I agree with this. His last great season statistically would be the 2009-10 season in which he also made the Canadian Olympic team.
Bobby Holik was a well-respected player most often praised and after 12 years ought to have retired and been remembered in a shining light.
But of course in the modern NHL there's millions to be made in one's thirties, so he took a massive contract and stunk up the NYR because at the money he signed at he was expected to be a top-6 player offensively, which he never was. He's an all-time great 3rd line center, not a go-to pivot offensively.
The last half dozen years of his career ended up disappointment after disappoint, with criticisms and rolled eyes by many when the name "Holik" came up in conversation.
Bobby should have started doing this after his 12th season:
Yeah, that's Holik, stopping the only Ducks he could in his thirties.
His attempted comeback with the Panthers aside, his final contract actually went.. ok.
I still haven't forgiven Babcock for only playing Chelios a few minutes total in that outdoor classic in Wrigley Field against Chicago. Hometown guy, former Blackhawk, and he was benched for most of that game.
Did that really hurt his legacy, though? He's rated by most posters here as either the best or second best goalie of all time. Those that have him below Roy likely don't care about the last few years of Hasek's career when making the comparisons. I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like his all time rating was affected by his latter years.
) Anyway, not only because he lost some prime years (his own fault) but because he was always cast in a defensive role. Watching some of his highlights or whole games available on YouTube, I am always impressed. I swear saw him steal the puck 3 times on one shift!
Derek has always headed my list as the "most underrated" and/or greatest "might have been" player ever. (of course, I AM a Boston fan so all my "greatest ever" players in most any category tend to be Bruins
I was going to post the Hasek's name too and I definitely think his retirements/coming from retirements every second season hurt his legacy, at least among Czech fans. The main reason is probably is off-ice conduct (specially the affair with physically attacking other player during inline hockey game). The narrative is that he came back to NHL after that mainly to avoid the prosecution for that offense.
It's somehow ironic that Hasek was seen as a role-model (or something like that) in the 90's (and early 00's) and Jagr was seen as some spoiled primadona int he same period. But the latter part of their respective careers totally changed this perception: Jagr is generally more liked by public since his return to NHL in 2012 and Hasek is mostly seen as arrogant person and disliked (or mocked) for his actions, e.g. unsuccesful business, divorce etc.
In my opinion most casual Czech fans would put Jagr over Hasek on the #1 of the Czech players of all time (my guess is that most people here or generally most people in NA would do the opposite).
Well, but I am a Detroit fan and a Hasek's not-fan so I probably have a bias againts him winning cups with Detroit. In my ideal world, Detroit loses in 2002 and 2008 but wins in 2006 and 2009, which means same number of cups for Detroit but zero for Hasek.
