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Who was the better player at their peak, Pat Lafontaine or Patrick Kane?

Who was the better player at their peak?

  • Kane

    Votes: 60 56.6%

  • Lafontaine

    Votes: 46 43.4%
  • Total voters
    106
Felidae

Felidae

Registered User
Sep 30, 2016
10,232
19,729
Who do you think was the better player at their peak?

Here's a comparison between their best season.

Pat Lafontaine (1992-93)

- Hart trophy
3rd in Hart voting behind Lemieux and Gilmour. Only a single hart vote, 12 2nd place votes and 11 3rd place votes. Understandably, Lemieux won by a landslide with every 1st place vote going to him. Gilmour seemed to be the consensus runner up to the Hart with 29 2nd place votes.


-Points and PPG.
finished 2nd in points behind Lemieux, but had a 25 point gap over the 10th highest point producer, a 48 point gap over the 20th and a 55 point gap over 30th.

As for PPG, he was 2nd behind Lemieux. Adjusting the highest ranked PPG's to a full season, he would have a 22 point gap over the 10th highest PPG in the league, and a 43 point gap over 20th.

-Goals and GPG
surprisingly, did not finish top 10 in either category. Finished 11th in goals and 16th in GPG.

- Team Support
He finished 21 points ahead of his linemate Mogilny, who had quite the season himself, leading the league in goals and finished 8th in points leaguewide.




Patrick Kane (2015-16)

- Trophy case
Was pretty much the unanimous Hart winner. Had 121 1st place votes. Everyone else had a combined 29 votes for 1st place. Crosby was the runner up and had 11 1st place votes, Benn had 8. He also won the Pearson and Art Ross.

- Points and PPG
Had a 29 point gap over 10th place, a 39 point gap over 20th place and a 43 point gap over 30th place.

He also led the league in PPG by a good margin Adjusting to 82 games, he has a 29 point gap over the 10th highest PPG in the league, and a 33 point gap over 20th.


- Goals and GPG

Was 2nd in goals and GPG.

- Team support
He was 29 points ahead of the nest best point producer on his team, his linemate. Who was also 10th in points leaguewide.



But beyond the stats, for those who also watched Lafontaine, do you think he was the better player than Kane?
 
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La Fontaine was one of the most exciting players I've ever watched...Those seasons with Mogilny he was absolutely incredible.. You didn't want to miss any of the action when they were on the ice because there was a very good chance they would score....Arguably (next to Hasek), talent-wise LaFonatine might be the greatest Sabre of all-time...I got to go with Lala here.
 
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Lafontaine.

Kane dominating against weak competition doesn’t mean he was better; Benn being our runner up in scoring, Crosby at 28 getting whipped, Ovechkin barely cracking 70 points despite potting 50 goals, Malkin missing 25 games yet again, McDavid missing half his rookie campaign, 36 year old Thornton tied for 4th in scoring, 43 year old Jagr finished just outside the top 20 in scoring and was 7th in Hart voting and so on. One of the worst eras for top end talent in league history perhaps.
 
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Video Nasty said:
Lafontaine.

Kane dominating against weak competition doesn’t mean he was better; Benn being our runner up in scoring, Crosby at 28 getting whipped, Ovechkin barely cracking 70 points despite potting 50 goals, Malkin missing 25 games yet again, McDavid missing half his rookie campaign, 36 year old Thornton tied for 4th in scoring, 43 year old Jagr finished just outside the top 20 in scoring and was 7th in Hart voting and so on. One of the worst eras for top end talent in league history perhaps.
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You may have a point.

I do find it interesting Kane has a lead over the 2nd best and 10th best point getter. But Lafontaine has a much wider gap over 20th and 30th place. In fact, his gap over the 20th highest point producer is larger than Kane's gap over 30th.

I may be wrong but that doesn't seem too common of an occurrence. Usually if a player has a lead over 10th, that translates the further down you go in the scoring list.
 
Mogilny had this synergy with Lafontaine. Sort of like Oates in his prime with Brett Hull or Cam Neely. I don't think Kane had that dynamic duo factor to the same extent with Panarin, but I didn't really watch the Blackhawks that season.
 
Hippasus said:
Mogilny had this synergy with Lafontaine. Sort of like Oates in his prime with Brett Hull or Cam Neely. I don't think Kane had that dynamic duo factor to the same extent with Panarin, but I didn't really watch the Blackhawks that season.
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Kane/Panarin was the best duo the league had seen since the Sedins. They used to cycle the puck for entire shifts like they were playing no check men’s league. An absolute travesty of justice that the Hawks traded Panarin.
 
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Not all that great stats for playing in the 80s/Early 90s. Aside from that 148 point season. I'd go Kane.
 
GhostfaceWu said:
Lol only six players have ever hit 150 pts and he was 2 away from it you can mental gymnastic all you want it was better than kane's best season.
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I didn't question how many people have done it, I stated a fact that league GPG was 35% higher with more PPOs as well. And no, losing the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing outside the top 10 in goals is not better than winning the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing 2nd in goals. Ok, you're going to mention Lemieux so let's remove him. Lafontaine wins the ross by 6pts, Kane won by 17pts. Lafontaine was 23 goals behind 1st, Kane was 4 goals behind 1st. This is despite Lafontaine having Mogilny vs Kane having Panarin.

Lafleurs Guy said:
From 88-93 only Mario, Gretz, Yzerman and Robitaille were higher. He was 4th in PPG ahead of Lucky Luc.
Click to expand...

What does this have to do with my post that you quoted?
 
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KoozNetsOff 92 said:
I didn't question how many people have done it, I stated a fact that league GPG was 35% higher with more PPOs as well. And no, losing the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing outside the top 10 in goals is not better than winning the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing 2nd in goals. Ok, you're going to mention Lemieux so let's remove him. Lafontaine wins the ross by 6pts, Kane won by 17pts. Lafontaine was 23 goals behind 1st, Kane was 4 goals behind 1st. This is despite Lafontaine having Mogilny vs Kane having Panarin.



What does this have to do with my post that you quoted?
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Just because there was a group of better goal scorers during lafontaines year doesnt somehow discredit it lol. The talent pool was severely diluted during kane's peak year I never said he wasnt the best player by a mile during his peak season it still doesnt make it better than lafontaines.
 
KoozNetsOff 92 said:
I didn't question how many people have done it, I stated a fact that league GPG was 35% higher with more PPOs as well. And no, losing the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing outside the top 10 in goals is not better than winning the ross/hart/lindsay and finishing 2nd in goals. Ok, you're going to mention Lemieux so let's remove him. Lafontaine wins the ross by 6pts, Kane won by 17pts. Lafontaine was 23 goals behind 1st, Kane was 4 goals behind 1st. This is despite Lafontaine having Mogilny vs Kane having Panarin.



What does this have to do with my post that you quoted?
Click to expand...

Quality and depth of top level competition is drastically stronger in 1992-1993 versus 2015-2016. Ignore goals and point totals and just look at the players who make up the top 20 in scoring for each season. Be honest about which field is more difficult to create separation from. You’re usually all about context when you post.

Jagr at 20 years old finished 29th in scoring. Jagr at 43 years old finished 21st in scoring. No matter how cool it is, no matter how good Jagr was, that’s pretty grim and kind of sad for the scoring leaders from just 8 seasons ago.

Also look at the ages of players inside the top 30 in scoring. In 1992-1993, Oates at 30 and Ciccarelli at 32 are the only ones not in their 20s. In 2015-2016, 8 players are 30 and above. Thornton was 36 and managed to finish tied for 4th. Jagr again placed where he did.
 
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Video Nasty said:
Lafontaine.

Kane dominating against weak competition doesn’t mean he was better; Benn being our runner up in scoring, Crosby at 28 getting whipped, Ovechkin barely cracking 70 points despite potting 50 goals, Malkin missing 25 games yet again, McDavid missing half his rookie campaign, 36 year old Thornton tied for 4th in scoring, 43 year old Jagr finished just outside the top 20 in scoring and was 7th in Hart voting and so on. One of the worst eras for top end talent in league history perhaps.
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Shouldn't it be seen as positive that he outscored 2 generational players?
 
Voight said:
Sid literally finished 3rd in points the year prior, won the Art Ross year before that. He was also 28 so still firmly in his prime.
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Yes, that is becoming mortal. Not winning an Art Ross post age 26 while healthy is exactly what I’m talking about.

There is zero excuse for not winning them in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. Finishing behind Benn twice, as well as Tavares, and getting blasted apart by Kane who was just a year his junior will forever be a huge blemish.

Contrary to popular belief, I will be there day one to critique if McDavid, at age 27 and 28, healthy and playing 97% of the schedule finishes behind anyone, let alone the current day equivalent of lesser players like Tavares and Benn.
 
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I am a huge fan of both players.

LaFontaine had the most raw talent of any American player I've ever seen and if he had stayed healthy he would be the undisputed #1. I always cheered for the guy, even though I was never a, Isles or Sabres fan.

That being said, Kane did stay healthy and was one of the top 3 most dominant offensive forces over a ~15 year span. And his trophy case is a lot more impressive.

They're very close but I got to see more of Kane's brilliance so I choose Kane. I can image an Isles or Sabres fan would pick Lafontaine for the same reason.
 
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