Salming and Hedberg actually was a whole 7 years younger. Nilsson 6 year younger. And Salming came over 1 year earlier, so he "had 8 years more" than Sjoberg to show off. When Salming was the age Sjoberg came over, Salmings peak was over. His last All Star Team was 2 seasons before that. Of course, players careers are not the same. But Sjobergs peak seem to have begun almost 10 years before his first NA game. That´s why his "what if " intriges me.
I could see a good argument for him in the late debate of the HOH top 60 d-men. It´s a quite big cluster there. But that also opens up for quite a few other european defencemen from that era I suppose. Thoose who where on the same level as Sjoberg in Europe, but didn´t get even his time in NA to show themselfes.
Agreed. As said above, this kind of opens up about how good players like Rolle Stoltz really where (or could have been...). Scoring ain´t everything, but a 35-39 year Stoltz outscored a 22-26 year Sjoberg.
On the same subject, how would a player like Sterner have faired if he stayed with the Rangers. On that Baltimore team he had company of 1 year older Ratelle, who had much greater stats. But the season before Ratelles stats resembled Sterners... He also had similar aged Bryan Hextall Jr as a teammate. Sterner scored 1 more point - in 19 less games. Of course Hextall Jr had to wait for expansion to get a spot in the NHL. Maybe Sterner would had as well. How would the whole european history in the NHL be shaped if Sterner stayed around a few more seasons and maybe established himselfe as a 2nd or even 1st liner in the NHL.
