Speculation: Best Player in Sens History?

stempniaksen

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Oct 12, 2008
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Being Toews, Kane, and Keith's backup dancer was a nice gig. :laugh:

Hossa was a very good player and very talented. Is he HHoF worthy? I mean, there's a strong argument to be made in his favour. But let's be honest: Ottawa was never going to win with him as the team's top dog at forward.

He was the best player on the 02-03 Senators that were a couple of bounces away from going to the Finals. We can't be sure, but it was commonly accepted that the ECF was the defacto cup finals that year, as the winner of that series was expected to roll over the Ducks (Devils ended up winning in a closer series than anticipated).

So he was as close as possible to being the "best player on a Cup winner" here in Ottawa. He was always a superstar level player in Atlanta, it's not his fault he was surrounded by a heaping pile of garbage. By the time he started chasing cups it's clear he'd taken a bit of a step back, but that doesn't take away his peak.
 

bert

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Nov 11, 2002
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To be fair, wasn't Hossa past his prime when he was in Chicago?

A prime Hossa is an elite player and I am pretty sure any Stanley Cup winning team would love to have him on their team
Hossas prime lasted 10 + years thats why he is so special. Just listen to the Duncan Keith interview on chicklets to know what he thought about him and the impact he had on their team.

How many cups might we have if they chose Chara and Hossa over Heatley and Redden. We will never know but i guarantee you its atleast 1 could be as many as 3.
 

Answer

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Dec 17, 2006
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The real question is

In hindsight who would you actually draft to start your franchise?

Yashin?
Karlsson?
Alfreddson?
Hossa?
Chara?
 

JohnnyBerts

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Oct 30, 2012
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Toronto, Ontario
Hossa's a 3 time cup champion with over 500 goals. Alfie was great but Hossa is easily better for me when it comes to the Hall of Fame.

I agree with others that Alfie is the greatest Senator but Erik is the best player to have played for the team.
 

bert

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Nov 11, 2002
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The real question is

In hindsight who would you actually draft to start your franchise?

Yashin?
Karlsson?
Alfreddson?
Hossa?
Chara?

Its Chara, he is about to move up to top 5 in all time games played by a defenceman. What an all time terrible blunder, how did they let this guy go for absolutely nothing while choosing another player over him.
 

FlyingJ

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Feb 25, 2014
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To be fair, wasn't Hossa past his prime when he was in Chicago?

A prime Hossa is an elite player and I am pretty sure any Stanley Cup winning team would love to have him on their team

He was 31 when Chicago got the first of their 3 recent Cups. So yeah, a bit past his prime, but he would go on to have a 29 goal, 77 point season in 2011-12. He actually led Chicago in scoring that season.

No doubt any Cup contender would have loved to have him, but let's face the facts: Toews, Kane, Keith, and, depending on the run, Sharp, Seabrook, Byfuglien, and/or Bickell all played bigger roles in the post-season on Chicago's Cup-winning teams than Hossa did. Heck, Quennville had to defend Hossa's lack of goal scoring during the 2010 run (he had a total of 3 goals in 22 games, and in 107 playoff games with the Hawks he scored 21 goals).

The good thing about Hossa was, even when he wasn't scoring, he was such a good two-way player that he wasn't giving anything up, and he put up decent assist totals. But I stand by my statement: the Sens were never going to win with him being the top dog on offense here. The only time he produced like a legitimate superstar in the playoffs was when he had Crosby and Malkin getting most of the opposition's attention.
 
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FlyingJ

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Feb 25, 2014
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He was the best player on the 02-03 Senators that were a couple of bounces away from going to the Finals. We can't be sure, but it was commonly accepted that the ECF was the defacto cup finals that year, as the winner of that series was expected to roll over the Ducks (Devils ended up winning in a closer series than anticipated).

So he was as close as possible to being the "best player on a Cup winner" here in Ottawa. He was always a superstar level player in Atlanta, it's not his fault he was surrounded by a heaping pile of garbage. By the time he started chasing cups it's clear he'd taken a bit of a step back, but that doesn't take away his peak.

Do you know how many goals Hossa scored in the 2003 East final? Zero. He did manage 4 assists, but for a 45 goal scorer during the regular season, that's quite the lackluster showing. He was hardly alone in that regard, but still...

And as always with hypotheticals: coulda, woulda, shoulda, didn't-a. And given how the Devils struggled with the Ducks, who's to say the Sens wouldn't have lost? Especially with Gigure en route to a Conn Smythe Trophy. While Lalime was actually solid (outside of one particular game) in the playoffs, I know who I would have bet on in that goaltending duel, and it ain't Patrick.

In the 2004 playoffs, outside of game 1 where he notched a pair of goals, he managed just 1 goal and 1 assist during the next 6 games. Everyone will point to that one game where he had around 10 shots, but IIRC a lot of those were distanced and unscreened. The way Belfour was playing, that wasn't going to cut it.

Hossa was a star, no question, and there's a serious case for him being HHoF worthy. However, Sens fans really need to stop holding on to the notion that keeping Hossa would have resulted in the team winning the Cup. I mean, it's a hypothetical, so we'll never know, but looking at his playoff production, I don't see him being the guy to lead the way. As I said in another post, the only time he produced like a superstar in the post-season was when Crosby and Malkin were the ones getting most of the attention from the opposition. And in Chicago, several other guys all played bigger roles each of the 3 times they won.
 

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
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Not saying that he doesn't. But Hossa in before Alfie means Alfie gets passed over about 5 or 6 times? Which I don't think is right

The HHoF doesn't have time for the Ottawa Senators. They need to make people care about them so spending a spot on one of our legacy players doesn't make sense for them.
 

HavlatMach9

streamable 3rah1
Mar 17, 2011
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Ottawa
The real question is

In hindsight who would you actually draft to start your franchise?

Yashin?
Karlsson?
Alfreddson?
Hossa?
Chara?
Karlsson for me, edging out Chara.

I feel like we only saw glimpses of what Karlsson could have really been.
 

FlyingJ

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
841
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The HHoF doesn't have time for the Ottawa Senators. They need to make people care about them so spending a spot on one of our legacy players doesn't make sense for them.
Not to mention the rumour that the Sens are NOT actively campaigning for Alfie to get in. I can't imagine that it has anything to do with a certain owner being incredibly petty.

Edit: found the tweet.

 
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BonHoonLayneCornell

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Oct 16, 2006
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Yukon
Alfie and Karlsson hands down and not even close imo

If we're just talking the greatest player to ever suit up for the Sens, it has to be Hasek.
 

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