Mark Recchi is the greatest Flyer of all time

[omgimdiene]

123 pts in a season, 50+ of which came from goals. All of the Lindros, Clarke, LeClaire etc. talk....I just do not understand why Recchi isn't considered the greatest Flyer of all time. He also put up those numbers in an era when there was clutch and grab, goalies and D weren't pilons like the 70s/80s, and they had many HoF goalies. Mark Recchi is the greatest Flyer of all time and management was so SOooooooo stupid for getting rid of him..He should have stayed a flyer and retired as a flyer during his career.

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[deadhead]

Only someone too young to see Clarke in his prime could speak such heresy.

 

[omgimdiene]

Only someone too young to see Clarke in his prime could speak such heresy.

Eh, Clarke never was remotely close to 50 goals in a season. It was also an era when goalies and defense were an absolute joke and goalies would still have jobs with 3.00-4.00 GAA. Recchi played in an era with outstanding HoF D opponents and top notch goaltenders. He is the the greatest Flyer of all time, and probably the most underrated.

 

[SaSaShi]

123 pts in a season, 50+ of which came from goals. All of the Lindros, Clarke, LeClaire etc. talk....I just do not understand why Recchi isn't considered the greatest Flyer of all time. He also put up those numbers in an era when there was clutch and grab, goalies and D weren't pilons like the 70s/80s, and they had many HoF goalies. Mark Recchi is the greatest Flyer of all time and management was so SOooooooo stupid for getting rid of him..He should have stayed a flyer and retired as a flyer during his career.

Before you make such a proclamation, consider this. He put up 123 points in 92/93 where the team average for goals/game was 3.63. Basically 1980s hockey goals/gm range.

So no, he did not accomplish this stat line during the clutch and grab deadpuck era. The clutch and grab era started in 94-95 all the way until 03/04.

Recchi had a great offensive season sure, but he was not the greatest flyer of all time. Bernie Parent and Bob Clarke are as far as overall accomplishment and legacy and Eric Lindros for overall talent.

 

[CutOnDime97]

He was 10th in the league in scoring that year, 12th in goals.

Giroux was 2nd in the league in 17-18 behind only McDavid. Should've won the Hart that year.

But the answer is definitely Clarke with his 3 Hart trophies and 2 cups.

 

[Hakroach]

Didn't he have some harsh words about Flyers fans? That alone makes him the greatest.

Authentics were like:

 

[mja]

Well, this was certainly random.

He wasn't even the best player on the team that year, in spite of the production. And trading him for LeClair & Desjardins instantly made the Flyers into contenders.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

He wasn't even the best player on the team that year, in spite of the production.

Exactly. Brent Fedyk was right there.

Only someone too young to see Clarke in his prime could speak such heresy.

This isn’t an age thing. Recchi’s prime Flyers years overlapped with four flat out better players at their peak. I speak of course of Lindros, Brind’Amour, Renberg, and Shjon Podein.

 

[Striiker]

Nobody from the pre-goalie or pre-athlete era deserves to be called best.

It’s Giroux.

 

[BiggE]

This is an idiotic assertion

Clarke: 3 Hart trophies, captained his team to b2b Cups
Parent: 2 Vezinas, 2 Smythes
Howe: franchise #1 Dman for nearly a decade
Lindros: Hart trophy winner, most dominant player in the NHL from 94-99
Giroux: scored at a higher rate as compared to his peers than Recchi. Was a much better defensive player and penalty killer as well
Leclair: scored 50 goals in 3 straight seasons during the clutch and grab era
Barber: best all around LW in the league from 74-81, played top line minutes in all situations
Kerr: pure goal scoring machine and arguably the best net front pp player in NHL history. Kerr is among the NHLs top ten all time in goals per game.

At best, Recchi would be 8th on an all time list. He was a fine point scorer but was a one dimensional player during his high scoring years. He was a better all around player in the 2000s but was no longer a top line offense producer at that point. I would rank him on a tier with Desjardins, Propp and perhaps Macleish when it comes to the greatest Flyers of all time.

 

[Starat327]

Nobody from the pre-goalie or pre-athlete era deserves to be called best.

It’s Giroux.

This is the right answer.

 

[ponder719]

This is an idiotic assertion

Clarke: 3 Hart trophies, captained his team to b2b Cups
Parent: 2 Vezinas, 2 Smythes
Howe: franchise #1 Dman for nearly a decade
Lindros: Hart trophy winner, most dominant player in the NHL from 94-99
Giroux: scored at a higher rate as compared to his peers than Recchi. Was a much better defensive player and penalty killer as well
Leclair: scored 50 goals in 3 straight seasons during the clutch and grab era
Barber: best all around LW in the league from 74-81, played top line minutes in all situations
Kerr: pure goal scoring machine and arguably the best net front pp player in NHL history. Kerr is among the NHLs top ten all time in goals per game.

At best, Recchi would be 8th on an all time list. He was a fine point scorer but was a one dimensional player during his high scoring years. He was a better all around player in the 2000s but was no longer a top line offense producer at that point. I would rank him on a tier with Desjardins, Propp and perhaps Macleish when it comes to the greatest Flyers of all time.

And all of this without even touching the "who's the greatest player to have been a Flyer" question, where the answer is Jagr hands down.

 

[Rebels57]

He's not even a Top 10 Flyer, let alone the greatest. He had one of the greatest individual seasons. That's it. This thread is ridiculous.

 

[Jack Straw]

Clarke is the "greatest" Flyer. The Hart trophies and captaining two Stanley Cup winners, along with being 5th all-time in career +/- (behind only Robinson, Orr, Bourque, and Gretzky) trumps anything any other Flyer has done. Most talented is a different question and would probably be Lindros (excluding short-termers like Forsberg and Jagr). Most talented on the Cup winning teams was easily MacLeish.

 

[Jack Straw]

Nobody from the pre-goalie or pre-athlete era deserves to be called best.

It’s Giroux.

Try telling some Wings fans that Gordie Howe is not the greatest Red Wing of all time. See how far you get with that. You can substitute the Browns and Jim Brown, or the Yankees and Babe Ruth if you want. Or the 76ers and Wilt Chamberlain. Good luck.

Edit: Or... (and this one is especially for you) Brazil fans and Pele

 

[Curufinwe]

Good Flyer, better doctor.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

Try telling some Wings fans that Gordie Howe is not the greatest Red Wing of all time. See how far you get with that. You can substitute the Browns and Jim Brown, or the Yankees and Babe Ruth if you want. Or the 76ers and Wilt Chamberlain. Good luck.

I prefer comparing players to their peers and then trying to put that in context. I tend to be an extremely vocal opponent of erasing history of any kind. Hell, I don't even argue with the people that put Wilt or Kareem above MJ and LeBron. They're all defensible positions.

But the elephant in the room is that what players have been asked to do has changed so much over the years. Talents like Clarke or Howe or Ruth would have succeeded to some degree in any era given access to appropriate training and funds. But their time periods were a test of different skills. We don't know how they would have adapted. It's not at all what I would do because it feels reductionist and frankly boring, but on some level I do get it. The bar only goes up. I think it makes sense for there to be strong disagreement on this one.

 

[Striiker]

Try telling some Wings fans that Gordie Howe is not the greatest Red Wing of all time. See how far you get with that. You can substitute the Browns and Jim Brown, or the Yankees and Babe Ruth if you want. Or the 76ers and Wilt Chamberlain. Good luck.

Edit: Or... (and this one is especially for you) Brazil fans and Pele

I know, fans are very resistant to learning their heros are shit relative to modern players.

Also Pele LOL

So old they didn’t even have a ball back then. They used a blown up pterodactyl lung.
Doesn’t even have all his goals on video.
Trash.
1-7, by the way.

I prefer comparing players to their peers and then trying to put that in context. I tend to be an extremely vocal opponent of erasing history of any kind. Hell, I don't even argue with the people that put Wilt or Kareem above MJ and LeBron. They're all defensible positions.

I don’t want to erase history.

Just put it in a little box.

Then label that box “Shit”.

Then put that box in the back of the attic and leave it there forever and don’t even take it when you move to a new house.

MJ > all, though

 

[Jack Straw]

I prefer comparing players to their peers and then trying to put that in context. I tend to be an extremely vocal opponent of erasing history of any kind. Hell, I don't even argue with the people that put Wilt or Kareem above MJ and LeBron. They're all defensible positions.

But the elephant in the room is that what players have been asked to do has changed so much over the years. Talents like Clarke or Howe or Ruth would have succeeded to some degree in any era given access to appropriate training and funds. But their time periods were a test of different skills. We don't know how they would have adapted. It's not at all what I would do because it feels reductionist and frankly boring, but on some level I do get it. The bar only goes up. I think it makes sense for there to be strong disagreement on this one.

I think I agree with your point and that's why I distinguish between "greatness" and "talent". Natural talent is natural talent, Ruth's natural athletic talent then would be the same today. Training, diet, technology, etc... are things that allow natural talent to be expressed to greater or lesser degree.

But "greatness" to me means accomplishment, fame, importance... and by that measure Clarke (and Ruth, and Howe, and Brown, etc...) are the greatest players of their respective teams.