Run-off Poll: Sergei Fedorov 1996 Or Joe Sakic 2001?

[DitchMarner]

Which season do you consider the superior two-way season?

Click to read more...

 

[Coffees]

OH Baby we got a run off!!!!!

Get your votes in ! Come get your votes in !

 

[GMR]

Blues/Canucks/Devils/islanders fan here , but this is Fedorov

You can be a fan of both the Devils and Islanders?

 

[Coffees]

You can be a fan of both the Devils and Islanders?

That was a satire comment but then I realized it’s not funny so I decided to hype up the thread instead

 

[JaegerDice]

Sakic but its super close

 

[Coffees]

Sakic but its super close

HF agrees

 

[Connor McConnor]

Fedorov was just more dynamic

 

[BraveCanadian]

I think Fedorov for me.

While Sakic got pretty good defensively, I’ve always found him somewhat overrated.. probably due to +/- on a stacked team winning a few more votes than it should.

Feds was the real deal defensively so for best two way season I’m going with him. I think it’s close though because Sakic was clearly better offensively in these seasons.

 

[blundluntman]

I'll take Sakic here. Fedorov was better defensively but Sakic's offensive output in 01 was absurd enough on it's own without him also being good defensively. The gap between offense is bigger than the defensive gap imo.

 

[Lt Dan]

I always rooted for those Detroit teams over those 'lanche teams, but I do the objective thing and vote for Sakic

 

[DitchMarner]

Voting will conclude at 10:00 PM tonight. Fedorov has a close edge right now.

 

[Regal]

I feel like it’s tough to separate best season from best two-way season to some degree, but I think Sakic was more of a top offensive player who was very good defensively whereas Fedorov was slightly lower top offensive player who was elite defensively. Sakic’s year was better offensively to the point I think he had the better overall year (originally read ‘94 and thought it was a pick ‘em), but I feel like with the specifics of “two-way” it should probably go to Fedorov

 

[Albatros]

Fedorov, better defensively and no worse offensively.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Fedorov, better defensively and no worse offensively.

I agree that Fedorov was better defensively, but there's a clear gap in offensive production.

Sakic outscored Fedorov by 11 points, and he did it in a much lower scoring season. (If you're just going by leaguewide GPG, 1996 was about 14% higher scoring, and Sakic outscored him by 10%, so that's a 25% advantage on a relative basis). 96 points was enough for 3rd place in 2001; that only would have ranked a player 17th in 1996. There was a huge change in the scoring environment, even though these were only five years apart. Also, Sakic led his team in scoring by a wider margin (29 pts vs 12 pts).

This isn't directed at you specifically, but I find it amusing that, in other recent threads, people have been arguing for Fedorov's 1994 season on the strength of his two-way play and goal-scoring ability. Yet in this comparison, Sakic was by far the better goal-scorer (54 vs 39 - in a lower scoring environment) and nobody has mentioned that. People seem to be picking and choosing whether to emphasize goal-scoring, depending on how that makes Fedorov look.

Ultimately, there's a good argument for either player. I'm not sure that Fedorov ranking one position higher for the Selke (1st vs 2nd) is worth a 25% difference in production (on a relative basis). One would have to argue that Sakic was significantly overrated in Selke voting in order for Fedorov to come out ahead here.

(EDIT - I looked at the database and Fedorov had a 70.9% ES GF% in 1996, and the Red Wings were 57.9% when he was off the ice. In 2001, Sakic had a 69.0% ES GF%, and the Avalanche were 52.6% when he was off the ice. If anything this suggests that Sakic played a bigger role in improving his team's ES results when he was on the ice. Fedorov had a bigger role on the penalty kill, but I'm not sure how many people are willing to trade 15 goals for one extra minute per game of PK time).

 

[Albatros]

Fedorov had the ability to score 50 as well if deployed in such role, but the Russian 5 played a different brand of hockey.

 

[Toby91ca]

Fedorov, better defensively and no worse offensively.

Yes Fedorov better defensively, but offensively it isn't really close for those years (Sakic by quite a bit). If this was 94 Fedorov vs. 2001 Sakic, I'd easily say Fedorov, but 96 vs 01 is tougher and I could lean towards Sakic. If I hadn't watched both during those years and just looked at stats and awards, I'd easily pick Sakic, he was clearly better offensively, was 2nd in Selke voting and was the Hart and Pearson winner that year. But, having watch both very closely those years, I'd probably lean towards Fedorov, but it's close. I'm biased to Fedorov as well....so that has an influence.

 

[Albatros]

I don't recall Fedorov being any bit worse offensively in '96 compared to '94, he just played possession hockey as a two-way winger and an occasional defenseman rather than more direct as a centerman.

 

[DitchMarner]

Voting will conclude at 10:00 PM tonight. Fedorov has a close edge right now.

Ugh... it's still very close in voting (30 votes to 29 in favor of Fedorov). I'll set a timer and have it close automatically 24 hours from now.

 

[blundluntman]

Ugh... it's still very close in voting (30 votes to 29 in favor of Fedorov). I'll set a timer and have it close automatically 24 hours from now.

Fedorov always gives us poll creators trouble it seems

 

[Wings4Life]

People forget that Fedorov played a few games as a defenseman in the 1995-96 season as well. Without these games on D and his 4 games out injured, he was going to be around that 120 point mark again (though with only 40 or so goals instead of 56). I think his was the better two-way season.

 

[BraveCanadian]

People forget that Fedorov played a few games as a defenseman in the 1995-96 season as well. Without these games on D and his 4 games out injured, he was going to be around that 120 point mark again (though with only 40 or so goals instead of 56). I think his was the better two-way season.

How could they when it is mentioned in every thread Fedorov’s name appears?

 

[DitchMarner]

Ugh... it's still very close in voting (30 votes to 29 in favor of Fedorov). I'll set a timer and have it close automatically 24 hours from now.

And we have a tie. Unbelievable.

The voting period is being extended.

 

[Wings4Life]

How could they when it is mentioned in every thread Fedorov’s name appears?

Touché my good man.

 

[Toby91ca]

People forget that Fedorov played a few games as a defenseman in the 1995-96 season as well. Without these games on D and his 4 games out injured, he was going to be around that 120 point mark again (though with only 40 or so goals instead of 56). I think his was the better two-way season.

Fedorov was my favourite player for some time, but I don't see how the math works to take him from 107pts to around 120 if he played that 4 missed games and played F instead of D for a few games. I'm not sure how many games he played D, only one I could find quickly was Jan 17/96....he had a goal and an assist that game. Anyway, even if he did score 120pts that year, 120pts in 95/96 is not the equivalent of 120pts in 93/94, but more importantly in the context of this thread (00/01).