Toggle sidebar

Worst Supporting Cast throughout a HOFer's Career

  • Work is still on-going to rebuild the site styling and features. Please report any issues you may experience so we can look into it. Click Here for Updates
Hasek's late-90's Sabres team was built by design. They were in the midst of the DPE and the Sabres put a bunch of physical defensemen and two-way forwards around him. I'm not saying the team wasn't tight on the financial ends, but I also feel like the situation gets overblown the farther we get away from it.

Peca, Barnes, Gilmour, Barnaby, Sanderson, etc. were all a pain in the ass to play against even if they weren't elite offensively and Satan was good enough to usually keep the team on the scoreboard, which some nights was all you needed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG, Voight, Yozhik v tumane and 1 other person
mrhockey193195 said:
Neither Nash nor McDonagh will make the HOF, though there is an alternate universe where both do make it. I was thinking about whether either of them had "HOF caliber" seasons with Henrik. I feel pretty confident the answer is "no" though.

Nash in 14-15 had 42 goals, 3rd in the league (2nd in GPG) in a historically bad year in terms of top-end point getters, so that was borderline. But he was a complete no-show in the playoffs which tips the scales in my opinion.

McDonagh in 2013-14 was excellent. One of the best defensive players in the league. But likely he was just cracking top-10 defensemen in the league. Not quite the caliber that I'm thinking about here (as opposed to Keith, Doughty, Chara, Weber, etc. who were at a HOF level that season).
Click to expand...
Gaborik had two 40 goals season where he finished Top-5 in goals while a Ranger (and with Lundqivst as teammate).
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG, Voight and mrhockey193195
Does anyone want to make the case for Alex Ovechkin?

He's had a lot of very good teammates, but unless you think Backstrom or Carlson are HoF'ers, his list consists of 93 games of a 38 and 39-yo Sergei Fedorov, and he was technically teammates with Henrik Lundqvist for one year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Caps8112
Vilica said:
Does anyone want to make the case for Alex Ovechkin?

He's had a lot of very good teammates, but unless you think Backstrom or Carlson are HoF'ers, his list consists of 93 games of a 38 and 39-yo Sergei Fedorov, and he was technically teammates with Henrik Lundqvist for one year.
Click to expand...
Backstrom will be in the HHOF. Ovechkin hasn't played with many stars, that's true. It's been him, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Carlson, and Green (when he was an offensive force).

That said, in the cap era you're less likely to find players who are playing with multiple HOFers. That's not unique to Ovechkin.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mrhockey193195
sr edler said:
Sundin in Toronto didn't have outright bad supporting casts, but in terms of HOF calibre teammates it was pretty sparse. It's Mogilny and who else?

Damaged goods versions of Leetch and Lindros for 30 games each doesn't count.
Click to expand...
Let's not forget 64 games of an aged Joe Nieuwendyk, 12 games of Ron Francis, and 1 game of Phil Housley!

(Serious answer would be two seasons with Belfour, and a couple of years each with Gilmour, Andreychuk, Gartner and Murphy).
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG, mrhockey193195, Voight and 1 other person
sr edler said:
Sundin in Toronto didn't have outright bad supporting casts, but in terms of HOF calibre teammates it was pretty sparse. It's Mogilny and who else?

Damaged goods versions of Leetch and Lindros for 30 games each doesn't count.
Click to expand...

With Vernon getting in its only a matter of time for Cujo
 
MadLuke said:
Iginla.
Click to expand...
First player who came to mind, especially since he was once in the conversation for best player in the world, albeit during the early 2000's when the league's top end talent was arguably at its worst ever.

I look at Iginla's superstar career in Calgary as a case of him being a superstar on in a small Canadian market right after the market disadvantage for Canadian teams had started rearing its ugly end. Amazing how much he was consistently able to produce without ever having a legit #1C.
 
crobro said:
Pavel Bure
Click to expand...

I thought of Bure too. However he ended up playing with an old Messier (Canucks and Rangers), young Luongo (Panthers), and the New York teams that had at various times Leetch, Lindros, and possibly Fleury, and even Richter (who knows now). Mogilny is also likely going in once things calm down in Russia.
 
Gil Gunderson said:
Erik Karlsson.
Click to expand...
I can name at least 15 guys with whom he played who got Hart support during their career, and probably five of them getting that support while teammates with Karlsson...

He didn't have great support. But I doubt his situation is worse than Lundqvist here. Let alone Price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Voight
MXD said:
I can name at least 15 guys with whom he played who got Hart support during their career, and probably five of them getting that support while teammates with Karlsson...

He didn't have great support. But I doubt his situation is worse than Lundqvist here. Let alone Price.
Click to expand...
Really? In Ottawa, he played a bit with Alfie on the tail-end of his career and Spezza was a middle-of-the-pack #1 centre. Stone wasn't nearly the player he is today when he played with Karlsson.

He had that one good year in San Jose, but that entire team went on steep decline the following year.
 
Yeah- I know that he's widely considered a weak induction- but Leo Boivin's Boston squad in the first half of the 1960s... woof.

THEN he got traded to Detroit just in time to miss Orr.

THEN he got exposed and selected in the double-up expansion draft.

THEN he got traded to an even worse expansion team.
 
Gil Gunderson said:
Really? In Ottawa, he played a bit with Alfie on the tail-end of his career and Spezza was a middle-of-the-pack #1 centre. Stone wasn't nearly the player he is today when he played with Karlsson.

He had that one good year in San Jose, but that entire team went on steep decline the following year.
Click to expand...
Well, to be perfectly honest, Andrew Hammond was one of those players getting Hart support while a teammate of Erik Karlsson.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yozhik v tumane and Gil Gunderson
Federko had Gilmour, Mullen and brief overlap with a young Brett Hull and Yzerman the last year in Detroit. Bure was teammates with the washed up corpse of Cicarelli, a way past prime Messier and Leetch, Theo Fleurry in the midst of substance abuse issues, and a post concussed Eric Lindros
 
Last edited:
I think Doug Gilmour's supporting cast was pretty bad in St. Louis and Toronto.

It was incredible, however, in Calgary. The result of that (thanks to Terry Crisp and Doug Risebrough) was Gilmour getting 2nd-line minutes...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ace36758
MS said:
About 95%.

#1 defender on two Cup winners, 3x post-season All-Star. He’s in, by the bars that have been set.
Click to expand...
I guess he might but he was never higher than 4th in Norris voting and over that 9 year period where he has 3 second team all star berths (finishing 4,4 and 5th in Norris voting) he was good but out of the top 15 except for a single other season.
 
wetcoast said:
I guess he might but he was never higher than 4th in Norris voting and over that 9 year period where he has 3 second team all star berths (finishing 4,4 and 5th in Norris voting) he was good but out of the top 15 except for a single other season.
Click to expand...
That doesn't mean he wasn't a top-15 defenseman in the NHL that whole time. You can't really count on voting records for much beyond the top-6. After that it really doesn't matter whether a guy is 7th, 12th or has no votes at all; it all means just about the same thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom