Most perfect career in hockey?

Ray Borque.

2nd or 3rd best d-man of all time (I'd take Lidstrom by a hair). Raises the Cup in his last NHL game. Fairy tale ending to a stellar career that had every hockey fan on the planet teary-eyed.
 
Ken Dryden
8 seasons. 6 Cups.
Cup and Con Smythe first season.
Rookie of Year.
Took a year off to article at law firm. Came back won 4 more Cups.

Slam Dunk. It's over.
Beliveau is my answer too.

One of the few guys to have the privilege to be a legend for their childhood team.

Imagine being a kid and dreaming of raising the Cup for your favourite team? And then getting to actually do it?
Beliveau, Lafluer, Lemaire, Trembly, Serge Savard, Guy Lapoint, Pierre Larouche, Roy, Laperiere, Cournyer, Lambert, Carbonneau,
 
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Howe or Crosby. Among the top guys, they are the only ones who played full length careers without significant injuries. Gretzky was dealing with back injuries for much of the tail end of his career. Lemieux and Orr clearly didn't have full careers.

You could also make a case for ovy. For goalies Brodeur and Roy are the best candidates. Maybe guys like Sawchuk or Plante too?
 
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To be considered a perfect career, I think you need the following :

- Many Stanley cups (remove Dionne, Iginla, Thornton, etc)
- Many individual awards (remove Kurri, Park, Lafontaine, etc)
- International success (remove Malkin, St. Louis, Chara, Tavares, maybe even Ovechkin)
- Longevity (remove Orr, Dryden, Bossy, etc)
- Health (remove Lemieux)
- Most career with the same team (remove Coffey, Housley, maybe even Gretzky?)
- No controversy (remove Lindros, Theo Fleury, Bobby Hull, Gilmour, etc. Even Gretzky is controversial nowadays)
- Good on both side of the ice (remove Bure, Gainey, etc.)
- Successfull post-playing NHL career as coach or executive (guys like Savard, Robinson, Lemaire gets bonus points)
- Being universally respected (guys like MAF, Bergeron gets bonus points)
- Retired before their full decline (guys like Lidstrom, Sakic gets bonus points)

So who's left?
Lidstrom?
Brodeur?
Crosby?
Yzerman?
Sakic?
Béliveau?
Bourque?

Joe Sakic fits pretty much every criteria out there. He's my pick!
 
I really don't get people picking guys who lost significant time to injury or retired early.

Bossy? Crosby? Lemieux? Orr? How is having career altering/ending injuries perfect?

I generally agree with this although I would be OK with keeping Crosby since he did have a pretty long career in the end.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, I don’t know how Morenz got included in the list. He was very successful in his time but his career ended after he died from complications of a hockey injury. Far from perfect if you ask me.
 
Gretzky in my books.

I do like Beliveu's career too. And Richard's.

I hate the guy, but Messier did pretty well.

If I would try to answer a question who tapped most out of his potential career wise, I might go with Messier.
 
Mike Bossy with nine straight 50 goal seasons. Only missed his final year and IMO would have gotten there if not for his back.

If we don't consider injuries as negative in perfect career sense, Bossy is left in the dust compared to Orr.
 
To be considered a perfect career, I think you need the following :

- Many Stanley cups (remove Dionne, Iginla, Thornton, etc)
- Many individual awards (remove Kurri, Park, Lafontaine, etc)
- International success (remove Malkin, St. Louis, Chara, Tavares, maybe even Ovechkin)
- Longevity (remove Orr, Dryden, Bossy, etc)
- Health (remove Lemieux)
- Most career with the same team (remove Coffey, Housley, maybe even Gretzky?)
- No controversy (remove Lindros, Theo Fleury, Bobby Hull, Gilmour, etc. Even Gretzky is controversial nowadays)
- Good on both side of the ice (remove Bure, Gainey, etc.)
- Successfull post-playing NHL career as coach or executive (guys like Savard, Robinson, Lemaire gets bonus points)
- Being universally respected (guys like MAF, Bergeron gets bonus points)
- Retired before their full decline (guys like Lidstrom, Sakic gets bonus points)

So who's left?
Lidstrom?
Brodeur?
Crosby?
Yzerman?
Sakic?
Béliveau?
Bourque?

Joe Sakic fits pretty much every criteria out there. He's my pick!
You've mentioned him. Larry Robinson
Perfect career. Period
 
Howe or Crosby. Among the top guys, they are the only ones who played full length careers without significant injuries. Gretzky was dealing with back injuries for much of the tail end of his career. Lemieux and Orr clearly didn't have full careers.

You could also make a case for ovy. For goalies Brodeur and Roy are the best candidates. Maybe guys like Sawchuk or Plante too?

Lidström+Bourque are the same, very high level from start to finish.
 
Retired before their full decline
Unfortunately, not true.
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Unpopular opinion

Rick DiPietro.

Dude played a few years then got a lifer contract. Played a couple more then basically part time for a few years then retired.

Dude made $70m
 
Gretzky is/was my favorite player, but in no way did he have anything like a "perfect career".

Even in his younger days, he had his scuzzy relationships with Skalbania and Pocklington (at one point, Gretzky was humiliated in public while supporting Pocklington's bid for the conservative leadership of Canada, having to answer questions and admitting that he had no clue about politics). Then came his hugely messy break-up with Pocklington / The Oilers, which led to years of nasty feelings and traded barbs.

Wayne's first three seasons in L.A., he was still the best (or, actually co-best, with Mario) player in the game, but the team managed only one playoff series win each season. Then, Wayne's last hurrah of prime play was Canada Cup '91... in game two of which he was nailed from behind by Gary Suter, ending his prime. And he still had 8 years left to play.

For the next two years, the Kings were mediocre and Gretzky already a shadow of his former self. In his last three seasons in L.A., the team completely sucked and missed the playoffs every year, while Gretzky's "pal" Bruce McNall -- another scuzzball figure -- went to prison and the club basically went bankrupt. Gretzky got out of Dodge with a brief and unsuccessful stint in St. Louis, which ended with his leaving quickly to sign with New York, just as the Rangers were falling out of contention (and a year later, went straight into the crapper).

These last 8 years of injuries, team failure, and mediocrity were alleviated only slightly by the Kings' improbable run to the Finals in 1993, and Wayne's playoff 'indian summer' with the Rangers in '97. But overall, his final eight years were meaningless to his legacy and largely forgettable.
_________________

Players I associate with having had more "perfect careers" are people like Ray Bourque and Jean Beliveau, and maybe Larry Robinson and Ken Dryden, and now I might add Alex Ovechkin and Crosby, just for having those long superstar careers with one team -- Crosby with multiple championships, and Ovechkin with a Cup and now the all-time goals record so late in his career, while his club is again at/near the top.
 
Unpopular opinion

Rick DiPietro.

Dude played a few years then got a lifer contract. Played a couple more then basically part time for a few years then retired.

Dude made $70m
As of today, DiPietro is still being paid $1.5 million a year by the Islanders.

And this will continue until spring 2029.
 
I say Beliveau.

10 cup wins, was a huge part of all of them, was team captain for many of them, in a high pressure situation for basically his whole career and handles himself with nothing but grace, and he even lead the playoffs in assists in his last run at 39.
…And seven Cups as an executive. Couldn’t even hate him in ‘71 when the Canadiens beat the Black Hawks and broke my young heart. (Now that bugger Henri Richard is another story altogether.)
 

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