Who was the most talented out of Mogilny, Bure and Fedorov?

[The Panther]

I know the majority are going to say Fedorov was the most talented (and probably the "best", too). Fedorov gets a lot of love here.

That's fine, he was great. But I'm less inclined towards players' career accomplishments and longevity than with their peak / prime level. (And of course, longevity / accomplishments have nothing to do with who was most talented.)

My preference for Bure here is based on his sustained, consistent high level. Bure averaged 51 goals per season (based on 82 games played). Now, he was only 31 or so when he retired, but that average is over twelve seasons (he was still scoring at a 50-goal pace with the sad-sack Rangers at the end). Neither Fedorov nor Mogilny could sustain that level of player over a twelve-year period.

 

[Troubadour]

Comparing wingers and a center is tricky, even when the focus is on something as abstract as talent is.

As a kid/teen growing up in the nineties who supported neither 'nucks nor Wings, let alone the Sabres, I would have said Bure easily, because with him, what you saw is what you got, and what you saw was something you had never seen before, a lot, plus damn catchy.

He scored a ton, openly loved doing so, he looked fantastic doing it. His rep didn't coast on the early nineties alone; his superstar relevance carried well over into the latter half of the decade and the new one, too. Just when you thought he was cooked, he had the 97/98 season, a 5-goal game in Nagano where all the other superstars seemingly underperformed, and from there, he would keep posting nasty numbers for years to come. Meanwhile both Fedorov and Mogilny seemed to care about paychecks more than performing to their ability.

Still, hyperbole coming, picking Bure's talent over Mogilny's has an unpleasant flavor of picking Kovalchuk over Kucherov to me. Which is obviously insulting to Bure, but Mogilny had more nuance. Then again, talking about aristry or artfulness as a way of pumping anybody's tires over Bure is a walk on the thin ice.

The best of the thee was Fedorov anyway. Even when his regular season totals dropped, I still thought he was the best center not named Lemieux or Forsberg. Better than Lindros, better than Sakic.

Playing center, especially the way Fedorov did, takes more overall talent than playing any wing, I think (every other day or so).

 

[connellc]

Bure was many times essentially placed in roles where Defense was not a priority. He was given oodles of minutes and PPT in Florida and his main reason was to score goals. The issue was the team stunk.
Fedorov, after about 1994, sacrificed a lot of his offense for defense and he started to focus and pick up his game in the playoff's when it mattered. I say this, because the stats can be a bit deceiving, as Fedorov even played defense for a large portion of the 1997 season. Imagine if the roles were reversed, how much better would Fedorov's offense have been and how much better Bure would be defensively under Bowman? I personally don't think Bure could accomplish the versatility Fedorov had.

Mogilny needed some decent linemates to succeed and he actually took the longest to develop in the NHL and also retired a little lack-luster (in the AHL) which I doubt could have ever happened, baring a major injury, to Feds or Bure.

The answer is Fedorov, Bure, then Mogilny.

 

[Overrated]

Bure>Mogilny>Fedorov​

I think Mogilny's career could have been much greater had he not suffered injuries early on. Many negative things were also said about his work ethic. I'd say talent wise it was close but I'd still say Mogilny. Bure clears however he was the best player out of the three. Fedorov benefited by playing on a super team. Unfortunately the NHL is structured in a way where many players don't get to reach their potential by not playing on similarly strong teams.


Bure also showed the most potential as a teenager under Tikhonov: