What made Dougy Gilmour such a great player?

[Mike C]

For those who saw him in his prime in Calgary and eventually gets traded to Toronto. What was it about him that made him so good?

His choice of babysitters?

 

[Mike C]

Trying to impress babysitters.

13 years old ones at that!

 

[BraveCanadian]

I've said in other threads about Gilmour that he's underrated for his stints in St. Louis and Calgary, and overrated for Toronto.

Gilmour had great hockey sense, was a good puck-carrier and passer. His moment-to-moment play was very engaged, focused, and aggressive (simular to Clarke). Great awareness and smarts.

in Toronto, he carried the puck much more, became the heart of the PP, and just generally was a bigger star within the team. He fit their needs, and they fit his.

He was a bit lacking in skills, though....skating, shooting especially. Overall, he wasn't on a Fedorov level, even at his very best.

Another thing about those two seasons in TO....the NHL wasn't loaded with great teams at the time, which made the Leafs success easier.

That's true. Gilmour was better.

Gilmour wasn't the skater or shooter Fedorov was but he got everything out of what he had and then some. Feds took a lot of time off.

 

[MadLuke]

Another thing about those two seasons in TO....the NHL wasn't loaded with great teams at the time, which made the Leafs success easier.

They did beat a stacked Red wings team and the hull-shanahan-Joseph Blues in 1993, in 1994 the really good hawks.

Outside San Jose (with Irbe, Larionov and co. were frisky those playoff proven by beating the wings) I am not sure if they won over below average historical team, "success" being relative here, considering the no cup finals.

 

[BraveCanadian]

They did beat a stacked Red wings team and the hull-shanahan-Joseph Blues in 1993 in 1994 the really good hawks.

Outside San Jose I am not sure if they won over below average historical team, "success" being relative here, considering the no cup finals.

Yeah and Gilmour had 12 points to Fedorov's 9 in that 1993 series against the Wings - who were favoured and a much higher scoring team. Pretty rough take.

 

[Stephen]

I've said in other threads about Gilmour that he's underrated for his stints in St. Louis and Calgary, and overrated for Toronto.

Gilmour had great hockey sense, was a good puck-carrier and passer. His moment-to-moment play was very engaged, focused, and aggressive (simular to Clarke). Great awareness and smarts.

in Toronto, he carried the puck much more, became the heart of the PP, and just generally was a bigger star within the team. He fit their needs, and they fit his.

He was a bit lacking in skills, though....skating, shooting especially. Overall, he wasn't on a Fedorov level, even at his very best.

Another thing about those two seasons in TO....the NHL wasn't loaded with great teams at the time, which made the Leafs success easier.

Gilmour peaked in Toronto and reached and briefly reached a level of superstardom that wasn't sustainable relative to his age or natural abilities, but I don't see how he was overrated at all. Look at his cumulative regular season and playoff production and where it took the Leafs and it's just obvious he was a high impact player.

The other Toronto commentary is just trash talk. The 1992-93 season was one for upsets and the Leafs engineered a pretty big one. None of the success they had was "easy."

 

[JianYang]

His 92-93 season truly is remarkable if for no other reason than he had that production under the defensive mindset of pat burns..... roughly 50 points ahead of his next teammate.

Gilmour smashed the 100 point plateau twice under burns. He is the only one to ever reach 100 points on a burns hockey club, let alone twice.

Aside from one particular season in st Louis, Gilmour oddly never came close to the point totals he achieved in those two years under burns

 

[The Panther]

Aside from one particular season in st Louis, Gilmour oddly never came close to the point totals he achieved in those two years under burns

True, but Gilmour finished higher in the scoring race with St. Louis than he ever did with Toronto.

(Also, Pat Burns coached Stephane Richer's 51-goal season... and the Habs haven't had a player score more than 40 since.)

 

[JianYang]

True, but Gilmour finished higher in the scoring race with St. Louis than he ever did with Toronto.

(Also, Pat Burns coached Stephane Richer's 51-goal season... and the Habs haven't had a player score more than 40 since.)

Yes. Richer finished with 91 points. Only player that came closer to the 100 point mark under burns was Jason Allison.

As for the st louis year, he was over 30 points clear of his next closest team. In toronto, he was over 50 points clear. The st louis season was also under a defensive coach in Jacques Martin, although I'm not familiar if he coached in the 80s with a similar philosophy as he had in the 90s.

 

[NyQuil]

His 92-93 season truly is remarkable if for no other reason than he had that production under the defensive mindset of pat burns..... roughly 50 points ahead of his next teammate.

Gilmour smashed the 100 point plateau twice under burns. He is the only one to ever reach 100 points on a burns hockey club, let alone twice.

Aside from one particular season in st Louis, Gilmour oddly never came close to the point totals he achieved in those two years under burns

I typically throw out any 92-93 seasons as emblematic of anything.

It’s seemingly the career year for almost any HHoFer that was playing at the time.

 

[MadLuke]

True, but Gilmour finished higher in the scoring race with St. Louis than he ever did with Toronto.

Not really (Tor: 4-7, StLouis: 5th)

, he was over 50 points clear.

It was large, but in-season trade can boost that a little bit:

Gilmour scored at a 1.71 ppg rate after Andreychuck became a leaf (53 pts in 31 games, 142 in 83 pace), on a now stacked first line:

NHL Stats

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www.nhl.com

Before Andreychuck he scored at a 1.41 ppg rate (74 in 52, 118 pts in 83 pace):

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

And Cullen was a near 0.9 ppg center on the leaf once he come there, that will show up as having only 41 pts on the team as well.

For having played them way too much in NHL 94, when full healthy after the trade deadline (and that really cheating using Wendel Clark that way in the video game) they had some nice scoring debt, has shown in the playoff