The Worst Shooters Among The Best Goal Scorers And Best Shooters Who Weren't Great Goal Scorers?
- Thread starter DitchMarner
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MadLuke
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- Jan 18, 2011
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Marcel Dionne (someone with 730 goals....) in an interview said he did not had a goalscorer shot and had to create his goals a lot, could have been downplaying himself or just relative to the Lafleur-Bossy level of shots (that was a bit the sense it gave, that he had a shot below the greatest).
I remember Pierre Dagenais having quite the shots in a vaccum and could score a lot in the Q, AHL, Europe. Was harder in the nhl (outside the shootout), he has youtube goals montage without scoring 40 goals in that league.
I remember Pierre Dagenais having quite the shots in a vaccum and could score a lot in the Q, AHL, Europe. Was harder in the nhl (outside the shootout), he has youtube goals montage without scoring 40 goals in that league.
seventieslord
Student Of The Game
Isn't Gretzky the answer here? The discrepancy between how did he was at scoring goals and how good he was at shooting, is probably the highest ever.
JackSlater
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Can't argue with the names listed so far. Pavel Brendl had a great shot but... yeah the rest did not work out.
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There have been lots of defensemen who had high velocity shots but didn't accumulate high goal totals. For example, Dmitry Orlov can bomb it but that is not his primary role.
DitchMarner
TheGlitchintheSwitch
I feel like he had a fairly good shot for his era (in his prime). It probably wouldn't have allowed him to score prolifically during the Dead Puck Era (among others), but he could beat goaltenders from a distance in the 80s. He had good accuracy, and watching clips from that time period, his shot doesn't stand out as particularly weak for the period (to me anyway).
I did mention Crosby in the OP, and he has good accuracy as well. I guess it's just that he looked worse in terms of velocity (and maybe release) relative to guys like Iginla, Kovalchuk and Ovechkin in the 2000s than Gretzky did in comparison to guys like Dionne, Bossy and Savard. Crosby has improved his shot since those early years, though.
Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
McDavid, sort of like Crosby, kinda "chose" (for lack of a better term, but there was a clear change in their games) to score a bunch of goals one year. Not the best shooter. He has hands in close (while Crosby is incredible at deflections), but in terms of shooting - that's not McDavid's biggest strength. Like when Crosby was bet to lead the league in goals, McDavid had a "be more selfish" year and then dunked on the league for 60+.
Gretzky has that half slapper, and it's not like he can't shoot...but he's a good answer here relative to 894 number.
Gretzky has that half slapper, and it's not like he can't shoot...but he's a good answer here relative to 894 number.
jigglysquishy
Registered User
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.
overpass
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Bryan Trottier didn't have a great shot, but he had 50, 47, and 46 goal seasons. And in his seven seasons centering Mike Bossy (77-78 to 83-84) he had a 22% shooting percentage.
MadLuke
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With Gretzky he did shot 22.8% 81 to 85, 20.5% from 81 to 91, can you have one of the best shooting percentage while leading the league in shot taken without a great shot ? 20.5% that exactly what Lemieux-Bossy did during that time, he had quite that good slapshot and a lot of his career goals where from a good distance, beating goaltender clean without them being obstructed or from a one timer broken play.
Forsberg and Datsyuk had solid shot relative to their goal output.
Forsberg and Datsyuk had solid shot relative to their goal output.
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vadim sharifijanov
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i guess it depends on how we define great shot? robitaille is often thought of as a crease guy but he had excellent hand eye coordination (ie, the source of the lucky nickname) and could get a shot off quickly and accurately in tight and difficult situations. so a great shot in a sense, but not like a joe sakic or alex mogilny beat you clean with a wrister-type great shot.
gretzky, that slapper feels like an all time shot to me, in terms of always being able to pick the corner, how fast he got it off, he he could get if off against the grain of his movement while button hooking or going east-west. comparable to bure or gaborik firing a wrister mid-stride, just more ugly.
but a true crease guy like pavelski or, not elite but andrew brunette (or one of my faves, greg adams), those guys did not really have good shots but scored a lot of goals on positioning, timing, and hand eye coordination.
gretzky, that slapper feels like an all time shot to me, in terms of always being able to pick the corner, how fast he got it off, he he could get if off against the grain of his movement while button hooking or going east-west. comparable to bure or gaborik firing a wrister mid-stride, just more ugly.
but a true crease guy like pavelski or, not elite but andrew brunette (or one of my faves, greg adams), those guys did not really have good shots but scored a lot of goals on positioning, timing, and hand eye coordination.
The Panther
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tabness
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First name that pops into mind is Petr Nedved. Later in the nineties with the reputation gained through his own superstar status and the Avalanche success, everyone was saying Sakic had the best wrist shot in the game, but I think Nedved's was even better. His wrist shot was absolutely beautiful, one of those you watched just to take in the form so you could practice it. But like Semin, his stats are nowhere near what you'd expect from that kind of shot. Was surprised he didn't get 50 even on the 1995-1996 Penguins and the way they played, guess it was too much finishing from Jagr and Lemieux.
(sorry about the wack beat for this montage lol)
Lots of European trained centers coming in during the eighties and nineties who were just too pass first seemed to have underutilized great shots, not Nedved level but like I'm thinking Forsberg who topped out at 30 only with his shot, or Bengt Ake Gustafsson before him in the eighties.
On the Wings this was also a thing. Everyone remembers Fedorov's shot arsenal especially that slapshot, wasn't giving up much to Mogilny and Bure, but he only scored 50 once. Then after him, Datsyuk had such a nice selection of shots, his release from in close after he did his dekes was always super satisfying but was never getting the big numbers. Obviously a big part of that was team style and their roles though. Even Robert Lang, dude had such a nice release, and it was always fun to watch with his gumpy stride and lazy look, he'd look somewhat awkward getting it off, but it was an absolute great shot, just a bit behind his countryman Nedved. He only started shooting late in his already late to blossom career, classically Euro trained centerman he was.
Pat LaFontaine in terms of "worst" shooters given great goal scorers (even though it's a bit of a stretch because his shot was absolutely fine) because of his lack of size and strength, his shot wasn't at the insane level of his other superlative finesse skills, and he didn't have to use it much to continue scoring like crazy even on the man on the island days on the late eighties Islanders. Like McDavid in his one big scoring year, he just always had the puck, made the play, and drove to the net (although it was much harder to do that back in his day). Even though his most famous goal is the easter epic long slapper, seems like most of his many goals were in/right outside the crease.
(sorry about the wack beat for this montage lol)
Lots of European trained centers coming in during the eighties and nineties who were just too pass first seemed to have underutilized great shots, not Nedved level but like I'm thinking Forsberg who topped out at 30 only with his shot, or Bengt Ake Gustafsson before him in the eighties.
On the Wings this was also a thing. Everyone remembers Fedorov's shot arsenal especially that slapshot, wasn't giving up much to Mogilny and Bure, but he only scored 50 once. Then after him, Datsyuk had such a nice selection of shots, his release from in close after he did his dekes was always super satisfying but was never getting the big numbers. Obviously a big part of that was team style and their roles though. Even Robert Lang, dude had such a nice release, and it was always fun to watch with his gumpy stride and lazy look, he'd look somewhat awkward getting it off, but it was an absolute great shot, just a bit behind his countryman Nedved. He only started shooting late in his already late to blossom career, classically Euro trained centerman he was.
Pat LaFontaine in terms of "worst" shooters given great goal scorers (even though it's a bit of a stretch because his shot was absolutely fine) because of his lack of size and strength, his shot wasn't at the insane level of his other superlative finesse skills, and he didn't have to use it much to continue scoring like crazy even on the man on the island days on the late eighties Islanders. Like McDavid in his one big scoring year, he just always had the puck, made the play, and drove to the net (although it was much harder to do that back in his day). Even though his most famous goal is the easter epic long slapper, seems like most of his many goals were in/right outside the crease.
