick Bure last. In an all-time sense the gap is substantial.
Could you imagine what Bure could have done if he had a guy as good or better than him on his line in his prime like Selanne had with Kariya?
 

ManofSteel55

Registered User
Aug 15, 2013
33,549
14,049
Sylvan Lake, Alberta
Selanne was the better goalscorer but Kane was the more impactful player overall. As of now they’re probably in the same tier all-time, even with Selanne having 6 seasons on Kane.

Bure doesn't belong with those two. He's a massive step below.
The only thing that was a step below about Bure was his longevity. Injuries derailed his career, but at his peak, he was consistently a better producer than Selanne was. I'd give Selanne the edge in two way play, and I liked Selanne better as a player, but I find it hard to rank him above Bure. Bure was so ridiculously good and I think people don't remember how much he could produce with not much supporting cast.

Of these 3 one-dimensional glass-cannons, Patrick Kane is the most potent.
I don't think Selanne was one-dimensional after he played a few seasons.
 

Regal

Registered User
Mar 12, 2010
26,494
16,390
Vancouver
The only thing that was a step below about Bure was his longevity. Injuries derailed his career, but at his peak, he was consistently a better producer than Selanne was. I'd give Selanne the edge in two way play, and I liked Selanne better as a player, but I find it hard to rank him above Bure. Bure was so ridiculously good and I think people don't remember how much he could produce with not much supporting cast.


I don't think Selanne was one-dimensional after he played a few seasons.

I don’t think that’s true. Selanne had a 5 year period where he finished 7,2,8,2,5 in scoring and 8,5,3,2,8 in points per game. In those 5 seasons, he finished 2nd in points to Jagr and tied with Kariya for 4th in points per game, behind Lemieux, Jagr and Lindros. In Bure’s 5 healthy seasons, he was top 10 4 times, with finishes of 2,3,5,7, and point per game finishes of 3,7,7,8. Bure never had a Kariya to play off of, which hurts, and maybe he would have been more productive with one, but as it stands, I wouldn’t say he was any more productive than Selanne, and Selanne was also 5th in scoring in ‘96 without a teammate in the top 20, so he showed he could do it without Kariya as well.
 
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authentic

Registered User
Jan 28, 2015
26,378
11,372
I would take Bure all at their best, very close though and Selanne gets underrated a lot. He was nearly as good as Kane outside of his peak season as a 40 and 41 year old.
 

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