10 Best Snipers in the 80’s

[crobro]

Gretzky
Lemieux
Goulet
Kerr
Bossy
Simmer
Kurri
Vaive
McDonald
Niewendyk

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[Neutrinos]

Steve Yzerman Stats | Hockey-Reference.com

 

[Neutrinos]

Nieuwendyk over the likes of Hawerchuk, LaFontaine and Robitaille seems somewhat questionable

And what about Ciccarelli and Gartner?

 

[GlitchMarner]

Vaive?

 

[The Panther]

For what it's worth, here are the top-10 regular season goals-per-game scorers in "the 80s" (defined as Oct.1980 through April 1990), with a minimum of 400 games played (i.e., 50% of the decade -- so people like Robitaille are excluded):

1. Gretzky
2. Lemieux
3. Bossy
4. Kurri
5. Kerr
6. Goulet
7. Yzerman
8. Ciccarelli
9. Vaive
10. Dionne

(#11-#20 are: Lafontaine, Gartner, Hawerchuk, Mullen, Nicholls, Anderson, Messier, Stastny, Bullard, Larouche)


And here are the top-10 playoffs' goals-per-game scorers in "the 80s" (spring 1980 to spring 1989), with a minimum of 40 games played:

1. Bossy
2. Gretzky
3. Kurri
4. Savard
5. Mullen
6. Kerr
7. Messier
8. Anderson
9. Goulet
10. Neely

(#11-#15 are: Vaive, Payne, McNab, Daryl Sutter [!], Ciccarelli)


So, the only guys to appear in both regular-season and playoff Top-10 lists, above, are:
- Gretzky
- Bossy
- Kurri
- Kerr
- Goulet
So, those guys must be shoo-ins.

And if you stretch it to the top-15 in both lists, you can add:
- Ciccarelli
- Vaive
- Mullen
- Anderson
- Messier

So, I guess my top-10 would be some combination of these guys. (Seems kind of odd to have Vaive in there... and I'm surprised Joey Mullen scores as highly in both as he does.) The thing is, would anybody really choose Vaive over Mario Lemieux or Steve Yzerman? I think the answer is 'no'. So, my top-10 might be like this:

Gretzky
Bossy
Kurri
Goulet
Kerr
Lemieux
Mullen
Yzerman
Ciccarelli
Anderson (?)

 

[Namba 17]

Krutov and Makarov belong this list.

 

[FerrisRox]

So, the only guys to appear in both regular-season and playoff Top-10 lists, above, are:
- Gretzky
- Bossy
- Kurri
- Kerr
- Goulet
So, those guys must be shoo-ins.

It should be pointed out that Mario Lemieux only played 11 playoff games in the 1980's, they were all in the same season, and he scored 12 goals in those 11 games.

 

[The Panther]

It should be pointed out that Mario Lemieux only played 11 playoff games in the 1980's, they were all in the same season, and he scored 12 goals in those 11 games.

But that's exactly why he's not on the list. It's too small a sample for "the 80s" to have 12 games in the decade.

Having said that, Lemieux is obviously top-10 for the decade regardless of playoffs.

 

[Theokritos]

Gretzky
Bossy
Kurri
Goulet
Kerr
Lemieux

Those six, plus...

Krutov and Makarov belong this list.

...should be locks. That leaves just two open spots in the top 10.

 

[FerrisRox]

But that's exactly why he's not on the list. It's too small a sample for "the 80s" to have 12 games in the decade.

Having said that, Lemieux is obviously top-10 for the decade regardless of playoffs.

All I was saying while I liked the idea of looking at regular season and playoff scoring to determine the best snipers, the reason Mario isn't on the Playoff List is not because of any kind of drop off in his goal scoring in the post season in the 80s, its because the Penguins were terrible. In fact, his goal scoring went up in the post season in the 80's from his regular season levels.