They were clearly first liners for a significant portion of their careers who peaked very high and won major awards. However, their peaks and primes were notably shorter, that without the trophies they are likely bubble players to be inducted into the HHOF.
This is the kind of thing that I mean. This is a PPG per season table showing most of the stars from the 2000's (Thornton, Alfredsson, St. Louis, Datsyuk, Iginla, Kariya, Hossa, Zetterberg, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Elias, Whitney, Lecavalier, Richards, Kovalev, Naslund, Marleau and Yashin).
This is a quick way to compare the level players were at during their whole careers; showing their peaks, primes and lower scoring years all at once.
JT | DA | MSL | PD | JI | PK | MH | HZ | DS | HS | PE | RW | VL | BR | AK27 | Mnas | PM | AY |
1.54 | 1.34 | 1.25 | 1.20 | 1.34 | 1.43 | 1.22 | 1.23 | 1.35 | 1.37 | 1.18 | 1.02 | 1.32 | 1.14 | 1.20 | 1.27 | 1.05 | 1.15 |
1.39 | 1.27 | 1.24 | 1.18 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.15 | 1.10 | 1.27 | 1.15 | 1.15 | 0.94 | 1.14 | 1.11 | 1.13 | 1.11 | 1.01 | 1.07 |
1.31 | 1.13 | 1.21 | 1.16 | 1.17 | 1.23 | 1.01 | 1.08 | 1.04 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.94 | 0.98 | 1.07 | 1.02 | 1.08 | 1.01 | 0.96 |
1.17 | 1.04 | 1.15 | 1.10 | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.00 | 1.07 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.99 | 0.94 | 0.94 | 0.96 | 0.99 | 1.04 | 0.93 | 0.95 |
1.13 | 1.04 | 1.15 | 1.05 | 1.05 | 1.04 | 0.96 | 1.04 | 0.93 | 0.99 | 0.96 | 0.92 | 0.87 | 0.93 | 0.94 | 0.98 | 0.89 | 0.94 |
1.05 | 1.03 | 1.01 | 1.04 | 0.92 | 1.02 | 0.95 | 1.00 | 0.93 | 0.94 | 0.92 | 0.91 | 0.85 | 0.86 | 0.83 | 0.83 | 0.85 | 0.91 |
1.03 | 1.01 | 0.98 | 1.03 | 0.90 | 0.99 | 0.93 | 0.95 | 0.90 | 0.93 | 0.83 | 0.91 | 0.84 | 0.85 | 0.80 | 0.79 | 0.78 | 0.88 |
1.00 | 1.00 | 0.96 | 0.96 | 0.89 | 0.93 | 0.92 | 0.95 | 0.87 | 0.91 | 0.82 | 0.88 | 0.83 | 0.84 | 0.78 | 0.73 | 0.71 | 0.86 |
0.99 | 0.94 | 0.85 | 0.91 | 0.84 | 0.83 | 0.89 | 0.86 | 0.85 | 0.89 | 0.81 | 0.87 | 0.82 | 0.80 | 0.74 | 0.72 | 0.70 | 0.85 |
0.95 | 0.93 | 0.85 | 0.88 | 0.82 | 0.79 | 0.88 | 0.84 | 0.74 | 0.74 | 0.77 | 0.84 | 0.81 | 0.76 | 0.73 | 0.67 | 0.70 | 0.80 |
0.94 | 0.91 | 0.76 | 0.82 | 0.82 | 0.71 | 0.83 | 0.83 | 0.68 | 0.71 | 0.75 | 0.79 | 0.77 | 0.76 | 0.72 | 0.56 | 0.65 | 0.80 |
0.93 | 0.82 | 0.70 | 0.80 | 0.82 | 0.70 | 0.83 | 0.70 | 0.66 | 0.61 | 0.74 | 0.76 | 0.75 | 0.74 | 0.69 | 0.53 | 0.64 | 0.72 |
0.88 | 0.79 | 0.66 | 0.74 | 0.78 | 0.57 | 0.78 | 0.68 | 0.64 | 0.61 | 0.70 | 0.74 | 0.54 | 0.62 | 0.64 | 0.45 | 0.62 | _ |
0.83 | 0.74 | 0.51 | 0.50 | 0.75 | _ | 0.74 | 0.61 | 0.54 | 0.55 | 0.68 | 0.73 | 0.49 | 0.49 | 0.64 | 0.15 | 0.59 | _ |
0.83 | 0.72 | 0.32 | _ | 0.72 | _ | 0.72 | 0.56 | 0.45 | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0.68 | 0.37 | 0.41 | 0.58 | _ | 0.57 | _ |
0.77 | 0.57 | 0.15 | _ | 0.62 | _ | 0.62 | _ | 0.41 | 0.44 | 0.49 | 0.66 | 0.35 | _ | 0.58 | _ | 0.56 | _ |
0.74 | 0.57 | _ | _ | 0.61 | _ | 0.52 | _ | 0.39 | 0.35 | _ | 0.64 | 0.34 | _ | 0.58 | _ | 0.56 | _ |
0.63 | 0.55 | _ | _ | 0.57 | _ | 0.50 | _ | _ | _ | _ | 0.64 | _ | _ | 0.46 | _ | 0.56 | _ |
0.51 | _ | _ | _ | 0.46 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | 0.46 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
0.13 | _ | _ | _ | 0.34 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
To the left of the Sedins, you see long time first liners who are generally in the HHOF or are likely to make it. To the right of the Sedins, you see first liners whose primes weren't as long. None have been inducted into the HHOF and most never will.
Here's an expanded table of players sorted by their PPG in their best 10 seasons.
Player | GP | G | A | Pts | GPG | PPG |
Forsberg | 67 | 24 | 61 | 85 | 0.37 | 1.28 |
Lindros | 62 | 35 | 44 | 79 | 0.56 | 1.28 |
Thornton | 79 | 26 | 65 | 91 | 0.33 | 1.16 |
Palffy | 65 | 32 | 38 | 70 | 0.49 | 1.08 |
Kariya | 78 | 33 | 51 | 84 | 0.43 | 1.08 |
Alfredsson | 73 | 30 | 48 | 78 | 0.41 | 1.07 |
St. Louis | 81 | 31 | 55 | 86 | 0.39 | 1.06 |
Datsyuk | 74 | 27 | 51 | 78 | 0.36 | 1.05 |
Getzlaf | 73 | 20 | 55 | 75 | 0.28 | 1.04 |
Kovalchuk | 77 | 40 | 39 | 79 | 0.52 | 1.03 |
Iginla | 80 | 39 | 42 | 81 | 0.49 | 1.02 |
Spezza | 73 | 27 | 46 | 73 | 0.37 | 1.01 |
Hossa | 75 | 34 | 41 | 75 | 0.45 | 1.00 |
Zetterberg | 73 | 27 | 46 | 73 | 0.37 | 1.00 |
D.Sedin | 79 | 29 | 49 | 78 | 0.37 | 0.99 |
H.Sedin | 81 | 17 | 63 | 80 | 0.21 | 0.99 |
Demitra | 68 | 27 | 40 | 67 | 0.39 | 0.98 |
Heatley | 79 | 36 | 41 | 77 | 0.46 | 0.98 |
Elias | 71 | 27 | 41 | 68 | 0.39 | 0.97 |
Lecavalier | 78 | 32 | 42 | 74 | 0.41 | 0.95 |
Staal | 81 | 34 | 43 | 77 | 0.42 | 0.95 |
Yashin | 75 | 31 | 40 | 71 | 0.41 | 0.94 |
B.Richards | 77 | 22 | 50 | 72 | 0.29 | 0.93 |
Gaborik | 68 | 31 | 31 | 62 | 0.46 | 0.92 |
Whitney | 74 | 25 | 43 | 68 | 0.34 | 0.92 |
Kovalev | 73 | 28 | 39 | 67 | 0.38 | 0.92 |
Kessel | 76 | 30 | 40 | 70 | 0.40 | 0.92 |
Bergeron | 75 | 29 | 39 | 68 | 0.39 | 0.91 |
Pavelski | 80 | 32 | 40 | 72 | 0.40 | 0.90 |
Naslund | 80 | 33 | 40 | 73 | 0.41 | 0.89 |
Tanguay | 74 | 22 | 43 | 65 | 0.30 | 0.89 |
Hejduk | 77 | 32 | 34 | 67 | 0.42 | 0.87 |
Perry | 77 | 33 | 34 | 67 | 0.43 | 0.87 |
Marleau | 81 | 32 | 37 | 69 | 0.40 | 0.86 |
Nash | 75 | 35 | 30 | 65 | 0.46 | 0.86 |
Smyth | 75 | 28 | 32 | 60 | 0.38 | 0.81 |
Doan | 78 | 25 | 37 | 62 | 0.32 | 0.80 |
Once again, we see a clear division around the Sedins. The players above them are mostly in the HHOF or will be inducted, while the guys below them aren't and in most cases won't.
When I look at tables like these, gaps are noticeable been tiers of players.
Generational players (Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, Ovechkin, McDavid) - guys who were first liners for their entire careers and competing for scoring leads almost as long. Surefire HHOF'er.
Superstars (Sakic, Selanne) - guys who were first liners for almost all of their careers and competed for scoring leads often. Non-debatable HHOF'er.
Stars plus (St. Louis, Kariya, Iginla, Alfredsson, Sundin, Modano) - guys with long careers as first liners who had a handful of top-10 seasons. Likely HHOF'ers who tend to draw more criticism from fans with high HHOF standards.
Stars minus (Lecavalier, Yashin, Whitney, Staal, Naslund, Kovalev) - guys who were first liners for a long time, but not as good or for as long as stars plus. They aren't likely to be inducted into the HHOF.
IMHO, the Sedins have a peak that looks like Star plus, but a longevity closer to Star minus. Which I think still puts them solidly in the Star plus category. They won major awards though and that tends to cause fans to greatly overrate players. It's like everybody who ever won a major award starts getting compared to Sakic and Selanne, when their peaks and primes are no where near comparable.