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What is the most important player position in hockey?

journeyman79 said:
The way I look at this is to consider multiple teams. One with an awful #1 center, one with an awful #1 Defenseman, one with an awful goalie, and one with an awful winger.

The team with the awful goalie sucks the most.
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Counter point teams with #1 centers have won cups with non top 10 goalies, teams solely relying on a good goaltender while having average centers have not. A team can have Micheal Leighton as their goalie and make it to the finals (see 2010 flyers) Theres a reason the Hawks won 2 cups with non top 10 goalies while the Habs have 0 with a Hart calibre goalie. Having a goalie is important but it takes a back seat to a #1 center seeing that as time has constantly proven any goalie can go on an amazing streak you don't need a top 5 goalie for that
 
Goalie.

Jets would have been in the playoffs a few seasons already if they had bothered to find one.

A team wins a Cup. A goalie can lose it.
 
Hobble said:
Goalie.

Jets would have been in the playoffs a few seasons already if they had bothered to find one.
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or the fact that the team they inherited from Atlanta was heaping disaster they had Kovalchuk Heatley Hossa and Lehtonen and they basically got nothing from all of those great players it set the team back years add in that their drafting record was absolutely horrendous and you get situation winipeg had no goalie could of saved that team


Hobble said:
A team wins a Cup. A goalie can lose it
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Other positions can lose games too
 
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hersky77 said:
#1 goalie. You build from the net out.
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That's really not true though for successful teams. Blackhawks sure didn't. Red Wings sure didn't. Oilers sure didn't.

You can't win with bad goaltending, but you can win with average goaltending. It's been proven.

In actuality, teams build with their cornerstone(s) being a great centre and/or great d-man.
 
C'mon people. Since it's about which position is the most important, you have to look at it as which of the following teams could possibly do most damage (if any):
- an elite #1C with the rest of the team being average?
- an elite #1D with the rest of the team being average?
- an elite #1G with the rest of the team being average?

It's the last one and everyone knows it.
 
I say defense too be honest.

With a great defense, you really do not need an elite goaltender.
 
Senators65 said:
I say defense too be honest.

With a great defense, you really do not need an elite goaltender.
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One great Dman does not make a great defense. One great forward does not make a great offense. One great goalie absolutely makes great goaltending.
 
hirawl said:
C'mon people. Since it's about which position is the most important, you have to look at it as which of the following teams could possibly do most damage (if any):
- an elite #1C with the rest of the team being average?
- an elite #1D with the rest of the team being average?
- an elite #1G with the rest of the team being average?

It's the last one and everyone knows it.
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How many cups do the Habs have with primary focus on the last two options.....
 
Why do people assume a club wants to build a Stanley Cup team?

If building a cup winner, id say a #1 Defenseman is the most important for defensive systems, but a #1 goalie is the most important for offensive systems. If building a marketable team, however, an elite winger is the most important for an offensive system, while a #1 centre is most important for a defensive team. If building a regular season dynasty, a centre and defenseman are the most important.
 
You need 2 out of 3 or you don't win a cup.

When it comes to just winning a single game, it is obvious that a goalie is the most influential and probably the single most important player to a team's success on a game by game basis.

Of note G and C are tied for the most Conn Smythe trophies with 16 apiece.

Also to people bringing up Islanders, Oilers, Wings remember that with those teams Billy Smith won a Vezina and a Smythe, Grant Fuhr has a Vezina, Bill Ranford has Smythe, Mike Vernon has a Smythe and on top of that Ron Hextall has a Smythe in a losing cause against the Oilers.
 
bombers15 said:
That's really not true though for successful teams. Blackhawks sure didn't. Red Wings sure didn't. Oilers sure didn't.
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So choose different years. (Ranford did win the Conn Smythe though since you brought up the Oilers)

The 93 Habs don't win without Patrick Roy.

You need all three F/D/G to win a Cup, but you can compensate for a weakness in one area if you're elite in other areas. Some years it's forwards or defence, other years it's goaltenders.
 
tic-tac-toe-1.png


This is what it look like to have one of the best goalie. Any question?
 
I don't think elite goaltending is necessary in this era since most goaltenders are tall, positional butterflies. On the other hand, this era is really about possession, which falls under the realm of a centreman or defenseman.
 
madhi19 said:
tic-tac-toe-1.png


This is what it look like to have one of the best goalie. Any question?
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As a kid, I learned any and every possible outcome of this game and I can tell you straight forward, that is not the best first move to make at all. Not in what the possibilities are anyway. The firs best move is to put a 0 (or an X) in any of the corners.

As far as the topic goes. There is no such thing as 'most important position'. Those who claim that every team had this or that in common tend to completely overlook the fact that SC winning teams tend to be deep all around. Or sometimes play the system real well. (NJD for example) The only cases where I've seen a player being the main, sole reason were goalies, that much is true but, even then, came up short. (Meaning teams that didn't seem to have anything else going real well for them outside the guy between the pipes)
 
Inkling said:
So choose different years. (Ranford did win the Conn Smythe though since you brought up the Oilers)

The 93 Habs don't win without Patrick Roy.

You need all three F/D/G to win a Cup, but you can compensate for a weakness in one area if you're elite in other areas. Some years it's forwards or defence, other years it's goaltenders.
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Lets be honest Gretzky Messier and Kurri were the reasons why the Oilers had a dynasty not Ranford and Fuhr that team was too loaded offensively to not win
 
Dman. They elevate the play of all other positions. They make it easier for the forwards to play offence, they make it easier for the goalies to play net.

When was the last time a team won without a bonafide franchise Dman? Canes in 06?

When was the last time a team won without a bonafide franchise center? Bruins in 11?

When was the last time a team won without a bonafide franchise tender? Hawks in 13?
 
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