Who are the very best players in history who were the best at skating? Any poor skaters?

[bobholly39]

Among say, the top ~25 players of all-time or so, who are the ones who are the very best at skating? What about - are there any that are poor skaters? You can expand slightly beyond top 25 players of all-time if you like - but the idea is really to talk about some of the better players all-time, not just looking at great skaters who weren't necessarily all-time great players too.

Would Orr and McDavid be top 2 for skating? How does someone like Crosby or Jagr fit in - both of which I always found to be super solid on their skates. How about Gretzky, Lemieux?

Just curious to get a conversation going, and hear opinions on skating abilities on some of the greatest players ever.

And yes - best skater doesn't necessarily mean just fastest skater, since there are a lot of aspects to it.

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[Mandar]

Not sure if Coffey is in the top 25 of all time players....definitely in the top 100....best skater I have seen in my 50 or so years watching the game.

A few others.....Gartner, Bure, LaFleur.....

 

[MadLuke]

Brett Hull-Robitaille-young Chara are some to come to mind as great player that were held back at least early with their skating ability.

Has for the great player being also good at skating, I imagine that would be quite common, Crosby-Gretzky are exceptional skaters

 

[VanIslander]

Esposito wasn't a great skater.

 

[Mandar]

Esposito wasn't a great skater.

very true. Marcel Dionne wasnt a great skater either.

 

[DitchMarner]

Andreychuk is far from a top 25 player of all-time, but he is in the HHOF and did score 640 goals despite not being able to skate backward.

 

[carjackmalone]

Keith Acton
Kent Nilsson
Gilbert Perrault
Reijo Routsalanen
Thomas Gradin
Denis Savard

 

[VanIslander]

very true. Marcel Dionne wasnt a great skater either.

Sorry, man. But he was a great skater.

Dionne scored a lot of breakaway goals and off of shifty moves at high speed.
.
He scored more goals than any other NHLer over the 10-year span of my kindy year to Grade 9. He retired 2nd in NHL career scoring. In lowly LA. Imagine if he played with anyone nearly as great. He'd be hoisting cups. Certainly if Montreal had drafted him as they should have.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Certainly not one of the best at the game of hockey but wasn’t Brett Hedican or someone like that a world class skater? Maybe I’m mixing him up with some other goodish 90’s/2000’s dman

 

[blueinbigd]

Watching Keith Tkachuk with the Blues for many years his skating seemed to be not so great

 

[The Panther]

I think Paul Coffey is the overall best I have seen. When you consider ability to skate forward, skate backward, skate fast, ability to accelerate, pivot-right, pivot-left, etc., etc., Coffey kind of covers all bases.

Similar to Coffey might be: Sergei Fedorov, Nate MacKinnon, Connor McDavid

Best in a straight line: Pavel Bure, Russ Courtnall, Mike Gartner

Best at pivoting / shifting: Connor McDavid, Wayne Gretzky

 

[frisco]

Coffey is the best all-around skater I've seen both in speed and agility. McDavid and Orr are right there.

Write-in vote for Messier. Powerful and fast and maybe the best in combining those two aspects. Jagr as well.

I'm biased, but I don't think anyone could handle the puck, make moves and simultaneously skate as dynamically as Perreault.

Crosby for edgework and balance.

My Best-Carey

 

[carjackmalone]

Rick Middleton

 

[JackSlater]

I'll stick to the top ~25 ever as mentioned in the OP. Orr seems best, maybe McDavid. Most of the best players ever were, predictably, also great skaters. I'll throw Clarke out there as a relatively poor skater for that level. Esposito could get a mention but I'd rank him more along the lines of ~50 ever.

How are accounts of Rocket Richard's skating? I don't think of him as a poor skater necessarily but I don't think of him as elite, might be wrong. As far as I know there is no video of him from around his peak and it is not fair to judge some players in terms of skating based on the latter half of their career, think Ovechkin or Lemieux for example.

 

[Michael Farkas]

How are accounts of Rocket Richard's skating? I don't think of him as a poor skater necessarily but I don't think of him as elite, might be wrong.

Very fast straight line skater. Strong burst. Very powerful backed by his work rate.

 

[JackSlater]

Very fast straight line skater. Strong burst. Very powerful backed by his work rate.

I see, sort of in line with what I thought. So likely not elite for that level of player but not the worst either.

 

[Hobnobs]

Brett Hull-Robitaille-young Chara are some to come to mind as great player that were held back at least early with their skating ability.

Has for the great player being also good at skating, I imagine that would be quite common, Crosby-Gretzky are exceptional skaters

I think they were held back later as well when needeing to skate. However they usually learned to eliminate that need with positioning as their careers progress. But I think they all are the best worst skaters in the NHL. We can add Espo to that list as well.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I see, sort of in line with what I thought. So likely not elite for that level of player but not the worst either.

I think it's probably a little better than how I interpret you framing it. I believe he was clocked at skating around the rink with a puck at 14.2 seconds (caveats...) back in the day. That would be very comparable to today's best (caveats)

 

[JackSlater]

I think it's probably a little better than how I interpret you framing it. I believe he was clocked at skating around the rink with a puck at 14.2 seconds (caveats...) back in the day. That would be very comparable to today's best (caveats)

Not sure what to think about speed measurements from 70+ years ago. With Richard I've found that it's always about will, then skill, then power, then speed, in that order. I guess by the same token Howe's skating is often an afterthought behind toughness and skill, but I've seen enough of him to get that he was an elite skater.

Potvin would likely be among the worst skaters for a top 25 player ever. Not to say that he was a poor skater, but relative to that level he would probably fit in that category.

 

[overpass]

Richard was called the Rocket for a reason. Known for his speed and acceleration. Jean Beliveau rated him with Yvan Cournoyer for speed, and said the Rockets greatest strength as a skater was his ability to carry the puck at speed and then suddenly burst to an even faster top speed to beat the defence.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Not sure what to think about speed measurements from 70+ years ago. With Richard I've found that it's always about will, then skill, then power, then speed, in that order. I guess by the same token Howe's skating is often an afterthought behind toughness and skill, but I've seen enough of him to get that he was an elite skater.

Potvin would likely be among the worst skaters for a top 25 player ever. Not to say that he was a poor skater, but relative to that level he would probably fit in that category.

Yeah, me neither...that's the "caveats" stuff. But it's also not nothing, especially because I believe he won the competition. I sometimes wonder a bit about his agility and edges...had leg and ankle injuries that prevented him from military service.

Howe was efficient and effective, not so much fast. He wasn't top tier fastest on his team in my opinion. But he could beat guys to a spot and own that spot.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Rico Fata would fly. The problem was when he had to do anything other than go in a straight line

 

[Michael Farkas]

Rico Fata wasn't a top 25 player from the 1998 draft...much less history...

 

[Johnny Engine]

Rico Fata wasn't a top 25 player from the 1998 draft...much less history...

Haha, I had to actually check this, because I couldn't fully rule out that one of those late 90s drafts actually included 24 average to decent hockey players, Rico Fata, and 150 fake names.
But you're absolutely correct, he's nowhere near that.

 

[Crosby2010]

I would have to say Coffey. He would glide faster than others could skate. And if there was anyone that did it so effortlessly it was him. It just seemed so God-given watching him skate. So smooth, so confident. Just all around best skating ability it has to go to him, I think.

Others that were great at certain areas of skating would be Cournoyer for pure straight away bursts of speed. Not a top 25 player or anything, but the clips of him don't lie.

I have seen footage of the Rocket in real time clips and not those grainy slow motion clips. I've seen him in different clips where it shows his speed and yes he was quite the skater.

Orr, obviously.

Perreault is a ways away from top 25, but he was the type of player that you had to watch with an orchestra playing in the background. He was just that smooth on the ice.