I´ll take a shot at this, it could be fun and helpful exercise.. Since we have sufficient amount of information to roughly make a season-to-season rankings of European d-men that played outside NHL during the 1970s, an estimation of what Vasiliev´s All-star / Norris voting record would be in a global league is certainly doable.
Vasiliev´s first taste of international hockey came in 1970 when he was 20 y/o at his first championship and played just 6 games with 0 points. He then missed the following championship. At ´72, Vasiliev was not 1 of the 16 d-men who got on at least one single ballot for the tournament´s All-star team, while 5 other Soviet d-men did.
He did not register a single vote in the SPOTY voting until 1973. Moreover, just for speaking strictly about Dinamo´s D corp, Vitaly Davydov was getting the votes up to 1971. So let´s move on to examine the seasons that actually matters for Valeri, starting with Summit Series...
I think the Series revealed weaknesses of Soviet defense but it also marked the start of Vasiliev´s prime as he was arguably the best USSR d-man during these games.
This article on edmontonjournal.com made both of these points for me based on advanced stats:
"The weakness of the Soviet team was its defencemen. If a defenceman is doing his job against tough competition, he will help create one scoring chance for every scoring chance against where he makes a mistake. Usual mistakes include missing an assignment, losing a puck battle or giving away the puck.
Team Canada had two key defencemen, Brad Park and Bill White, who met that test. Park chipped in on 27 scoring chances at even strength, while making mistakes on 26 against (here are the team totals for the entire series). White contributed to 21 chances while making mistakes on 18 chances against.
The top six Team Canada defencemen were Park, +1 on scoring chances at even strength, White, +3, Guy Lapointe, -5, Pat Stapleton, -10, Serge Savard, -10, and Gary Bergman, -11, not a bad showing against such a skilled attacking team as the Soviet Union.
The Soviets didn’t have one top d-man who came close to meeting this standard.
In fact, their two top d-men, Vladimir Lutchenko and Gennady Tsygankov, helped out little on the attack at even strength, while often getting beat in their own end repeatedly.
Lutchenko contributed to 14 scoring chances at even strength, while making mistakes on 34 against. Even worse, Tsygankov contributed to 11 chances, while making mistakes on 43 against.
The top six Soviet defencemen were Valery Vasiliev, -6, Yuri Lyapkin, -12, Alexander Ragulin, -13, Alexander Gusev, -17, Viktor Kuzkin, -18, Lutchenko, -20, and Tysgnakov, with a chilly -32.
Vasiliev came on strong as the series when on (even if he made a bad giveaway on the sequence of pain for the Soviet’s leading up to Henderson’s historic goal). Indeed, Vasiliev strikes me as the first of the new breed of Soviet d-man, who was tough, even nasty, in his own end, but also skilled on the attack. This breed reached its peak with Alexei Kasatonov and Vyacheslav Festisov in the 1980s, but Vasiliev gave a taste of what was to come."
Vasiliev recorded 3 points of 8 games, +1. After that, it seems that he more or less confirmed his status of being the best Soviet d-man of the 1973 season when he was chosen by the Directoriate as the best defenseman of the championship. It should be said though, that his victory was not confirmed by the media, who voted for Gusev and Salming as All-star defense. Unfortunately, we don´t have any additional AST data, only other thing we have, is the 4 coaches´ selections half-way through the tournament:
Vasiliev finished 6th in SPOTY voting of 1973, 1st among d-men. Gusev was right behind him at 7th though.
Pospisil had a strong season as he finished 3rd in Golden Stick voting, particularly showed his brilliance at Ontario Cup in January 1973 when the CSSR national team clashed with Canadian amateurs for the last time and he won the tournament´s MVP award, but after the Championship 1973 ended, his play was criticized by the Czech media and coaches, in spite of two coaches Bobrov and Lunde speaking favourably about him after 1st half of WHC (Czechs dissapointed everyone with their 3rd place finish)... From the Swedish side of things, one could ask if Salming didn´t become the top Euro D already here in this season before he went to NHL, but I am sceptical of it. Mainly, there was a defenseman who actually won the Gold Pucken award for the best Swedish player of the season, but it was Thommy Abrahamsson, not Salming. Abrahamsson and Salming were both included into Swedish All-star team of the season as well.
All in all, based on these results, I´ll pick Vasiliev from this group for imaginary title of best European d-man here, but it´s not 100% conclusive and it´s definitely weaker season than what 5-8 forwards and perhaps 1-2 goalies had in 1973. Rookie Salming was 5th in Norris / 7th in NHL All-star voting following season. I´d guess similar result
5th-7th Norris / NHL All-star placement for Vasiliev in 1973 appears like a reasonable estimation.
Next season, Vasiliev is getting better and adds one of his strongest seasons: 3rd in SPOTY, voted behind Tretiak, Mikhailov, voted ahead of Maltsev, Kharlamov, Yakushev. At WHC, Vasiliev adds another all-star nod, but is outvoted by Sjöberg, and Sjöberg is also the Directoriate´s choice, so Vasiliev was clear number 2 d-man for the tournament, albeit closer to Sjöberg than to the rest of the field. Of course, Sjöberg is also included into Swedish All-star team, but we don´t know how well he fared in Gold Pucken voting (we only have a list of winners, as far as I know, and Sjöberg won the award in 1969 only). Sjöberg would go on to play for the Jets in WHA following season, scoring 65 points in 70 games, +43, almost double the amount of points of what the next best Winnipeg´s d-man scored. But he also missed the WHA 1st and 2nd all-star team.. fact that the Jets missed the playoffs could have something to do with it. Sjöberg was 30 when he came over so overall, I think his season was decent and doesn´t put this 1974´ Vasiliev´s season too much in doubt. Other thing which leads me to conclusion of improved play by the Russian is his league record: apparently Valeri scored 15 points from 31 games, while his offensive output in all of his previous seasons was almost non-existent (3-7 points in 35-42 games...).
Overall, I can see Vasiliev having a good chance for the 2nd NHL all-star team but probably not the 1st one, since he didn´t quite distinguish himself from all the other d-men in Europe yet.
3rd-5th in Norris / All-star voting for the 1974 is my estimation. As far as CSSR goes, it was a weak year for d-men there, and Pospisil went through a significant downseason, so nothing more to say here..
Next season initiated by 1974 Summit Series, Vasiliev scored 4 points and only J-C Tremblay was more productive among d-men. WHC ´75 - another quality showing, Valeri wins the media vote comfortably for defensemen with 69 votes out of 92 writers. Pekka Marjamäki was the next best d-man with 40 votes but it was Marjamäki, and not Vasiliev, who was picked by the Directoriate award for the best D.
Vasiliev finishes 6th in 1975 SPOTY voting. For the third time in row now, Vasiliev is voted as best Soviet d-man AND as the best Dinamo Moscow player too. Yes, he outplayed Maltsev every time between 1973-1975 according to Soviet observers, which is impressive... But thinking about this season specifically, there were 5 skaters + 1 goalie ahead of him.
Other d-men - Stig Östling wins the Gold Pucken, but we don´t really know how well Östling did at ´75 WHC, since we don´t have any data past the 1st AS team. Östling, just as Marjamäki, never played in North America so there´s not much to make of them. Frantisek Pospisil had pretty good season, 5th in GS voting, once more the best Czech d-man, also led his club team for the 1st title in his career, but based on all of these results I´ll definitely take Vasiliev again.
Although I hesitate even now to turn 1975 version of Vasiliev into a 1st NHL all-star team. I feel like it´d be too optimistic given he was not even top 5 Soviet and he still couldn´t string together both WHC all-star and Directoriate´s award, which
would really assert his position as a clear top d-man in Europe. Salming was 4th in both Norris and All-star voting that year and I don´t see anything convincing that Vasiliev would have done either considerably better or worse than the Swede. I speculate the same result as previously, i.e.
3rd-5th Norris / All-star range for the 1975.
Moving on to the 1976 season, we immediately see a Valeri´s downseason. Yes, he was technically still voted as the co-best Soviet d-man with Lutchenko, but he and Lutchenko finished 12th in SPOTY voting with just 2 third place votes, when there were 64 voters and ballots... Soviets lost the gold to Czechs at the ´76 WHC and the captain of CSSR team, Pospisil, dominated the all-star D voting. After that, sources differ whether Pospisil or Mats Waltin received the Directoriate´s award. Moreover, Waltin won the Gold Pucken award for the top Swede of the season (Pospisil was 5th in GS voting again).
I´ll take Pospisil and Waltin instead of Vasiliev here for this season. Considering how well the Czechoslovaks played internationally specifically in this time, I wonder whether Oldrich Machac and Jiri Bubla (both had one of their best seasons, top 10 in GS voting, great stats and club-team results..) from the Czech team didn´t have a slightly better season than Vasiliev as well...
In sum, this is the season where I think you could expect merely some fringe support for Vasiliev in the NHL award votings.
12th-14th Norris / All-star placement for the 1976.
Next 1977 season started with the Canada Cup. I don´t know how exactly well Vasiliev played there but it was most certainly below the quality of Orr, Potvin and Salming at the least. The Soviet team didn´t advance to final round, lost to Czechs and Canadians, only tied with Sweden. Vasiliev was not the most productive Soviet d-man either...
Subsequent results at the Championship and Soviet MVP voting are somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, Vasiliev put up a great performance as he finally managed to be on the All-star team and winning the Best Defenseman award too - definitely indication of his dominance there. On the other hand and from what I´ve found, I don´t view Pospisil´s performance at the tournament, and at the season as a whole, any lesser than Dinamo´s d-man... First, it was the CSSR (Pospisil´s team) who defended their last year´s title. Soviets found themselves on a historically low 3rd final place, as the Swedes upset them too! Pospisil appeared on the all-star team along with Vasiliev. Unfortunately, there is no AST voting data from this championship as far as I know, so we don´t know if Vasiliev or Pospisil actually won the media vote. Second, the admiration of Pospisil´s play did not come only from his own countrymen this time, one Quebec writer was very impressed by him:
Third and most important point: the SPOTY and GS voting. Despite Vasiliev´s great WHC performance, he ended up only 7th, and only as a 3rd best Dinamo Moscow player. Alex Maltsev and Vasily Pervukhin (Vasiliev´s defense partner presumably) finished ahead on 5th and 6th place. I guess, you can argue that 20/21 years old Pervukhin had a breakout season, it was his 1st season with the National team after all, so his SPOTY record might have been slightly inflated but the fact remains that Vasiliev not appearing again in the top 5 Soviets of the season for the third time in row now + not voted as a clear-cut best d-man in his own team, forces me not to make a big deal out this season again. This is in spark contrast of Pospisil´s MVP voting record, which improved compared to previous two 5th place in 1976 and 1975. Pospisil finished 3rd in Golden Stick voting and his personal ´77 league stats also noticeably improved.
So... I´ll take Pospisil for this one as well, without a second thought. Looking at the NHL votings and Europeans, Salming finished 2nd only to Robinson in both Norris and All-star votings. Pospisil definitely could have been in the 2nd Team.. I don´t see 3 different European defensemen in 1977 occupying the top four exclusive spots in the All-star teams. So I´d probably put Vasiliev back to
5th-7th Norris´ place for the 1977.
Next 1978 season is looking worse. For starters, Vasiliev finishes 14th in SPOTY voting with mere 2 third place votes similarly to 1976, only this time there were 73 Soviet voters / ballots. What´s even more troubling is the fact that 2 other Dinamo Moscow d-men, Pervukhin and Bilyaletdinov, got bigger support, although to be fair, difference was negligible: Bilyaletdinov 10th with 4 points for 4 third places, Pervukhin 11th with 3 points for 1 first place, and Vasiliev 14th with 2 points as said above. From Vasiliev´s own team, Alex Maltsev´s 1978 was also more appreciated (4th SPOTY place). To complete this overview, young Fetisov had his breakout season where he amazed the Soviet observers enough to earn the 3rd place in SPOTY voting and he was also picked up by the Directoriate as the best d-man of the ´78 Championship. 1st WHC all-star team is occupied by Fetisov and Bubla. However, we know that Vasiliev at least found himself on the 2nd all-star team, so he was considered 3rd-4th best d-man of the tournament alongside Zinetula Bilyaletdinov.
Soviets finally broke their rival and restored their WHC domination here in this season. On the other hand, the Czechs still maintained their defensive focus and showed better (IMO) defense than the USSR. CSSR allowed 5 less goals than Soviets.... Jiri Bubla had arguably his peak season in this time, finishing 3rd in Golden Stick voting, made his club team into contender for this season (with his one other very good teammate to be fair..), and scored remarkably well for a defenseman - 51 or 56 points in 44 league games (depends on your source), which was good enough for a 6th place in scoring (
and co-incidently right next to 21 y/o Petr Stastny..).
And more thing about 1978 d-men situation in Europe: Frantisek Pospisil decided to retire from international competition, but he still continued with his pace. He ended up 6th in GS voting, which was remarkable achievement considering he hadn´t even played for the CSSR anymore. His Kladno team won 4th title in a row (and they would lose the following one, once Pospisil went to play out his career in Germany..), and Pospisil himself was arguably the best Kladno player in the ´78 Superseries vs. NHL. If I remember correctly, Kladno had 2 wins, 1 tie, 1 loss vs. NYR, Chicago, Toronto and Cleveland, and Pospisil registered 5 points (0+5) in 4 games, and was +4.
Back to Vasiliev and his 1978 estimate, whether we like it or not, he could have been the 3rd Euro d-man
at best. Fetisov and Bubla are a given.. I won´t argue with anyone if you prefer Vasiliev over older, still reliable Pospisil stricly based on the fact that Pospisil did not play at the WHC. But then you have Bilyaletdinov with basically the same results at domestic and international level as Vasiliev... Now, would this, say, 10th-14th best Soviet and 3rd-4th best Euro d-man finish in the 1st, 2nd or even hypothetical 3rd NHL All-star team? Probably not. With Salming coming at 4th in both of the categories in this season, the top 10 d-men ranking in a global league would have to contain 4-5 d-men raised in Europe.. I will be more conservative with my assesment here:
11th-13th Norris / All-star placement for the 1978.
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Whoa, that´s an awfully long post once again.. I guess it´s better for everyone to digest this when I post it as a 1st part of this Vasiliev´s profile, and I´ll try to come soon with the 2nd part, preferably tomorrow before this week´s voting round is ended, but if not it would have to come out on Monday.
One brief comment to Vasiliev: I realize this has likely not been all that favourable to the otherwise greatest 1970s Soviet d-man, but really pause with your final judgement until the 2nd part is published (hopefully soon). Just the very next 78/79 season is Vasiliev´s best one, it is his true peak, and he aged really well in the early 1980s, so his final profile is going to look better than how it looks now...