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Michel Goulet

The Panther

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Mar 25, 2014
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How do y'all rate Michel Goulet? I saw him play a bit with Quebec and a bit with Chicago, but much of his salad-years was a bit before my time, or I only saw the occasional game.

For the six years from '82 through '88 he was third in NHL goals to only Gretzky and Kurri (and sixth in total points).

What always impresses me about his stat-line is his goal-scoring consistency:
1981-82: 42
1982-83: 57
1983-84: 56
1984-85: 55 (69 games)
1985-86: 53
1986-87: 49
1987-88: 48

He ends up with four-straight 50-goal seasons, which is awesome, but actually he was only three goals away from having six straight.

The Nords drop into 4th/5th place circa 1987 and 1988 didn't affect his productivity much, but after they started bottoming out in 1988-89 (in which rookie Joe Sakic matched Goulet's scoring pace), he stopped scoring as much. In 1989-90 the Nords had one of the worst seasons in history, with Goulet's production way down.

The Nords had some limited playoff success in the 80s and Goulet seems to have kept up pretty good production therein -- I count 34 playoff goals for Quebec in 66 games. (Pretty poor in '83 and '84, though -- 2 goals in 13 games? What happened?)

statslnhsaison.jpg
panini8788-163-gouletm.jpg


He was traded to Chicago in March of 1990. He had four pretty good seasons there, but never got the elite scoring touch back. I was under the impression that he was pretty happy in Chicago, however -- the team was really good, and he seemed to adapt to a bit more of a two-way style.
goulet.jpg


Goulet played for Team Canada at the Canada Cup in '84 and in '87. I think he played with Gretzky in '84, and turned in 11 points in 8 games.

His career was famously ended by a terrible injury at the Montreal forum:


Just wondered what people's thoughts are about the man known as 'Gou'.


NOTE: I had totally forgotten (until I looked at his career stats) that Goulet had played 1978-79 in the WHA for Birmingham. He was 2nd in team scoring to Rick Vaive. Also on that team were Craig Hartsburg and Rob Ramage... as well as an elderly Paul Henderson!
 
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He came in 41th on the history board all time winger list, in between Babe Dye and Marian Hossa.
 
How do y'all rate Michel Goulet? I saw him play a bit with Quebec and a bit with Chicago, but much of his salad-years was a bit before my time, or I only saw the occasional game.

For the six years from '82 through '88 he was third in NHL goals to only Gretzky and Kurri (and sixth in total points).

What always impresses me about his stat-line is his goal-scoring consistency:
1981-82: 42
1982-83: 57
1983-84: 56
1984-85: 55 (69 games)
1985-86: 53
1986-87: 49
1987-88: 48

He ends up with four-straight 50-goal seasons, which is awesome, but actually he was only three goals away from having six straight.

The Nords drop into 4th/5th place circa 1987 and 1988 didn't affect his productivity much, but after they started bottoming out in 1988-89 (in which rookie Joe Sakic matched Goulet's scoring pace), he stopped scoring as much. In 1989-90 the Nords had one of the worst seasons in history, with Goulet's production way down.

The Nords had some limited playoff success in the 80s and Goulet seems to have kept up pretty good production therein -- I count 34 playoff goals for Quebec in 66 games. (Pretty poor in '83 and '84, though -- 2 goals in 13 games? What happened?)

statslnhsaison.jpg
panini8788-163-gouletm.jpg


He was traded to Chicago in March of 1990. He had four pretty good seasons there, but never got the elite scoring touch back. I was under the impression that he was pretty happy in Chicago, however -- the team was really good, and he seemed to adapt to a bit more of a two-way style.
goulet.jpg


Goulet played for Team Canada at the Canada Cup in '84 and in '87. I think he played with Gretzky in '84, and turned in 11 points in 8 games.

His career was famously ended by a terrible injury at the Montreal forum:


Just wondered what people's thoughts are about the man known as 'Gou'.


NOTE: I had totally forgotten (until I looked at his career stats) that Goulet had played 1978-79 in the WHA for Birmingham. He was 2nd in team scoring to Rick Vaive. Also on that team were Craig Hartsburg and Rob Ramage... as well as an elderly Paul Henderson!


Don't forget they also had THE Dave Hanson.
 
Was a good left winger back in the day. Up there among the top 10-15 left wingers of all time in the NHL. Good offensively as well as defensively.
 
The man was better than Hossa... talk about a recency bias

Absolutely no way.

Their offensive peaks were nearly identical (Hossa has 4 of the top 5 adjusted point totals but Goulet had better top-10 finishes) but Hossa's peak was considerably longer, he was a better defensive/all around player, and he has a better playoff resume.
 
Goulet was an elite scorer for almost a decade. I really don't know what happened to him Chicago offensively other than the fact he was a bit older, had played a lot of hockey by then and the Hawks were better all around as a team so they needed less production from him. Also, the early 1990s were a new wave of players coming in. Goulet saw this on his own team with Roenick. They just started taking over from the players of the 1980s and they were the new bunch on the block. Goulet wasn't alone with this. Savard, Stastny, etc. guys like that dropped offensively as well. Hawerchuk went a little longer at a good pace, but he was also younger. Only the likes of Gretzky, Messier and such could still produce excellent in both decades.
 
Mike Keenan

Goulet was an elite scorer for almost a decade. I really don't know what happened to him Chicago offensively other than the fact he was a bit older, had played a lot of hockey by then and the Hawks were better all around as a team so they needed less production from him. Also, the early 1990s were a new wave of players coming in. Goulet saw this on his own team with Roenick. They just started taking over from the players of the 1980s and they were the new bunch on the block. Goulet wasn't alone with this. Savard, Stastny, etc. guys like that dropped offensively as well. Hawerchuk went a little longer at a good pace, but he was also younger. Only the likes of Gretzky, Messier and such could still produce excellent in both decades.

Mike Keenan says hi.
 
Great player that got help with who his main C was

If you are referring to Peter Stastny, I'll remember reading somewhere that Goulet played mostly in Dale Hunters line. They roomed together and Hunter always was borrowing Goulets toothpaste :D
 
If you are referring to Peter Stastny, I'll remember reading somewhere that Goulet played mostly in Dale Hunters line. They roomed together and Hunter always was borrowing Goulets toothpaste :D

You are right. It's Goulet who boosted up a lesser player's numbers. Hunter was an outstanding player in a number of ways, and his offensive results in the first 2/3 of his career were surprisingly strong, but he did have Goulet as an even strength linemate for most of the 80s, and Goulet outscored him by a significant margin at ES.
 
Stan Fischler used to write a piece in the hockey digest back in the 80's (long before analytics) where he'd break down two players, compare them and decide who was best. He did Messier and Goulet and put Goulet out on top. I didn't agree with him but it shows you the two were somewhat comparable back then. Overall Goulet's legacy may be somewhat underrated spending most of his career in Quebec City.
 
Absolutely no way.

Their offensive peaks were nearly identical (Hossa has 4 of the top 5 adjusted point totals but Goulet had better top-10 finishes) but Hossa's peak was considerably longer, he was a better defensive/all around player, and he has a better playoff resume.

Never understood why Hossa's playoffs are considered a plus. Yea he has a lot of games, but he's largely been underwhelming. Considering the biggest difference in playoff and regular season stats tends to be related to sample size, the fact that his stats are still weak despite his games played being high is a negative for me
 
Never understood why Hossa's playoffs are considered a plus. Yea he has a lot of games, but he's largely been underwhelming. Considering the biggest difference in playoff and regular season stats tends to be related to sample size, the fact that his stats are still weak despite his games played being high is a negative for me

If you take Goulet's playoff stats and add 113 games and 71 points, you have Hossa's playoff stats. Thing is, most of those extra games and points were in an era of as much as 35% lower scoring and in the 3rd and 4th rounds.
 
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If you take Goulet's playoff stats and add 113 games and 71 points, you have Hossa's playoff stats. Thing is, most of those extra games and points were in an era of as much as 25% lower scoring and in the 3rd and 4th rounds.

Goulet's aren't great either, but he also wasn't on great teams for the most part in an era where there was greater separations between the haves and have nots. I guess I just don't see a lot of value in the extra games for playoffs unless you shine in them, because it's so dependent on team. Hossa played a lot of games for good teams that went deep, and while he was an important part, he was largely a complementary player in all his long runs outside of Pittsburgh.
 
Goulet's aren't great either, but he also wasn't on great teams for the most part in an era where there was greater separations between the haves and have nots. I guess I just don't see a lot of value in the extra games for playoffs unless you shine in them, because it's so dependent on team. Hossa played a lot of games for good teams that went deep, and while he was an important part, he was largely a complementary player in all his long runs outside of Pittsburgh.

I agree that he was for the most part the 4th-5th most important player in his 5 cup runs, but the list of guys who've even done that is pretty short.
 
Stan Fischler used to write a piece in the hockey digest back in the 80's (long before analytics) where he'd break down two players, compare them and decide who was best. He did Messier and Goulet and put Goulet out on top. I didn't agree with him but it shows you the two were somewhat comparable back then. Overall Goulet's legacy may be somewhat underrated spending most of his career in Quebec City.
Lol, thanks for the reminder of that travesty. After about 1984, Messier and Goulet were not really comparable in any way, other than in Stan Fischler's (semblance of a) mind. Fischler's mission of the '80s was to knock down Sather, Gretzky, and any other Oilers in any way he could, so that shouldn't be taken too seriously.
 
Yes, if Duff scored about 50% more in the regular season than he actually did and if Duff killed penalties and if there were any published sources that consistently called Duff a good defensive player.

We could debate back and forth whether this player or that player belongs in the HOF. Whether or not a certain player deserves it, they likely would still be better of a choice than Dick Duff. There are some players whose elections I have approved of. Others? Not so much. Yet they still had something. They might've had a trophy. They might've had an All Star Team. They might've had fantastic scoring numbers.

Duff had none of that. Nothing. For anyone insinuate Hossa is like Duff is very much underselling Hossa.
 
Goulet was an elite scorer for almost a decade. I really don't know what happened to him Chicago offensively other than the fact he was a bit older, had played a lot of hockey by then and the Hawks were better all around as a team so they needed less production from him. Also, the early 1990s were a new wave of players coming in. Goulet saw this on his own team with Roenick. They just started taking over from the players of the 1980s and they were the new bunch on the block. Goulet wasn't alone with this. Savard, Stastny, etc. guys like that dropped offensively as well. Hawerchuk went a little longer at a good pace, but he was also younger. Only the likes of Gretzky, Messier and such could still produce excellent in both decades.

Hardly a simple "Mike Keenan" explanation. What happened to him in Chicago was that he simply was slowing down, which actually seemed to begin while he was with Quebec in 1988-89. In addition, by the time the Blackhawks acquired him, the League as a whole was not as wide-open as it was during his 50-goal seasons with Quebec. I remember him suffering and missing time due to some nagging injuries while with Chicago, as well (including missing all of the 1991 playoffs, and almost all of the first two rounds in 1992).

None the less, he was the top-line LW for the majority of his time there, working well with Roenick and Larmer. In 1993-94 he had a dreadful start but was playing better in the weeks before he suffered his career-ending injury.
 
Marian Hossa

We could debate back and forth whether this player or that player belongs in the HOF. Whether or not a certain player deserves it, they likely would still be better of a choice than Dick Duff. There are some players whose elections I have approved of. Others? Not so much. Yet they still had something. They might've had a trophy. They might've had an All Star Team. They might've had fantastic scoring numbers.

Duff had none of that. Nothing. For anyone insinuate Hossa is like Duff is very much underselling Hossa.

Really. Game 3, 2010 Finals Chicago up 2-0 in games, Kane scores to take a 3-2 lead early in the third. Within 20 seconds Ville Leino ties the scores due to Marian Hossa's wave the stick defensive skills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bambV02I0b4

Flyers win in OT so a potential 3-0 series lead becomes a 2-1 lead.

1965, SC Finals, Game 7. watch Dick Duff, #8, Canadiens LW from the opening faceoff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCPSv5dHCo

Watch the pass Duff makes on the Cournoyer, transition from deep in the defensive LW corner.

Part II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMEIxNr-FI

watch how well Duff plays without the puck. Constantly getting to open space defensively, reducing the effectiveness of the Chicago RW.

Hossa could never execute a planned forecheck, or make a deep transition pass-hard to do when you stop skating at your own blueline.
 

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