Firstly, I think it's fairly impossible to rank the greats from the Eastern bloc alongside NHL players. However, here's another little take on the subject.
Enter
Vladimir Martinec. Okay, he is my favourite player, so I know more about him than about many others, but also I think he is a good example of a borderline HOFer. He will never get into the Real Thing (until hell freezes over/pigs fly etc.), and while not exactly a lock for our HOF either, he is still a strong candidate.
Most of the numbers I'm presenting here are ESTIMATES; they're not just guesses but not 100 % hardcore facts either. The main sources have been these sites:
http://hokej.snt.cz/index.html
http://www.chidlovski.com/personal/1954/index.htm (I'm getting bored with him!
)
And another hockey forum that shall remain nameless
OVERVIEW (NOT a bio)
Martinec played 289 international games for Czechoslovakia between 1969 and 1981, scoring 155 goals. He played mostly on a line with Jiri Novak (C) and Bohuslav Stastny (LW), later with Bohuslav Ebermann (LW). His glory years, in World Championships at least, were 1974-1977, when he did much of his scoring. But as late as in the 1979 and 1981 WCs, he was still the 3rd highest scorer on his team. Strong WC also in 1972, when he got 11 points in 10(?) games, including 2 assists in the 2nd game vs. USSR that basically decided the gold medal (CSSR won 3-2). In his lone 'best-on-best' tournament, 1976 Canada Cup, he scored 7 points in 7 games.
Unfortunately, the total amount of the points he scored is not - as far as I know - available. But considering he scored 52 goals 58 assists in 102 WC games/69 goals and 66 assists in 15 big tournaments (i.e. 11 WCs, 3 Olympics, 1 CC), it is easy to assume that he had about 310-320 points. It should be noted that second assists were credited inconsistently in the 1970s (and certainly beyond). In some WCs, for example, they weren't credited at all. That hurts his, and many other players', numbers a bit.
Of the 289 games he played, about half were against either USSR, Sweden or Canada. The rest were against the likes of Finland, West Germany, Poland, USA... naturally, I want to concentrate on the aforementioned countries, as they were something that could be called 'NHL level' opponents. Some of you might protest that Sweden wasn't that, but bare with me.
MARTINEC VS. USSR
The Soviets were, to use NHL analogy, the Montreal Canadiens of Europe, and Czechoslovakia was definitely a notch or two below. Despite the fact that they beat USSR regularly, the Czechs could not dominate the weak(er) teams like the Soviets could; just comparing their goal differentials in various tournaments is quite revealing.
Now, Martinec's Soviet contemporaries (Mikhailov, Maltsev, Petrov, Kharlamov) played about 60 games against CSSR, so his GP numbers have to be in that region too. From the available (but oh so scattered) data I've gathered that Martinec scored about 20 goals (at least) in the games versus the Soviets. Assists are a tougher nut to crack, but since he had about 1 G/A ratio overall, I don't see why it wouldn't apply here too. So:
GP: 60* G: 20* A: 20* PPG: .66...*
* estimate
The estimated numbers may seem underwhelming, but turning this thing around, I'm willing to bet that none of his Soviet rivals have >/= 1 PPG Average versus CSSR either, although I do believe that the likes of Mikhailov, Petrov and Kharlamov were somewhat more efficient overall (better PPGA) when they and Martinec faced each other.
MARTINEC VS. CANADA
Martinec played 5 games versus an All-Star Team Canada; 1 in 1972 and 4 in 1976 (one of them being pre-tournament game prior to 1976 CC). He also played 8 games against the Canadian teams (consisting of NHL players) in the World Championships 1977-81. Data is fairly available (minus 3 g.), and from that I've gathered that Martinec was basically a 1PPG player in these games. Interestingly, though, he didn't score that many goals against them, but contributed more as a playmaker*.
He also played at least a few games against some lesser Canadian teams in some lesser tournaments in the late Seventies plus a game against WHA's Team Canada in 1974.
* overall, I've come to appreciate Martinec's playmaking a little more than before, and at the same time, I think I've been overrating his goal-scoring skills a bit
'My' stats would read like this:
GP: 20* G: 5* A: 15* PPG: 1*
* estimate
Martinec also played for his club team Tesla Pardubice, when they toured the NHL in 1977-78 and won one game (that against Minnesota North Stars) out of four. Martinec scored 2 goals in the Series. Despite Pardubice being rather overmatched against Philadelphia Flyers, he was at least the star of his team in the game (
http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/poboxscore.cgi?10000003 Wow, I'm really impressed that such fairly insignificant exhibition game has been so well documented!!!)
MARTINEC VS. SWEDEN
As I previously said, you might argue that the Swedish teams Martinec faced weren't 'NHL level' but I beg to differ. Czechoslovakia couldn't really dominate Sweden during the 1st half of the 1970s much at all, even though the Soviets mostly did. Many of the Swedish teams had future/then-current NHL players like B. Salming, A. Hedberg, U. Nilsson... Roland Eriksson, B-A Gustafsson, M. Näslund, Pelle Lindbergh... I'd say the 1970-74, 1977 and 1981 Swedish WC teams were on par with an average NHL team (of the '70s), and even at their worst (probably 1975 WC), they were at least on a level of bottom NHL clubs.
Anyway, what I've gathered is that post-1973, Martinec scored A LOT of points against Sweden, and pre-1974 very little... goals, at least. So that would translate to something like:
GP: 60* POINTS: 65**
* estimate
** a guess!
CONCLUSION:
There really isn't a conclusion! But I hope this gives at least some more insight on a genuine European hockey legend and where he stands in the 1970s hockey, and maybe on the players who were a notch above (Kharlamov, Makarov), about on the same level (Petrov, Starshinov) and somewhat below (Hlinka, Novy) too. The NHL was a very different kind of scenario, and some players would have been better suited for it than others. And you can't just transfer Martinec's or anyone else's international scoring to NHL numbers.
Still, I don't see reasons why Martinec couldn't have made it in the NHL. He was a product of Czechoslovak 'system' (whatever that was) and a team player, but certainly among the most creative and individual ones of his era too. Don't talk about Guy Lafleur, alright, but, say, a Bill Barber type of career, why not? I would have loved to seen him play with Gilbert Perreault... and let's put Valeri Kharlamov on the LW, while we're at it. I'm droolin' just thinking about it - no disrespect to Rene Robert and Rick Martin of course. THE END.
