Mark Recchi is the greatest Flyer of all time

[Striiker]

Yeah I'm totally on board with the goalie idea. I do think the talent difference between the 90s and now isn't very big though. I think the main difference when watching older video is that the league basically had a different ruleset so players look far less talented.

I think the depth guys wouldn't be able to stick in today's NHL. Because the limited skills they had wouldn't align with the modern game. But anybody top line or top pair caliber would be fine today, some would do better or worse depending on their specifics skills and how they meshed with the rules now, but they would all stick in some way.

Somebody like Paul Kariya for instance would probably thrive in today's environment compared to when he played.

I also think a lot of depth players today wouldn't be able to play under the old ruleset, but today's top line/pair players would find a way to succeed but I don't think they would all blow everybody out of the water.

I dont have a big issue with that.

Also please note that when I’m shitting on players for being sub-AHL hacks, it’s always been guys like Clarke that I’m talking about. I’ve never mentioned Lindros in a similar fashion.

 

[Fight4yourRight]

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

It’s Giroux.

There weren’t athletes before the 2000s? Wow.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

So you think guys who where this

Google Image Result for https://cms.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MAC09_COSH01www.jpg

Are more skilled at stopping pucks than guys who wore this?

Google Image Result for https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/af/8afcd8d4-de33-50db-ae1f-c80050f648e7/5ef1149ed28f2.image.jpg

Going back to wood sticks would solve all the NHL’ problems except the Gary Bettman as commissioner problem

First of all, I wouldn't use Hasek to illustrate much of anything. Good luck teaching that. Anyway, that's quite the oversimplification. The two key people not brought up as often when this topic comes up are Francois Allaire and Michel Lefebvre.

Allaire brought all kinds of things to North America, but probably the most important was more sharpened skates changing how the position could be played on a physical level. Then you have Roy already challenging some of the positional norms, both end up in Sherbrooke, and the careers of both were made. Later on, Lefebvre gets to work with Roy mass producing equipment made to play the new style, it proliferates, and takes over.

They're completely different approaches at this point. It's not just equipment. It's the marriage of the techniques to it. They're intertwined inextricably.

 

[Striiker]

There weren’t athletes before the 2000s? Wow.

Not in the NHL back in the 70s and 80s