The HOH top-100 list is shaping up very well. I love this list - I think it is a massive improvement on any all-time list that has ever been made. To me, this is definitive. I am proud to have been a part in it. It's also opened my eyes up to the true greatness of a few players and to the lack of true greatness in some others. At times I have made an argument that has delayed or sped up the induction of a player I felt strongly about.
There's only one that really baffles me here - and that is Fedorov. How this guy gets all the way up to even 80th, doesn't register with me. I think he has had a career startlingly similar to Doug Gilmour, a player we would never consider, and who is having a hard time getting into the hall.
Fedorov peaked at 3rd in the NHL in goals. Gilmour peaked at 10th. Neither made the top-10 again.
Fedorov peaked at 9th in the NHL in assists and never ranked in the top-10 again. Gilmour has placed 2nd, 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 8th.
Fedorov has two top-10 finishes in points - 2nd and 9th. Gilmour has been 4th, 5th, and 7th.
Gilmour has one selke, Fedorov has two. Both are of the dubious nature of recent selkes, as in not necessarily being the best defensive forward, but being the best among the star players in the game. Gilmour's selke voting results are 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9, 13, 13, 14. Fedorov's are 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 9, 12.
Fedorov has finished 1st, 5th, 5th, 6th, 9th in all-star voting for centers. Gilmour has been 3rd, 3rd, 5th, 7th. And if you use the old "remove Wayne and Mario from the equation because they're freaks and anyone would finish behind them" argument, then it becomes 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 7th for Gilmour and 1st, 4th, 5th, 5th, 8th for Fedorov.
Fedorov has finished 1st, 5th, and 9th in Hart voting. Gilmour has been 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th. Truly, Mario Lemieux's health is the only reason one has a Hart and the other doesn't. In 92-93, if Mario sits out ten more games he does not win the scoring race and likely doesn't play enough games for the voters to give him the Hart, ang Gilmour wins it. In 1993-94, if he plays anything close to a full season the best player in hockey would not lose the Hart to the likes of Fedorov and Sergei becomes a runner-up.
Gilmour played until he was 40, scoring 450 goals and 1414 points in 1474 games. Adjusted 10% downwards to account for the higher scoring in the first half of his career, that's about 405 goals and 1273 points. Fedorov will likely make this his last season. He'll finish with about 485 goals and 1180 points in 1270 games. Very similar career numbers. Gilmour became more of a "wily veteran" later on, the kind of guy who barely put up half a point per game but still brought other goods to the game. Fedorov, same thing.
But what about the playoffs? Sergei has the three cups. Gilmour has one. That may seem like a big gap, but it's all circumstance. Fedorov played on a dynasty wings team, Gilmour didn't. Playoff points are remarkably even between the two. Gilmour has 186 in 182, Fedorov has 168 in 169, and after this, his last season, it's feasible to suggest he'll have about 175 in 181.
Gilmour led the 1986 playoffs in points despite not getting to the finals. In 1987-88, he had 17 points in just 10 games, good for first on his team, by a 7-point margin. (Who leads their team in playoff scoring by 7 points??? wow!) With the 1989 Flames, Gilmour finished 6th in playoff points, 5th in goals, and 3rd in +/-. Then, of course, there are his legendary years with the Leafs. 1993: 2nd in points, 5th in goals, 1st in +/-. 1994: 4th in points. He had three first-round exits later on where he was over a point per game, or just one below, and then put up 10 in 12 games with the 2002 Habs. In summary, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th. Gilmour is also among the all-time leaders with three career playoff OT winners.
Fedorov has a very good history as well. He's been solid throughout, even in first round exits - 38 Pts in 38 games during which his teams went 14-24. It was in the long cup rund where he built a legacy, though. 1995 - first in assists and points. 1996 - 8th in points, 1st in assists. 1997 - 8th in points. 1998 - 1st in goals, 2nd in points. 2002 - 6th in points, 3rd in assists. So in summary, 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 8th in points. So cancel out the identical years, and Fedorov is left with two 8ths to Gilmour's 4th. Pretty close, and one guy did it on a dynasty and the other didn't.
These resumes are so similar, the only thing vastly different about these players is the way in which they achieved it. Fedorov was smooth, slick, and for a lot of his career, the best skater in the game. He wasn't soft but he never went looking for trouble. Gilmour was trouble. He earned every point he got, through hard work, grit, and determination. That's not to say he had no skill - he had lots of it. But it is his work ethic that will be the stuff of legend as time goes on. Like Ted Kennedy, who currently occupies 77th on the list.
Is this about individual skill sets or results? Fedorov is a better player than Gilmour skill-wise in nearly every aspect. But the results each one has achieved are strikingly similar, with Fedorov being "helped along" by a dynasty featuring four players in the top-41 on this list, and although Gilmour had cups of coffee with Hasek and Brodeur, it's not until 64th on this list that you find a skater he played with, and it's a defenseman. At 77th we see an ex-Gilmour forward teammate, Makarov, but I'm not sure it's even fair to "count" him given the stage of his career he was at; he scored between 22 and 30 goals in the three seasons he spent with Gilmour in Calgary. Not to mention Gilmour played in the shadows of Gretzky and Lemieux while Fedorov emerged as those two aged and semi-retired.
Now I am not trying to say Gilmour is better than Fedorov. Although if I convinced you of that, more power to me! I am saying that their careers are so similar, yet one has been rewarded with a relatively high placement on this list and one won't even be considered.
