Who were our Generational players?

[BehindTheTimes]

Crosby missed basically 2 years at 23 and 24 years old....at his prime. The dude would have close to 1800 points by now

Ovi a generational scorer but Crosby stll has 600 goals and 1000 assists.

Players don’t get rewarded for time missed. Ovi was also impacted. He still has 850 goals and 700 assist. If you value goals more then this is quite close. I’d argue, a case could be made that Ovi has had the better career.

9 rocket Richard’s
2 Lindsay’s
1 Calder,
1 Conn smythe
1 art ross
2 harts
1 Lester b Pearson

Vs
2 rockets
2 art rosses
2 smythes
2 harts
2 lindsays
1 Lester b pearson
1 mark Messier.

They are nearly identical except ovi has 7 extra rockets and Sid has an extra smythe, art Ross. Let’s call the Calder and Messier a wash even though I think the Calder is a better honour. Case is quite solid for Ovi imo.

If Sid is ahead, it ain’t by much.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Not even close, Ovi I believe had more talent but he had no heart. For years every time the Caps would get down in a series HE would fold like a cheap tent and let his team mates down. It was disgusting. When they won the cup, HE put the team on his back and willed them to win, I didn't think he had it in him after watching him fold countless times. It only happened once. Crosby on the other hand worked, it seemed every shift he played.

No heart and 9 Richard’s and verge to have the most goals ever by beating record many thought couldn’t be touched. Yea ok.

Imagine if he tried haha

 

[crosbyshow]

Players don’t get rewarded for time missed. Ovi was also impacted. He still has 850 goals and 700 assist. If you value goals more then this is quite close. I’d argue, a case could be made that Ovi has had the better career.

9 rocket Richard’s
2 Lindsay’s
1 Calder,
1 Conn smythe
1 art ross
2 harts
1 Lester b Pearson

Vs
2 rockets
2 art rosses
2 smythes
2 harts
2 lindsays
1 Lester b pearson
1 mark Messier.

They are nearly identical except ovi has 7 extra rockets and Sid has an extra smythe, art Ross. Let’s call the Calder and Messier a wash even though I think the Calder is a better honour. Case is quite solid for Ovi imo.

If Sid is ahead, it ain’t by much.

Crosby played 150 games less than Ovy..it is huge.....it is 2 seasons and Sid still has more points ...

In 2010-2011..Sid had 66 points in 40 games when he had his concussions...he was leading for the Art Ross by 17 points... He had his best season and would have won the Ross and Hart easily.

Missing season at 23 and 24 impact stats and achievement big time.

Again 2 years afer he was alone for the Art when he broke his jaw 3 weeks before the end of the season and St Louis and Ovi catched him at the last game on the season...

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Crosby played 150 games less than Ovy..it is huge.....it is 2 seasons and Sid still has more points ...

In 2010-2011..Sid had 66 points in 40 games when he had his concussions...he was leading for the Art Ross by 17 points... He had his best season and would have won the Ross and Hart easily.

Missing season at 23 and 24 impact stats and achievement big time.

Again 2 years afer he was alone for the Art when he broke his jaw 3 weeks before the end of the season and St Louis and Ovi catched him at the last game on the season...

Them the breaks. He has 2 art ross trophies. Not 4. Being healthy and playing games adds more value than watching them. Did is 261 goals behind. The gap is huge alright. Winning 9 rockets is crazy, batshit crazy.

 

[GrandBison]

I consider an average nhler career to be the length of a generation in this context, not how long it takes humans to generally reproduce.

I was trying to define how many players could be considered generational. Is it 10 players? 20? If it's top 5, we have a top 3, maybe 4 that is consensual.

 

[David Suzuki]

Price generational? I don't get the Price worship. Here are some players who I consider equally talented in his 'generation':

- Lundqvist
- Vasilevskiy
- Brodeur (bit of a stretch on that one, but he did play until 2015 )

And yet I don't think anyone would call any of them 'generational'. Active goalies who might reach that level but still in the beginning of their careers:
- Shesterkin
- Demko
- Oettinger

Price was very, very good but I think Habs fans put him on too high a pedestal.

Demko and Oettinger have some shame

Price between 2014-2017 is the second best a goalie has ever played in the NHL after Hasek. Injuries and a horrible team is why you view him the way you do, but that doesn't undo generational ability and a stretch of generational play.

Price is a great "do you know ball" question. If you view him on the level of Thatcher Demko and Jake Oettinger well...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Lafleur best 5v5 season point total not named Gretzky. In a class of his own for like 5 years.

So underrated just because his prime was sandwiched between the 4 GOATS

He was incredible.

I was too young to see him at his best. I did get to see the tail end of his Montreal career but he wasn’t the Godlike player he was in the 70s.

I also remember going to a game where Lemaire had stapled him to the bench and the crowd kept chanting Guuuuy… Sad the way it ended here. We should’ve just traded him.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Crosby played 150 games less than Ovy..it is huge.....it is 2 seasons and Sid still has more points ...

In 2010-2011..Sid had 66 points in 40 games when he had his concussions...he was leading for the Art Ross by 17 points... He had his best season and would have won the Ross and Hart easily.

Missing season at 23 and 24 impact stats and achievement big time.

Again 2 years afer he was alone for the Art when he broke his jaw 3 weeks before the end of the season and St Louis and Ovi catched him at the last game on the season...

Ovi missed his 18 year old season. Add in the strike seasons and he’d already be already past Gretzky.

Crosby’s a more complete player and better passer. But those goals man… Gove OV those seasons back and he’d be flirting with 1000. He’s been insanely consistent.

 

[LaP]

Ovi missed his 18 year old season. Add in the strike seasons and he’d already be already past Gretzky.

Crosby’s a more complete player and better passer. But those goals man… Gove OV those seasons back and he’d be flirting with 1000. He’s been insanely consistent.

Ovechkin missed a total of 155 games due to lockout and covid. That's almost two full seasons.

 

[The Real Timo]

 

[LaP]

View attachment 905793

Definitely a generational love story between a coach and a player. I'll always remember how proud MT was when he scored that SO goal after being benched for just 1 game because the mayor stepped in after DD started the season with only 1 point in 19 games or something like that. The sparkle in MT eyes ... the smile ... it was like a dad who's profoundly and univocally proud of his son.

 

[The Real Timo]

Definitely a generational love story between a coach and a player. I'll always remember how proud MT was when he scored that SO goal after being benched for just 1 game because the mayor stepped in after DD started the season with only 1 point in 19 games or something like that. The sparkle in MT eyes ... the smile ... it was like a dad who's profoundly and univocally proud of his son.

 

[Tyson]

Morenz was generational.

The Rocket was the 1st to score 50 in a season and the first NHLer to score 500 goals. Generational.

Doug Harvey was the Bobby Orr of his era. Generational.

Guy Lafleur with 6 straight 100 point seasons was for that stretch in the 70's the best player (Orr was done in 76). Generational.

Beliveau was arguably the best Captain in NHL history. His leadership, many Stanley cups make him generational for many reasons.

 

[Doomhammer]

Howie Morenz
Georges Vezina
Rocket Richard
Bill Durnan
Toe Blake
Jean Beliveau
Doug Harvey
Jacques Plante
Guy Lafleur
Ken Dryden
Patrick Roy

I don't think Price makes my cut.

 

[1909]

Howie Morenz
Georges Vezina
Rocket Richard
Bill Durnan
Toe Blake
Jean Beliveau
Doug Harvey
Jacques Plante
Guy Lafleur
Ken Dryden
Patrick Roy

I don't think Price makes my cut.

Geoffrion was an amazing talent, too. Blake was all right as a player but a superior coach. Price had all the talent. Injuries + poor support in front of him should not take him out of your list.

Savard, Lapointe and Robinson were not the Big Three for nothing.

 

[Non Player Canadiens]

Demko and Oettinger have some shame

Price between 2014-2017 is the second best a goalie has ever played in the NHL after Hasek. Injuries and a horrible team is why you view him the way you do, but that doesn't undo generational ability and a stretch of generational play.

Price is a great "do you know ball" question. If you view him on the level of Thatcher Demko and Jake Oettinger well...

i said they "might reach that level"

but sure you can have your Internet Hockey Knowledge medal, i really don't care about that.

meanwhile, if you think a three-year hot streak means "generational", well...

 

[Frankenheimer]

There is a consensus in the hockey world that since the 50s, those are considered the generational players:

Howe
Orr
Gretzky
Lemieux
Crosby
Mcdavid


I agree with that. I see the Rocket and Lafleur as franchise player but not generational

Without a specific guideline for the meaning of generational, this is almost my own list post-1970 but I wouldn't include Crosby or Howe and would add Hasek. All players that transcended the game and outpeformed peers by significant margins. It shows how fortunate hockey fans were to have both Gretzky and Lemieux in roughly the same era. Hasek was a late bloomer but dominant beyond comprehension. Olympic performance left everyone including Grapes slack jawed.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Ovechkin missed a total of 155 games due to lockout and covid. That's almost two full seasons.

Yep. All in his prime.

 

[admiralcadillac]

What we thought of being generational talent back then, may no longer hold merit if they played today. The league has expanded to 32 teams and players are paid millions. The Habs had exclusivity of drafting french Canadians in a league with six teams for some time, many franchises folded. You have more parity today than back then.

That didn’t have an impact

There is a consensus in the hockey world that since the 50s, those are considered the generational players:

Howe
Orr
Gretzky
Lemieux
Crosby
Mcdavid


I agree with that. I see the Rocket and Lafleur as franchise player but not generational

Mo Richard was the best player of his generation. How else would you define the term?

 

[CHwest]

No heart and 9 Richard’s and verge to have the most goals ever by beating record many thought couldn’t be touched. Yea ok.

Imagine if he tried haha

I have imagined "if he tried", that is what is so heart breaking. And the record won't be broken by Ovie. I could care less about his personal achievements, when the teams back was against the wall, except for that one magical year, he check out on his team mates. He is a player that pouts when things aren't going his way, and I have never seen that from Sid.

 

[Mrb1p]

Carey
Jean Beliveau
Howie Morenz
Jacques Plantes
Patrick
Doug Harvey
Guy
Maurice
On the fence with Larry Robinson
I wanna say Toe Blake but I think that may be stretching it too.

The first 8 are undisputed though.

 

[DAChampion]

Price had the talent and work ethic to be generational, but he fell short due to injuries. He's this a generational talent, but not a generational player.

On the other hand, Sidney Crosby suffered a comparable number of injuries, and still had a generational career.

 

[The Last Red]

That didn’t have an impact


Mo Richard was the best player of his generation. How else would you define the term?

And Lafleur was the best forward in the NHL for nearly a decade. Ridiculous arguments by him.

 

[The Last Red]

Carey
Jean Beliveau
Howie Morenz
Jacques Plantes
Patrick
Doug Harvey
Guy
Maurice
On the fence with Larry Robinson
I wanna say Toe Blake but I think that may be stretching it too.

The first 8 are undisputed though.

Robinson is one the best left d ever to play in the NHL.

 

[Frankenheimer]

This is very entertaining and corresponds to my memory of him. Yeah, you can say any goalie could have a nice highlight reel with random great saves, but he did this all the time, and I guarantee no goalie made saves like the ones you'll see here. Just insane levels of athleticism and creativity.



There actually haven't been that many players over time that are stand alone attractions game after game. Hasek was so fun to watch.