GlitchMarner
Typical malevolent, devious & vile Maple Leafs fan
Personally, I'd be very inclined to include both Brad Richards and Mike Gartner on a top 300 list.
In any case, I'd take his career over Vinny's.
So would I, but all those metrics you used can also be used in the same way for dozens of centers if you pick the right set of years for them. Richards is a guy who's not quite as good as his point totals. He was very assist heavy, and spent a lot of time picking up PP assists on the point. He also played half his career in a division easier to score points in.
Yeah, oates has a similar goals to assists ratio, but that's coming from a much, much higher point total, too, so...
There's no room in the top 100 for those three. They're top 200 at best.
Not necessarily in order... here's a list of the best players I can think of that anyone with credible knowledge of hockey would include...
1. Gretzky
2. Orr
3. Howe
4. Lemieux
5. Beliveau
6. Bobby Hull
7. Mikita
8. Jagr
9. Hasek
10. Lidstrom
11. Crosby
12. Maurice Richard
13. Morenz
14. Esposito
15. Joe Malone
16. Lalonde
17. Milt Schmidt
18. Syl Apps
19. Charlie Conacher
20. Shore
21. Cook
22. Max Bentley
23. Dit Clapper
24. Bill Cowley
25. Dickie Moore
26. Red Kelly
27. Turk Broda
28. "Busher" Jackson
29. Boucher
30. Nighbour
31. Elmer Lach
32. Cy Denneny
33. King Clancy
34. Toe Blake
35. Ken Dryden
36. Plante
37. Sawchuk
38. Brodeur
39. Glenn Hall
40. Lafleur
41. Robinson
42. Bobby Clarke
43. Ted Lindsay
44. Park
45. Geoffrion
46. Frank Mahovlich
47. Henri Richard
48. Bourque
49. Messier
50. Trottier
51. Bossy
52. Denis Potvin
53. Kurri
54. Coffey
55. Stastny
56. Patrick Roy
57. Chelios
58. Billy Smith
59. Brett Hull
60. Robitaille
61. Yzerman
62. Sakic
63. Pronger
64. Scott Stevens
65. Selanne
66. Ovechkin
67. Joe Primeau
68. Johnny Bower
69. Babe Dye
70. Serge Savard
71. Tony Esposito
72. Brian Leetch
73. Doug Bentley
74. Borje Salming
75. Joliat
76. Brimsek
77. Nels Stewart
Then I'd rather put guys like Forsberg, Fedorov, Gilbert Perreault, Ron Francis, Adam Oates, Patrick Kane (yes, he's better than the three guys you mentioned), Bure and some others in my top 100 than Kariya or Goulet. St. Louis has the best case of the three.
Kariya, Goulet and St. Louis would have to battle it out with the likes of Pierre Pilote, Ted Kennedy, Sittler, Joe Thornton, Denis Savard, Mike Modano, Jarome Iginla, Hawerchuk, Sundin, Lindros, Jean Ratelle, Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio and numerous others for their rankings on a top 100-200 list.
According to hockey reference, their top ten era-adjusted point totals would be as such:
Oates:
115
102
102
92
89
88
88
88
88
85
Richards:
96
91
88
83
82
73
71
71
67
67
7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17, 17, 18, 19, 21 points.
I can't imagine a plausible case for Gaborik over Bondra. Bondra was clearly better at everything.
Malkin as #101?
It's hard to say because most lists i've seen are top 50, top 100. You rarely see top 300, let alone 500.
I think i'd feel comfortable ranking most players on your list from best to worst - but hard to say what# that slots each player in all time.
Damphousse > Koivu.
But is Damphousse #156? or 419? Hard to say.
Let's consider adjusted points to be a perfect metric for the sake of this post.
Adam Oates was 15 pts better than Brad Richards in a ten-season span. That is, 15 points every season.
That is, roughly, the difference between Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter... That's not a small difference, at all.
Gaborik has some very impressive defensive point shares assigned to him for several seasons by hockey reference.
Yeah, I didn't say Richards is literally comparable to Oates; I meant that he's a lower-tier version of that type of player.
I did say Oates is a tier higher (you can argue two, but I think that's pushing it a bit considering he didn't have as much playoff success as Richards despite playing on some strong/competitive teams and he did have the Hull and Neely factor).
I think once you've filled in enough names, you have to give some consideration to assist-heavy players who aren't quite in that Oates/Sedin tier, and I feel Richards has a better case than the likes of Weight, Broten, Gomez, Ribeiro, Zhamnov, Ridley and others. I probably wouldn't include Briere, but he'd be a better choice than some of these other guys as well.
Run Goulet and Kariya's case, and you'll realize you'll probably miss room even before getting players that were better (like, Martin St Louis) than those two.
Michel Goulet
Three time First Team All Star, two time Second Team All Star
Paul Kariya
Three time First Team All Star, One time Second Team All Star, Two time Lady Byng winner, Hart Trophy runner up.
I like those accolades better than some who made the list.
Well, I had not responded to your post until now.
Where did you go for more than eight months?