The article of Bill Schoeninger is an interesting piece that puts forward good questions. However, it came out in 2014 and since then more information has been dug up. Numbers and award-count used in the article are dated or misused, and the writer forgot to include some other important factors about Kharlamov and his actual impact.
Question of league scoring finishes. It appears that Schoeninger only used the data from this very forum.
Kharlamov´s 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7 finishes exactly match what was posted here on the International & European Hockey Research and Information Thread. Problem is that the thread does not contain top 10s but only top 5s for the period of Kharlamov´s prime (1971-1976). Of course Kharlamov will then look bad next to several other players. If you use the data from eliteprospects.com, Kharlamov´s top 10 league scoring finishes are 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7, 10, 10. Eliteprospects.com stats may be sometimes questionable but their Soviet league stats goes deep (no mere top 5s).
Kharlamov´s scoring finishes from hockeyarchives.com are 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7. This site has only top 5s for three seasons of Kharlamov´s prime (1971, 1973, 1974), otherwise top 10s. As you can see, according to hockeyarchives.com Kharlamov loses scoring title from 1972 (to Vikulov) but he (Kharlamov) also adds one more top 5 scoring finish if you trust the hockeyarchives.com more. Additionally, if you look at the number of games, Kharlamov missed more league games than the other players which Schoeninger compares Kharlamov to. If you look at points-per-game stats, difference between Kharlamov and Maltsev/Petrov/Mikhailov/Makarov shrinks down further. I don´t know how you can jump over PPG and go straight toward more complicated and lesser known stats like Vs2.
Schoeninger writes:
"In terms of top 10 finishes in Soviet scoring, Valeri Kharlamov’s finishes are the worst. They appear to be better than Maltsev’s by a hair, but when you consider Kharlamov played on the best team in the league, CSKA (who was essentially the Soviet national team), and that Maltsev played for Dynamo with significantly worse teammates, it’s clear that Maltsev’s finishes are more impressive."
This is wrong conclusion for several reasons. First, it was more difficult to stand out for Kharlamov in CSKA precisely because the team contained other high quality players. CSKA thus gave more ice time to other players and rolled more lines and more frequently. I believe CSKA played more structured and disciplined game compared to Dinamo under the influence of A. Chernyshev who let his star players (i.e. Maltsev) to play a freer game. And although Dinamo didn´t have any other forward of Maltsev calibre, the team had arguably even better D than CSKA (Vasiliev, Pervukhin, Bilyaletdinov all played for Dinamo). Thus it was considerably easier for Maltsev to rack up points in domestic competition than Kharlamov. There are other examples (Balderis) that proves that being the great scorer on bad team was more conducive to a player´s stats-count than being a CSKA player.
Question of MVP voting. Schoeninger decides to list top 5s only and underscores Kharlamov´s record again when he lists player´s MVP voting results as follows: 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5.
In reality, Kharlamov´s record is 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5 (plus 6th, 7th and 8th finishes in 1980, 1978 and 1977). Schoeninger confused 1972 (Kharlamov actually won the award along with Maltsev) and missed 1979 (Kharlamov third) due to no fault of his own - these information about 1972 and 1979 hadn´t been known back in 2014.
Question of Soviet All-Star teams. I don´t know where Schoeninger came up with this 1st and 2nd AS teams. I thought there were only official (first and no other second or third) Soviet AS teams from 1958 to 1991 (with missing or non-existing AS teams from 1960 and 1989). Am I the one who is missing something or did Schoeninger actually mixed up the AS teams and the yearly "Soviet Best Players" (top 34) lists?
Question of WHC All-Stars and Best Forward awards. Schoeninger lists 3 ASTs (1972, 1973, 1976) and zero BF awards for Kharlamov but this account does not do justice to the player. There are many contemporary evidence of Kharlamov actually receiving Best Forward award from the 1976 WHC and there is also some evidence (although minor) that Kharlamov was named into 1979 WHC all-star team. Apart from this, Kharlamov would almost certainly won both the AST and the Forward award from 1972 Olympics and he would have been a top candidate for the 1976 Olympics best LW all-star as well if the Olympic comitee allowed writers to vote the ASTs for the Olympic tournaments too. Taking these information into account, Kharlamov international accolades looks superior to both of his linemates and are not so far below that of Maltsev (if they even aren´t equal...).
Question of scoring at major international tournaments. Apparently Schoeninger lists WHC ppg rates, OG ppg rates and Summit Series´ individual points separately into 3 columns. He furthers the notion that Kharlamov did not distinguish himself from his linemates and Maltsev. Now I know numbers can differ but the stats that I have disprove Schoeninger´s assertions. For what it´s worth:
[TABLE="class: brtb_item_table"][TBODY][TR][TD]V. Kharlamov[/TD][TD]123 games[/TD][TD]191 points[/TD][TD]1.55 ppg[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]B. Mikhailov[/TD][TD]120 games[/TD][TD]180 points[/TD][TD]1.50 ppg[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]V. Petrov[/TD][TD]117 games[/TD][TD]167 points[/TD][TD]1.43 ppg[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]A. Maltsev[/TD][TD]137 games[/TD][TD]193 points[/TD][TD]1.41 ppg[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]S. Makarov[/TD][TD]145 games[/TD][TD]182 points[/TD][TD]1.26 ppg[/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]
These are numbers from WHCs, OGs and CCs combined. Maltsev with his 193 points actually has been, and likely will remain for the foreseeable future, the all-time international points leader but Kharlamov sits at the second place with merely 2 points behind - and with the best PPG from the elite 70s and 80s Soviets.
Question of reputation and clutch play. Kharlamov´s legend does not come only from a couple of good games at Summit Series 72 or NHL Super-series 1976 or what have you. It also didn´t come from his untimely death. One can confidently say that Kharlamov was considered to be a top 10 player in Europe since the 1969. Praise of his game did not come from the NA and Russian media only. Contemporary Czech press also vastly considered Kharlamov to be the best, the most dangerous, 1970s Soviet player.
Kharlamov also scored against North American opponents at a higher pace than Makarov, Mikhailov and Maltsev (while at roughly the same pace as Petrov). Combining all games with the NA pros, regardless of whether the games were played in Canada, USA, Moscow or on neutral sites in Europe, Kharlamov registered 129 points (55+74) in 102 games over his entire career.
The writer does have a point that Kharlamov´s visually appealing style of play might play a role in the award-votings but then you should also recognise the fact of Kharlamov usually being the primary puck carrier of his line and the originator of most of offensive actions on the ice.
To answer the OP, no, Kharlamov is not overrated. In fact, he could be underrated given that somewhat similar player of the roughly same era - Guy Lafleur - is routinely rated ahead of Kharlamov.
