Was Ziggy Palffy an elite talent?

[wetcoast]

With all these descriptive terms, like "elite", it depends a bit on what you put into them yourself, but Palffy was definitely an upper echelon talent, though obviously not on a say Jagr type of level, or even a Bure or Selänne level.

But it's funny if you've seen those old photos of Palffy in juniors where he wears #68 and sports the exact same mullet as Jagr. He looks just like Jagr, except the size.

Perhaps if he had Jagr's size, he could have been really dominant. But I guess you can play that hypothetical game with most players. Size comes with both pros and cons, and you need to be able to adapt your game accordingly.

But I always found Palffy way more offensively well-rounded than countrymen such as Bondra and later Gaborik. He couldn't just score goals, but make plays and drive a line properly as well. I would also prefer him in front of someone like Gartner, fairly easily.

If the thread question was "Was Palffy more elite than Gartner?" then I would say, yeah, he was.

Agree with alot of this but even at his peak 3 years he was only 6th in goals and 8th in points.

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Then injuries happen and he gets traded to LA where he does quite well but injuries every year, then lockout plays a half season with Pittsburg with limited PP TOI, at a PPG level then leaves for good.

Very good player when healthy but elite seems like a stretch.

 

[wetcoast]

Speaking of 50 goal seasons, can anyone enlighten me as to what happened in 1996-97, when Palffy put up a career high 48 goals, but only 6 (six!) were on the powerplay? It's sandwiched by two years of 17 PPG. He had 38 at even-strength (the league leader Tkachuk had 41) and just a couple extra goals on the power play and he's got himself a 50 goal season.

Whatever setup the Islanders were using Milbury that season had Palffy shifting to more of a passing role on the powerplay (6 goals and 15 assists with the extra man, vs 38 and 25 at EV). It looks like just 21 of his 90 points were with the extra man. Without summoning PNEP, that seems like a very low percentage for a guy with 90 points.

Palffy definitely excelled off the rush, he's in that next tier of guys below McDavid and Bure for me when he enters the zone with speed and 1 or zero defensemen back, but he could be very effective on the powerplay as well (evidenced by the surrounding seasons). Such a weird oddity, and one that cost him his best shot at 50 goals.

96-97 the NYI PP just sucked with only 48 PPG (18th) , the year before they had 70 (16th) and after was 61 (12th).