Talent entering the league in the 80s vs. the 90s

[MHO]

I had this thought remembering how exciting hockey is now compared to what it was in the early 2000s and the current rules have a lot to do with that. But I also remember thinking at the time that there were a lack of stars then. So I did some quick unscientific research and saw that there were 37 Hall of Famers drafted in the 1980s vs 14 drafted in the 1990s.

Now that only includes drafted players so guys like Martin St Louis don't count and also guys like Jagr, Chara, Zetterberg, Thornton, and Marleau (Maybe HOF?) aren't included but isn't it still something that one decade had double the hall of famers enter the league than the next?

I think it's still too early to judge how many came from the draft decades following but I'm betting it will be way more than 20 for each. The 90's talent just really sucked

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[Brodeur]

Maybe more a thread for the History board, but some of the 90s drafts were horrid. Definitely an unfortunate time to expand from 21 teams to 30 by the end of the decade. The fall of the USSR in 1991 set back their hockey program, presumably similar things happened with Czechoslovakia splitting. I wish I could attribute where I read it, but I recall somebody saying that the Swedes had a lot of their top youth athletes opt for soccer over hockey in the 80s; The Swedes winning Olympic Gold in 1994 sparked a renaissance and we that caused a resurgence of top tier Swedes born in the early-mid 90's that are still in the NHL today.

Sometimes a bad sign when a defenseman goes #1 in 3 straight drafts (1994-96), at least in terms of the draft class lacking a high end forward talent.

I forget if USA Hockey got a Miracle on Ice bump, but those early 80's kids wouldn't have been draft eligible until very late in the 90's to early 00's. Now it's not unusual to see California, Texas, Florida produce a decent prospect or two. But back in the 90's the rinks and competition level weren't what they are today; I'm still a bit bitter that they built a nice facility in my suburb of LA around 1999-2000 right after I left.



This ESPN segment from the early 90's always stuck with me, namely how bad the Russian facilities had gotten.