The Worst Shooters Among The Best Goal Scorers And Best Shooters Who Weren't Great Goal Scorers?

[authentic]

We rarely use the term underrated about Gretzky, but honestly I think his shot is underrated. Having a slapper that is pinpoint accurate is pretty rare, and the velocity was pretty heavy for a guy we dont usually associate with raw power and strength. He also built a lot of complicated fakes and deception into it like the half windup pause that made it so difficult for goalies to get properly set for the shot.

I wonder if the distance in time from his prime years has made people forget how dangerous that slapper was. A lot of what made him a nightmare to defend against pre-Suter hit was that he wasnt just this clever playmaker whod outfox you with passes, if your defenders all collapsed to take his pass options away, hed beat the goalie from above the circles with how good his slapshot was.

There was a clip of him letting a clapper go from near the point in his NYR days on the powerplay and it looked like a left handed Stamkos wiring it bar down. I think his shot power has always been underestimated.

My answer for great shot without many goals is Ryan Getzlaf. He could hammer the puck and had a deadly accurate wrister with power and a quick release as well as the size and skill to get it off in traffic but chose to be a pass first and second player.

 

[Crosby2010]

Gretzky didn't have a hard shot but as accurate of a shot as anyone in history, I think. That slapper that could go in the top corner comes to mind. Not a hard howitzer or anything though.

If we are thinking of defensemen there were few that could lean into a shot and shoot as hard as Chara. Not that he didn't score goals with 209, but I always thought his big shot could have been a bigger threat on the PP.

Wendel Clark wrestled with injuries and perhaps wasn't the most offensively blessed players, but he had a shot that could knock a car door off of its hinges. Only hit 40 goals once. That shot though..........................

Nothing against Paul Kariya's career but top 5 in goals just once and with that slap and wrist shot. His wrist shot was a bit like Sakic's.

Keith Primeau had a beauty of a shot. Just think of that wrister he scored in that 5 OT game in 2000. Top corner from that far out with that sort of velocity on a wrist shot? Yet he never scored 35 goals in a season.

 

[MadLuke]

Laine has a fantastic shot but isn’t a great goal scprer anymore.

Looking at his goal tonight, if he end his career with a single 40 goal season, that will not because he lacked the shot to have some 50 goals season in there.

 

[LightningStorm]

Sakic had a tremendous shot for someone who only finished top 5 in goals twice. He put up 600 goals and had two tremendous goal scoring playoffs. But was never a consistent threat to lead the league in goals.

I've always found Sakic to be among the biggest enigmas of Hall of Fame players. At his best he was a goal scorer, yet he was a more consistent playmaker season to season. He also had great longevity, but he also had his best seasons scattered throughout his career as oppose to having a great stretch of seasons. Definitely would've expected him to have more elite goal scoring seasons like 1996 and 2001 than he did with that deadly wrist shot of his. Interestingly, after 2001, 1999 was the closest he came to winning the Richard, while most (including me beforehand) assumed it was 1996.