All-time underrated players

[MaxV]

Zubov. Definitely. He was born about a decade too early.

His game would be FAR more appreciated in today's NHL.

Unfortunately for him, when he played the consensus was physicality=defense.

 

[Thenameless]

You guys think Bob Gainey is a good choice for this thread? Or does he get the "appropriate" amount of love/respect amongst the hockey forum homies and homettes?

He gets his due with the right fans. Apart from us 70's Habs fans, even the great Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov said something to the effect that Gainey was the most perfect player he had ever seen.

 

[Eisen]

He gets his due with the right fans. Apart from us 70's Habs fans, even the great Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov said something to the effect that Gainey was the most perfect player he had ever seen.

That was Tarasov.

 

[Asheville]

Steve Larmer
Zigmund Palffy
Bernie Nicholls
Chris Osgood
Mike Richter
Gilbert Perreault

 

[Asheville]

Goalies? Don't know, I don't really care about goalies. Well, maybe Henrik Lundqvist. He kind of hit his stride around the time goalies were getting less dominant, and he doesn't have the single-season super flashy results to show off. But his sustained level of consistent excellence is pretty amazing, I think. Statistically, you can barely tell any one of his seasons from another between 2005 and 2016, and he had a great winning record, too, as well as two trips to the Finals in the playoffs.

Two trips? You're better than that.

 

[Danny46]

Based on this forum Coffey is underrated, he gets shit all the time here...

 

[Sentinel]

Sergei Fedorov

 

[psycat]

Jagr. If not for the fact that he directly followed Gretzky and Lemieux I have a feeling he would be concensus number 5 of all time, atleast amongst non Canadians.

Espostio was a very, very good player and yet all you see here is people dismissing him as a product of Orr.

 

[psycat]

Sergei Fedorov

This is not the most overrated thread.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

You guys think Bob Gainey is a good choice for this thread? Or does he get the "appropriate" amount of love/respect amongst the hockey forum homies and homettes?

The fact that he's in the HOF makes Gainey one of the most overrated players in history.

 

[Theokritos]

That was Tarasov.

Actually it was Tikhonov:

See Montreal Gazette 1979, May 19:

Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov is in town for the series. He says he has been impressed by four or five of the Canadiens, especially Bob Gainey, who he says may be "technically, the best player in the world.
Source: The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search

Two days later Gainey received the Conn Smythe Trophy.

 

[Sentinel]

This is not the most overrated thread.

I somehow knew you would say this.

 

[Eisen]

Actually it was Tikhonov:

Oops, my bad. I would have sworn it was Tarasov.

 

[Hatfield]

Peter Bondra. 500 goals (including leading the league once or twice) and so much fun to watch. Never really got the attention he deserved since the Caps were sort of under the radar for most of his career, but he was a huge part of their offense. Possibly not quite HOF-worthy, but it's kind of annoying that he's so often left out of the conversation.

 

[The Panther]

The fact that he's in the HOF makes Gainey one of the most overrated players in history.

Don't forget the NHL also created an award for him.

 

[HawkNut]

Peter Bondra. 500 goals (including leading the league once or twice) and so much fun to watch. Never really got the attention he deserved since the Caps were sort of under the radar for most of his career, but he was a huge part of their offense. Possibly not quite HOF-worthy, but it's kind of annoying that he's so often left out of the conversation.

He scored 500 goals. I think he should be in.

 

[HF007]

Bill Cowley

1940-41 NHL Hart Memorial Trophy

1942-43 NHL Hart Memorial Trophy

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Honors

1937-38 NHL All-Star Team (1st)

1940-41 NHL All-Star Team (1st)

1942-43 NHL All-Star Team (1st)

1943-44 NHL All-Star Team (1st)

1944-45 NHL All-Star Team (2nd) Assists 1938-39 NHL 34 (1st) 1939-40 NHL 27 (3rd) 1940-41 NHL 47 (1st) 1942-43 NHL 45 (1st) 1943-44 NHL 41 (5th) 1944-45 NHL 40 (2nd) [TBODY] [/TBODY]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

not underrated, no one just knows because they've never seen him play

 

[BobbyAwe]

The fact that he's in the HOF makes Gainey one of the most overrated players in history.

I agree. I don't think he even qualifies as a two-way player. His best season ever was only 23 goals/47 points and that was in the '80s...the adjusted amount on that is 19/36! No offense whatsoever...

 

[BobbyAwe]

He gets his due with the right fans. Apart from us 70's Habs fans, even the great Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov said something to the effect that Gainey was the most perfect player he had ever seen.

Except he couldn't put the puck in the ocean...

 

[Ofuzz]

Always been an avid fan but I watched a ridiculous amount of hockey in the 80's both live and on TV, and I have to say that aside from Ray Bourque, I felt Paul Reinhart of Calg-Van was as good as any D-man in the league. Even after he got hurt and tried to play on in Vancouver he was usually the best player on the ice.

 

[mobilus]

Tim Kerr
Jacques Lemaire
Rick Middleton

 

[Hoser]

what is the case for him to be in the hall? because he played forever and accumulated a bunch of wins?

no Vezinas
no Cups
no AS-1
no AS-2
never led in GAA
only 2x top 10 in GAA
1x in 19 seasons led in sv%
only 5x top 10 in sv%

literally has none of the criteria of a HOF goaltender.

LOL, this is precisely why Curtis Joseph is underrated.

I have and never will respect opinions like yours. You try to make "Hall-of-Fame-worthy" into an unbiased objective measure, and you fail miserably at it because of your own logical inconsistencies. You tally up "top-10 finishes" in certain statistics to make it a purely objective evaluation, and then you add purely subjective measures like Vezina and All-Star awards and pretend this is still an objective measure. And then you casually dismiss the statistic—the fact, the objective measure—that the guy won more hockey games than every other goalie who ever played, except four other guys who are Hall-of-Famers and one active guy who... maybe gets inducted? ('Cause he didn't win any Cups or Vezinas, never led Sv%, GAA, etc. either...) You're cherrypicking stats and throwing popularity-contest awards into your HHOF retroencabulator machine, so let's drop this charade that you're being objective and unbiased about it.


I'm Calgarian, lived in Calgary my whole life, and I HATED the Oilers and Maple Leafs as a result. We got to see lots of Oilers and Maple Leafs games—lots of Curtis Joseph—on TV in the late '90s and early 2000s. Through as much bias against him as I think one can have I can say without a doubt that he was a fantastic goaltender, absolutely a Hall-of-Famer, and anyone who couldn't see that must've been blind.

And I am a fan of Joseph in the all for is many playoff storyline, but looking at this:

<links>

For how long he played is goal save above average between Guy Hebert and Tim Thomas do not look too impressive.

Vanbiesbrouck could be above him?

Hey, there're a couple other underrated guys! John Vanbiesbrouck and Guy Hebert! People tend to remember Vanbiesbrouck a little better if only for the playoff heroics in '96, but people tend to forget all about Guy Hebert. He was a very good goalie! Most of those Ducks teams in the '90s were dog#$%&, especially on defence, but Hebert kept 'em in many games.

 

[VMBM]

Actually it was Tikhonov:

Somehow Tikhonov saying that Gainey "may be technically" (whatever that means) "the best player in the world" has turned into "the Soviets considered Gainey the best player in the world".

No slight on Gainey, and he played some good games vs Soviet teams (the 1979 game between the Habs and CSKA, especially).

 

[MadLuke]

Jagr. If not for the fact that he directly followed Gretzky and Lemieux I have a feeling he would be concensus number 5 of all time, atleast amongst non Canadians.

Really good point, winning the Art Ross many year's in a row, while playing less than 70 games, definitely look more normal than they were because we just went through the 2 above at the same time not achieving to win the cups while being the face of the team was a bit overrated in term of failure and more accepted now.

Looking back at is first season with the capitals it is hard to put us back we what we probably thought of it back then or how often he was below the Forsberg, Selanne, Messier, Lindros etc... in many ranking in the last 90s.

Zubov do sound like a really good pick, but time has been really good on is legacy at least I feel.

 

[goeb]

Ray Whitney