Most Talented Hockey Players of All Time 3 Post Expansion

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blundluntman

Registered User
Jul 30, 2016
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Who is the 3rd most Talented (Post-Expansion) Hockey Player of all time?

Talent- Natural ability/skill.

Whether you prioritize the versatility, unique blend, or dynamic level of their natural abilities is up to you. I guess that's where the debate part of things comes in.

1. Mario Lemieux
2. Wayne Gretzky
 
If kovalev put forth a consistent effort in his prime.. I honestly couldn’t imagine how much he would have ripped it up. Favorite player in my teen years. He gets a bias vote from me
 
My list in order:

1) Mario
2) Orr
3) Gretzky
4) Perreault
5) Jagr
6) McDavid
7) Bobby Hull

After these seven, I'm not quite sure.

My Best-Carey
 
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Taking Orr here as well. From everything I’ve seen, he was basically a two way version of Mcdavid if he played defense. You could argue he should be #1 tbh. After him (and maybe Mcdavid) it gets pretty interesting who to take
 
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Orr

Add McDavid and MacKinnon…. I mean, hello???

Bourque and Lidstrom…. May not have been flashy, but were the 2 most talented Dmen since Orr.
Yikes, I must've skipped him by accident. Adding all of them now.

Hot take alert: Mike Ribeiro should be an option

But easy vote for Bobby Orr rn
I'll throw in Ribeiro too for the hell of it since there's free space. If enough people suggest someone else and there's no space next round I guess he can take a bye round or something
 
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I don't vote since McDavid ain't there

Talent =/= Greatness
I have Crosby still #5 best player ever

But in terms of talent, nobody ever did what McDavid is able to do, at the speed he does it.
Only Lemieux, IMO, was a more talented player than him.

Edit: McDavid option is now on, I voted for him
 
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The top 3 is unquestionable in my opinion. I probably slot Orr above Gretzky, but those 3 (with Lemieux) are in a class apart. It only gets interesting afterwards

As for McDavid, I think he has a strong argument for #4, but it helps him that he's still young and we haven't seen his decline yet. I wonder if he somehow ages worst than expected, if people might be less likely to slot him so high.

Agree.

He played hungover all the time.

Still put ppg seasons.

He was / still is a total mess.

If you want to talk about players who's talent far exceeded accomplishments, I'd agree Ribeiro is someone worth looking at eventually.

Not sure he really qualifies anytime soon for "most talented" though. He was very talented, just nowhere near top ~10-20 all time.
 
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An ex-NHLer friend of mine heard from a buddy that played with Kovalev in New York that after practice, he'd get on his knees on the blueline with 10 pucks... and flip them in the air towards the FAR net (from his knees)... he'd consistently land 7/10 of them on TOP of the net

Anyway, the dude was amazing but unmotivated
 
An ex-NHLer friend of mine heard from a buddy that played with Kovalev in New York that after practice, he'd get on his knees on the blueline with 10 pucks... and flip them in the air towards the FAR net (from his knees)... he'd consistently land 7/10 of them on TOP of the net

Anyway, the dude was amazing but unmotivated

Kovalev is arguably the best stick handler ever
 
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1. Lemieux
2. Orr
3. Gretzky
4. McDavid
5. Crosby
6. Forsberg
7. Jagr
8. Lindros
9. Bure
10. Fedorov
 

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