Chelios at 8?
I mean, I hate chelios, but I can respect him as a player, and certainly his sustained level of play over such a long period of time is commendable, and he certainly was amazing during his prime (or so I've read), watching chelios play in chicago against my beloved flames was how I first began to have an appreciation for defensemen, at the ripe age of 7. Having said that...
Is Chelios better than Stevens?
Stevens has over 180 more games, more goals than chelios, but is 13 points behind in career regular season totals. Stevens also has more playoff games, but his offensive stats aren't as impressive as those of chelios. 3 Norris Trophy's for chelios to steven's 0, 1 conn smythe for steven to 0 for chelios. 3 Cups for Stevens, 2 for Chelios. The norris trophy's are presumably the most relevent to this discussion, and stand alone as impressive, but how much do Steven's aura about his physicality and the lingering impressions of his dominance in New Jersey over a 10 year period affect his position?
Is an argument that while he never won the norris simply because he happened to be playing around the same time as 3 top 10 defencemen all time, or is that more glaring that he never stood tall as the best in any particular season? Does the way the norris is voted cheapen it's value in these conversations?