NHL Playoff VsX, 1918-2016

[seventieslord]

A recent conversation on this board got me thinking about a simple way to get a summary of a player's peak offensive contributions in the playoffs. We already have something like that for the regular season, of course - VsX - so I thought it might be helpful to whip up something similar for the NHL playoffs.

The methodology was the same - I just took the 2nd leading playoff scorer every season and used them as the benchmark, comparing the point totals of every player to that benchmark and expressing it as a percentage. In roughly a dozen of the past 99 seasons, I used the 3rd place scorer as he was still a significant degree behind 2nd (who deserved credit for distancing himself from the pack).

The downfalls to this system are obvious - first, in the pre-merger seasons of 1918-1926 it uses some extremely small samples (though this didn't affect much as very few players from this time made the cutoff). Also, I'm sure you can guess that, unlike regular season VsX (which is on an even GP playing field), it is hugely advantageous to be in the playoffs more often and to advance more often. But that's why they all play the game, isn't it?

One advantage to using "best 5 seasons" is that it stops a player from just "compiling" their way to a good score. You have to have at least one great playoff run to be able to make this cutoff and a handful of good ones.

So, here are the most prolific playoff scorers of all-time, based on their five best playoff runs from a point scoring perspective:

Click to read more...

 

[seventieslord]

FORWARDS

# | Name | VsX5P
1 | Wayne Gretzky | 685
2 | Gordie Howe | 583
3 | Maurice Richard | 575
4 | Jean Beliveau | 559
5 | Bernie Geoffrion | 550
6 | Phil Esposito | 549
7 | Joe Sakic | 543
8 | Guy Lafleur | 528
9 | Mario Lemieux | 518
10 | Ted Kennedy | 517
11 | Frank Boucher | 501
12 | Dickie Moore | 498
13 | Bobby Hull | 497
14 | Ted Lindsay | 496
15 | Mike Bossy | 492
16 | Mark Messier | 490
17 | Jacques Lemaire | 485
18 | Frank Mahovlich | 484
19 | Peter Forsberg | 481
20 | Sergei Fedorov | 481
21 | Stan Mikita | 476
22 | Bryan Trottier | 475
23 | Doug Gilmour | 471
24 | Toe Blake | 466
25 | Jari Kurri | 461
26 | Elmer Lach | 456
27 | Yvan Cournoyer | 456
28 | Howie Morenz | 455
29 | Sidney Crosby | 453
30 | Steve Yzerman | 449
31 | Evgeni Malkin | 447
32 | Norm Ullman | 447
33 | Cy Denneny | 446
34 | Patrick Kane | 435
35 | Sid Abel | 435
36 | Max Bentley | 434
37 | Marty Barry | 429
38 | Mike Modano | 427
39 | Rick MacLeish | 424
40 | Alex Delvecchio | 420
41 | Denis Savard | 412
42 | Johnny Bucyk | 410
43 | Henri Richard | 408
44 | Marian Hossa | 406
45 | Brett Hull | 404
46 | Gordie Drillon | 404
47 | Carl Liscombe | 403
48 | Fleming MacKell | 397
49 | Glenn Anderson | 397
50 | Syl Apps | 397
51 | Patrik Elias | 394
52 | Jaromir Jagr | 393
53 | Bobby Clarke | 392
54 | Mark Recchi | 390
55 | Ron Francis | 389
56 | Charlie Conacher | 388
57 | Jonathan Toews | 387
58 | Daniel Briere | 386
59 | Brian Propp | 383
60 | Milt Schmidt | 383
61 | Henrik Zetterberg | 379
62 | Syd Howe | 377
63 | Bill Cowley | 376
64 | Bobby Rousseau | 372
65 | Ken Hodge | 367
66 | Claude Lemieux | 363
67 | Newsy Lalonde | 363
68 | Bobby Smith | 359
69 | Dick Duff | 357
70 | Martin St. Louis | 354
71 | Kevin Stevens | 353
72 | Brad Richards | 348
73 | Chris Drury | 348
74 | Jim Pappin | 346
75 | Joe Mullen | 346
76 | Rod Brind'Amour | 346
77 | Bill Cook | 344
78 | Adam Oates | 343
79 | Steve Shutt | 343
80 | Bill Barber | 341
81 | Justin Williams | 341
82 | Busher Jackson | 340
83 | Joe Carveth | 340
84 | Cooney Weiland | 336
85 | Red Kelly | 335
86 | Bert Olmstead | 333
87 | Frank Nighbor | 333
88 | Ryan Getzlaf | 333
89 | Ken Linseman | 331
90 | Buddy O'Connor | 328
91 | Jean Ratelle | 328
92 | Pete Mahovlich | 328
93 | Bernie Federko | 324
94 | David Krejci | 321
95 | John Tonelli | 321
96 | Jude Drouin | 321
97 | Reggie Leach | 321
98 | Butch Keeling | 319
99 | Roy Conacher | 319
100 | Pavel Datsyuk | 318
101 | Nick Metz | 316
102 | Mats Naslund | 315
103 | Steve Larmer | 315
104 | Daniel Alfredsson | 314
105 | John Sorrell | 314
106 | Jamie Langenbrunner | 312
107 | Petr Sykora | 312
108 | Patrick Sharp | 311
109 | Aurele Joliat | 310
110 | Joe Thornton | 310
111 | Mike Richards | 309
112 | Rick Middleton | 308
113 | Paul Thompson | 307
114 | Bob Bourne | 306
115 | Gilbert Perreault | 305
116 | Mud Bruneteau | 304
117 | Joe Primeau | 303
118 | Floyd Curry | 301
119 | Peter McNab | 300
120 | Brendan Shanahan | 299
121 | Jeff Carter | 298
122 | Rick Tocchet | 298
123 | Butch Goring | 297
124 | Cecil Dillon | 296
125 | Esa Tikkanen | 296
126 | Joe Pavelski | 296
127 | Clark Gillies | 294
128 | Harry Oliver | 294
129 | John LeClair | 294
130 | Mush March | 294
131 | Billy Reay | 293
132 | Dit Clapper | 293
133 | Gregg Sheppard | 293
134 | Johnny Gottselig | 293
135 | George Armstrong | 292
136 | Dennis Hull | 291
137 | Brian Bellows | 289
138 | Lanny McDonald | 289
139 | Scott Gomez | 289
140 | Doc Romnes | 288
141 | Johan Franzen | 288
142 | Patrick Marleau | 288
143 | Don McKenney | 287
144 | Jeremy Roenick | 287
145 | Vincent Damphousse | 287
146 | Bob Pulford | 286
147 | Anze Kopitar | 285
148 | Corey Perry | 285
149 | Herbie Lewis | 285
150 | Igor Larionov | 285
151 | Peter Stastny | 284
152 | Joe Nieuwendyk | 283
153 | Vyacheslav Kozlov | 281
154 | Darryl Sittler | 280
155 | Herb Cain | 280
156 | Logan Couture | 280
157 | Nels Stewart | 280
158 | Ralph Backstrom | 280
159 | Craig Janney | 279
160 | Luc Robitaille | 279
161 | Murray Murdoch | 279
162 | Pete Stemkowski | 276
163 | Claude Provost | 275
164 | Dave Keon | 275
165 | Phil Watson | 271
166 | Bernie Nicholls | 270
167 | Jason Spezza | 270
168 | Alex Ovechkin | 267
169 | Bun Cook | 267
170 | Chico Maki | 267
171 | Dany Heatley | 267
172 | Don Grosso | 267
173 | Milan Hejduk | 267
174 | Neil Colville | 266
175 | Pavel Bure | 266
176 | Sid Smith | 266
177 | Steve Thomas | 266
178 | Tomas Holmstrom | 266
179 | Wayne Cashman | 266
180 | Marian Gaborik | 265
181 | Patrice Bergeron | 265
182 | Theoren Fleury | 265
183 | Bobby Schmautz | 264
184 | Martin Straka | 264
185 | Metro Prystai | 264
186 | Adam Deadmarsh | 263
187 | Doug Weight | 263
188 | Geoff Courtnall | 259
189 | Stephane Richer | 259
190 | Alex Kovalev | 257
191 | Cam Neely | 257
192 | Claude Giroux | 257
193 | Doug Mohns | 257
194 | Gary Roberts | 257
195 | Jason Arnott | 256
196 | J.P. Parise | 255
197 | Bob Nystrom | 254
198 | Jarome Iginla | 254
199 | Ab McDonald | 253
200 | Valeri Kamensky | 253
201 | Frank St. Marseille | 251
202 | John MacLean | 251
203 | Milan Lucic | 251
204 | Alex Shibicky | 250
205 | Fred Stanfield | 250
206 | Pierre Turgeon | 249
207 | Steve Payne | 249
208 | Teemu Selanne | 249
209 | Trevor Linden | 248

 

[seventieslord]

DEFENSEMEN:

| Name | VsX5P
1 Denis Potvin | 442
2 Bobby Orr | 423
3 Paul Coffey | 405
4 Nicklas Lidstrom | 404
5 J.C. Tremblay | 368
6 Larry Robinson | 365
7 Al MacInnis | 360
8 Flash Hollett | 339
9 Chris Chelios | 329
10 Brad Park | 328
11 Larry Murphy | 323
12 Chris Pronger | 322
13 Sergei Zubov | 313
14 Ray Bourque | 308
15 Doug Harvey | 306
16 Brian Leetch | 303
17 Pierre Pilote | 301
18 Sandis Ozolinsh | 297
19 Scott Niedermayer | 296
20 Duncan Keith | 290
21 Brian Rafalski | 284
22 Serge Savard | 257
23 Guy Lapointe | 256
24 Pat Stapleton | 256
25 Paul Reinhart | 252
26 Harry Cameron | 250
27 Kris Letang | 250

 

[MXD]

Very interesting and useful. Thanks.

I suppose the defensemen are "between themselves"? That is, a D-Men compared to another D-Men...

EDIT : Come to think of it, Denis Potvin's ranking kinda hints at the contrary.

 

[seventieslord]

initial thoughts:

- this, unfortunately, makes no attempt to adjust in favour of defensemen who played before Orr changed the offensive expectations of a top defenseman, so most of the guys showing up here are post-Orr.

- Red Kelly, Dit Clapper and Neil Colville are all here as forwards, because 12 of their 15 best seasons by this metric were played as forwards, including all six of their best six.

- No, in case you're wondering, Red Kelly could not have made this list based on his best 5 playoffs as a defenseman.

- Who knew Ted Kennedy was that far ahead of Syl Apps?

- Who saw Bernie Feoffrion placing this high?

- Who thought Gordie Howe would make #2? You would all think, as I did, that Gordie would be eclipsed by at least Maurice Richard or Jean Beliveau in such an exercise.

- Best playoff scorers among players who didn't win multiple cups with the same team? Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Doug Gilmour, Norm Ullman, Mike Modano. In that order.

- I bet you thought Paul Coffey would come out #1 among defensemen here.

- Macinnis and Park stand out as defensemen without a dynasty or dynasty-lite helping them onto the list

- Frank Boucher makes it this high on the strength of a well-deserved 200 score in 1928, but he'd have been on the list either way. He is very underrated as a playoff scorer.

- I thought Steve Yzerman would do better than this.

 

[seventieslord]

Very interesting and useful. Thanks.

I suppose the defensemen are "between themselves"? That is, a D-Men compared to another D-Men...

EDIT : Come to think of it, Denis Potvin's ranking kinda hints at the contrary.

right. This is just among all players, not among defensemen.

 

[MXD]

initial thoughts:

- this, unfortunately, makes no attempt to adjust in favour of defensemen who played before Orr changed the offensive expectations of a top defenseman, so most of the guys showing up here are post-Orr.

- Red Kelly, Dit Clapper and Neil Colville are all here as forwards, because 12 of their 15 best seasons by this metric were played as forwards, including all six of their best six.

- No, in case you're wondering, Red Kelly could not have made this list based on his best 5 playoffs as a defenseman.

- Who knew Ted Kennedy was that far ahead of Syl Apps?

- Who saw Bernie Feoffrion placing this high?

- Who thought Gordie Howe would make #2? You would all think, as I did, that Gordie would be eclipsed by at least Maurice Richard or Jean Beliveau in such an exercise.

- Best playoff scorers among players who didn't win multiple cups with the same team? Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Doug Gilmour, Norm Ullman, Mike Modano. In that order.

- I bet you thought Paul Coffey would come out #1 among defensemen here.

- Macinnis and Park stand out as defensemen without a dynasty or dynasty-lite helping them onto the list

- Frank Boucher makes it this high on the strength of a well-deserved 200 score in 1928, but he'd have been on the list either way. He is very underrated as a playoff scorer.

- I thought Steve Yzerman would do better than this.

- I'm really surprised at Kelly missing it altogether with only his years at D-Men. Thought he could at least have scraped the bottom of the D-Men lists.

- Answering "I did" for the Kennedy and Geoffrion points.

- Well, Howe did lead the league in playoffs scoring 5 times....

Eye-opener : JC Tremblay. I expected Brad Park range, not Larry Robinson range. More surprising is that probably two of his registering years are Pre-Orr.... But not so much when you realize he indeed was his team leading scorer in 65-66.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Interesting work.Would be interesting to see Best 3 seasons too.I think 5 is on the high side.Would also be interesting to do this for goals, but I'm aware of how much work is involved in this.

initial thoughts:


- Who saw Bernie Geoffrion placing this high?

I guess I did, but I just researched him.One of the greatest playoff performer of all-time.

- Frank Boucher makes it this high on the strength of a well-deserved 200 score in 1928, but he'd have been on the list either way. He is very underrated as a playoff scorer.

Not surprised to see Boucher very high.I don't see any reason to rank Yzerman over him.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Since VsX is based off scoring compared to the top few scorers (with 2nd being the usual benchmark I believe), being on a dynasty full of monstrous playoff performers actually negatively affects a lot of players' apparent peak performances. A player like Coffey who has had plenty of massive playoff runs played with the anomaly that is Wayne Gretzky. Meaning that a player who would "normally" lead the playoffs in scoring is suddenly the benchmark. Heck Coffey's own anomaly year of 37 playoff points would actually be the benchmark one year because Wayne decided that he wanted to score at a higher pace in the playoffs than the regular season. The fact that 99 blows every other player's score on the list to kingdom come seems to support this. To a lesser extend, having Fedorov on the same team probably negatively affected Yzerman's score.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Since VsX is based off scoring compared to the top few scorers (with 2nd being the usual benchmark I believe), being on a dynasty full of monstrous playoff performers actually negatively affects a lot of players' apparent peak performances. A player like Coffey who has had plenty of massive playoff runs played with the anomaly that is Wayne Gretzky. Meaning that a player who would "normally" lead the playoffs in scoring is suddenly the benchmark. Heck Coffey's own anomaly year of 37 playoff points would actually be the benchmark one year because Wayne decided that he wanted to score at a higher pace in the playoffs than the regular season. The fact that 99 blows every other player's score on the list to kingdom come seems to support this. To a lesser extend, having Fedorov on the same team probably negatively affected Yzerman's score.

The same is true for the regular season VsX system.

Allright, I have done the hard work of going through every post-consolidation NHL season and trying to set some kind of benchmark against which we can compare scoring in a VsX percentages system. Before I post the results, my methodology:

1. First preference is to use the #2 scorer

2. If #3 points/#2 points < .90, I use the #3 scorer, unless...

3. There is a gap of greater than 10% anywhere else in the top-5 - following the same method as above: [small #]/[large #] < .90.

At that point, I take the first gap, and identify the upper outlier group (top 3 or 4 or 5 above which the gap occurs), and then go down into the scoring table until I reach a number of players which equals: [size of outlier group] * 2. The benchmark is set as an average of the scoring of these players.

4. If any player in the top-5 is more than 7% below the player above him and more than 7% above the player below him, his score is taken as the benchmark. [this is the Bathgate Rule]

In Coffey's 37 points playoff run, the 3rd scorer is Kurri with 31 pts.

Following point #2 in Sturminator's post, we have 31/37 = 0.837 < 0.90, thus the 3rd scorer is chosen (once we verify that no 10%+ gap occur in the Top 5).The benchmark that year is actually 31 points.

 

[BenchBrawl]

For aesthetic purposes, I'd do something like (using an example):

Denis Savard scored 29 pts in 84-85.

The benchmark is 31 pts (Kurri the #3 scorer), we have 29/31 = 0.94.Usually we'll multiply by 100 to give him 94, which "looks" like a usual point total in a normal NHL season.We assume it is 82 games, then I assume a playoff run is 22 games, I do 22/82 = 0.27, then multiply 94 by 0.27 which gives Savard 25 pts.Obviously the goal would be to do that to his Best-5-seasons average number, not a single run.

That way we'd have a number similar to a playoff run point total.

Assume Savard scored 98,94,90,83,77.Then that averages out to 88.4, multiplied by 0.27 yields 23.9 pts in a usual 22 games run.

So basically, just use the numbers in seventieslord's table, divide them by 5 and then multiply them by 0.27.

This is really useless except for aesthetic purposes though.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Since VsX is based off scoring compared to the top few scorers (with 2nd being the usual benchmark I believe), being on a dynasty full of monstrous playoff performers actually negatively affects a lot of players' apparent peak performances. A player like Coffey who has had plenty of massive playoff runs played with the anomaly that is Wayne Gretzky. Meaning that a player who would "normally" lead the playoffs in scoring is suddenly the benchmark. Heck Coffey's own anomaly year of 37 playoff points would actually be the benchmark one year because Wayne decided that he wanted to score at a higher pace in the playoffs than the regular season. The fact that 99 blows every other player's score on the list to kingdom come seems to support this. To a lesser extend, having Fedorov on the same team probably negatively affected Yzerman's score.

Yeah that is a big problem with almost any look at playoff statistic. Things get skewed so quickly by the reducing number of teams etc.

The same is true for the regular season VsX system.

It is much more pronounced in the playoffs due to the dwindling number of teams as the playoffs go on and the small sample size to begin with.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Yeah that is a big problem with almost any look at playoff statistic. Things get skewed so quickly by the reducing number of teams etc.




It is much more pronounced in the playoffs due to the dwindling number of teams as the playoffs go on and the small sample size to begin with.

Like I said, his precise criticism don't hold to scrutiny about the Coffey 37 pts run, which isn't the benchmark.Obviously to score well in this VsX playoff system, you need to be able to play a lot of playoff games during some years, which translates to reaching the finals or at least the final four.This might be unfair, but it is what it is.

I attempted to create a VsX PPG system to counter-balance the fact that a player who scored 80 pts in 80 games received the same VsX score of a player who scored 80 pts in 60 games, and I was planning to come up with a way to output a single number out of both the VsX number and the PPG VsX number.But the idea didn't receive any interest.I might still do it when I have the time, and the same could be done for the playoffs.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Like I said, his precise criticism don't hold to scrutiny about the Coffey 37 pts run, which isn't the benchmark.Obviously to score well in this VsX playoff system, you need to be able to play a lot of playoff games during some years, which translates to reaching the finals or at least the final four.This might be unfair, but it is what it is.

The question is though.. what is it? If we acknowledge that it has a skewed sample from the get go.. what does it tell us?

 

[BenchBrawl]

The question is though.. what is it? If we acknowledge that it has a skewed sample from the get go.. what does it tell us?

It gives us a system of measurement through which we can directly compare the five best playoffs of every player as far as point production goes.It's not perfect, but it can be useful.

Hey, if a player never played in the playoffs or played little in them, and another performed great on the crap ton of playoff opportunities he had, I'd still say the latter is the best playoff performer even if it might be unfair given the discrepancy in opportunities.Else why even talk about the playoffs?

That being said, I still think the PPG factor should be added to any VsX system.Not necessarily combined in any way, but if I give you the VsX number of a player, I think it would be useful to give you his PPG VsX number too, to make a difference between the player who scored 80 pts in 80 games 7 seasons in a row and the one who scored 80 pts in 60 games 7 seasons in a row.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Hey, if a player never played in the playoffs or played little in them, and another performed great on the crap ton of playoff opportunities he had, I'd still say the latter is the best playoff performer even if it might be unfair given the discrepancy in opportunities.Else why even talk about the playoffs?

We already know this about those players.

 

[BenchBrawl]

We already know this about those players.

Yes, but we might not know it between the top players who all had many opportunities.

Who knows what it means to score 29 pts in one playoff run in 87 versus scoring 20 pts in 2002.This is what this system is trying to establish.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Yes, but we might not know it between the top players who all had many opportunities.

Who knows what it means to score 29 pts in one playoff run in 87 versus scoring 20 pts in 2002.This is what this system is trying to establish.

I don't think this gets us there. I mean its something but I don't see how comparing players to the 87 Oilers dynasty who are half of the two teams making the final does anyone any good.

You have to factor in per game somewhere like you were suggesting and even that is going to be whacky due to sample sizes.

 

[quoipourquoi]

I don't think this gets us there. I mean its something but I don't see how comparing players to the 87 Oilers dynasty who are half of the two teams making the final does anyone any good.

You have to factor in per game somewhere like you were suggesting and even that is going to be whacky due to sample sizes.

Single run per-game evaluation:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1828485

 

[BenchBrawl]

I don't think this gets us there. I mean its something but I don't see how comparing players to the 87 Oilers dynasty who are half of the two teams making the final does anyone any good.

You have to factor in per game somewhere like you were suggesting and even that is going to be whacky due to sample sizes.

I don't really understand your criticism.I think 5 seasons might be too bit on the high side personally, and would have prefered 3 seasons, because I think any strong playoff performer worth talking about had at least 3 seasons where they had an opportunity to go very deep in the playoffs.I didn't check though.

To be brutally honest, I really don't care what players did outside of the years when they went deep, which forces me to rely heavily on peak when judging playoffs.I think 3 seasons is a good number for "peak", seventieslord preferred 5 seasons.That's a matter of preference.I prefer 3 because I think it's unreasonable to expect any player who didn't play on powerhouses/dynasties to have 5 deep runs, but I didn't check.But then again, if a player played on a dynasty, and had 6 great post-season, and another player had 3 which are equivalent, then using only 3 punishes the one who did it twice as much.Hard to come up with a perfect compromise.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Here's an attempt to do what I described in post #11.Just divide the number by 5 (because 5 seasons), then multiply by 0.27 which is 22/82, so this number is meant to represent "the amount you'd expect the player to produce in a playoff where it takes 22 games to win a championship" (based on their five best playoff runs).Think of it as the equivalent of the VsX system which gives a number ressembling a point total you'd expect the player to score in a 82 games season (without him necessarily playing all the games, so ignoring any point-per-game factor).

Admittedly 22 is arbitrary, could have went with 23 or 24 too.

seventieslord mentioned to me that this way of presenting the numbers might eliminate some inequalities because rounding up would give the same score to players who weren't equal.I allowed decimals (like in the regular VsX system) to avoid most of those situations, though some still appeared, but it's minor.

I only did the first Top 100 forwards because I did it the tedious way and I wanted to hear some feedback before continuing in this vein.

FORWARDS

# | Name | VsX5P
1 | Wayne Gretzky | 37
2 | Gordie Howe | 31.5
3 | Maurice Richard | 31.1
4 | Jean Beliveau | 30.2
5 | Bernie Geoffrion | 29.7
6 | Phil Esposito | 29.6
7 | Joe Sakic | 29.3
8 | Guy Lafleur | 28.5
9 | Mario Lemieux | 28
10 | Ted Kennedy | 27.9
11 | Frank Boucher | 27.1
12 | Dickie Moore | 26.9
13 | Bobby Hull | 26.9
14 | Ted Lindsay | 26.8
15 | Mike Bossy | 26.7
16 | Mark Messier | 26.5
17 | Jacques Lemaire | 26.2
18 | Frank Mahovlich | 26.1
19 | Peter Forsberg | 26
20 | Sergei Fedorov | 26
21 | Stan Mikita | 25.7
22 | Bryan Trottier | 25.7
23 | Doug Gilmour | 25.4
24 | Toe Blake | 25.2
25 | Jari Kurri | 24.9
26 | Elmer Lach | 24.6
27 | Yvan Cournoyer | 24.6
28 | Howie Morenz | 24.6
29 | Sidney Crosby | 24.5
30 | Steve Yzerman | 24.2
31 | Evgeni Malkin | 24.1
32 | Norm Ullman | 24.1
33 | Cy Denneny | 24.1
34 | Patrick Kane | 23.5
35 | Sid Abel | 23.5
36 | Max Bentley | 23.4
37 | Marty Barry | 23.2
38 | Mike Modano | 23.1
39 | Rick MacLeish | 22.9
40 | Alex Delvecchio | 22.7
41 | Denis Savard | 22.2
42 | Johnny Bucyk | 22.1
43 | Henri Richard | 22
44 | Marian Hossa | 21.9
45 | Brett Hull | 21.8
46 | Gordie Drillon | 21.8
47 | Carl Liscombe | 21.8
48 | Fleming MacKell | 21.4
49 | Glenn Anderson | 21.4
50 | Syl Apps | 21.4
51 | Patrik Elias | 21.3
52 | Jaromir Jagr | 21.2
53 | Bobby Clarke | 21.2
54 | Mark Recchi | 21.1
55 | Ron Francis | 21
56 | Charlie Conacher | 21
57 | Jonathan Toews | 20.9
58 | Daniel Briere | 20.8
59 | Brian Propp | 20.7
60 | Milt Schmidt | 20.7
61 | Henrik Zetterberg | 20.5
62 | Syd Howe | 20.4
63 | Bill Cowley | 20.3
64 | Bobby Rousseau | 20.1
65 | Ken Hodge | 19.8
66 | Claude Lemieux | 19.6
67 | Newsy Lalonde | 19.6
68 | Bobby Smith | 19.4
69 | Dick Duff | 19.3
70 | Martin St. Louis | 19.1
71 | Kevin Stevens | 19.1
72 | Brad Richards | 18.8
73 | Chris Drury | 18.8
74 | Jim Pappin | 18.7
75 | Joe Mullen | 18.7
76 | Rod Brind'Amour | 18.7
77 | Bill Cook | 18.6
78 | Adam Oates | 18.5
79 | Steve Shutt | 18.5
80 | Bill Barber | 18.4
81 | Justin Williams | 18.4
82 | Busher Jackson | 18.4
83 | Joe Carveth | 18.4
84 | Cooney Weiland | 18.1
85 | Red Kelly | 18.1
86 | Bert Olmstead | 18
87 | Frank Nighbor | 18
88 | Ryan Getzlaf | 18
89 | Ken Linseman | 17.9
90 | Buddy O'Connor | 17.7
91 | Jean Ratelle | 17.7
92 | Pete Mahovlich | 17.7
93 | Bernie Federko | 17.5
94 | David Krejci | 17.3
95 | John Tonelli | 17.3
96 | Jude Drouin | 17.3
97 | Reggie Leach | 17.3
98 | Butch Keeling | 17.2
99 | Roy Conacher | 17.2
100 | Pavel Datsyuk | 17.2
101 | Nick Metz | 17.1

The reason I prefer this presentation over a number like "525" is that it's a very quick way to imagine what a player would do in a fantasy playoff run.Oh, Messier would score about 26.5 pts in a playoff run, while Modano would score 23.1 pts in the same run.This is obviously not a perfect way of seeing it, but it's a quick one.The comparison is also made easier between players I thought.Regardless, this is just my opinion and not necessarily seventieslord's who spent a lot of time providing us with this interesting analysis, so I won't derail this discussion from it's true purpose (player comparison) any further.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Still not seeing the VsX angle when GP and opponent strength are so wildly different for every player's raw numbers. For instance, 4 points in 7 games against 2012 Philadelphia should not be held on the same level as 4 points in 4 games against 1999 Dallas. And you're obviously more likely to have five "deep" runs in the Original Six when 33.3% of teams are in the Finals than you are now.

 

[VanIslander]

Some initial observations:

• Jacques Lemaire does very well by this statistic.
• Marleau does better than Roenick. Take that JR!
• Jagr outside the top-50. Ouch.
• The best defenseman performance before the Orr era: Flash Hollett! (8th among dmen.) Then two O6 era greats (no surprises here): Doug Harvey & Pierre Pilote, and then an early era great Harry Cameron.

 

[seventieslord]

[*] Jagr outside the top-50. Ouch.

If jagr at 52 is an ouch, ovechkin at 168th is a blood curdling scream!

 

[VanIslander]

If jagr at 52 is an ouch, ovechkin at 168th is a blood curdling scream!

Jagr has been on Stanley Cup quality teams. OV has been the best on a team that hasn't even made the Finals once.

Put him with a Malkin and Letang (two guys on the list) and he would've had more success.