Worst Supporting Cast throughout a HOFer's Career

[buffalowing88]

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.

 

[MXD]

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).

Gaborik had two 40 goals season where he finished Top-5 in goals while a Ranger (and with Lundqivst as teammate).

 

[GMR]

Bure or Iginla were surrounded by JAGs most of their careers.

 

[sr edler]

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.

 

[Vilica]

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.

 

[GMR]

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.

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.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

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.

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).

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

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.

With Vernon getting in its only a matter of time for Cujo

 

[Voight]

Jagr obviously had Lemieux the first couple years, but from 97-2000, those Pittsburgh teams were God Awful.

 

[LightningStorm]

Iginla.

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.

 

[kaiser matias]

Pavel Bure

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]

Erik Karlsson.

 

[MXD]

Erik Karlsson.

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.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Bernie Federko probably deserves consideration. Was Brian Sutter his best regular teammate?

 

[MXD]

Bernie Federko probably deserves consideration. Was Brian Sutter his best regular teammate?

Federko wasn't even the best player on the team he's the most associated with.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Federko wasn't even the best player on the team he's the most associated with.

I'm guessing you mean Mike Liut, I wasn't thinking of goalies.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

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.

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.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

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.

 

[MXD]

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.

Well, to be perfectly honest, Andrew Hammond was one of those players getting Hart support while a teammate of Erik Karlsson.

 

[chrispw1]

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

 

[The Panther]

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...

 

[wetcoast]

Good call on Pietrangelo. What do we think his chances are at this point?

Very slim close to none really.

 

[wetcoast]

I'm guessing you mean Mike Liut, I wasn't thinking of goalies.

Even then maybe for a couple of seasons, Federko was the guy driving the bus in St Louis.

 

[wetcoast]

About 95%.

#1 defender on two Cup winners, 3x post-season All-Star. He’s in, by the bars that have been set.

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.

 

[seventieslord]

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.

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.