Best stickhandlers of the 1970s and 80s

[meangene]

Puck skills in old highlights is noticeably poor compared to today, even by alot of the HOF players of the era. Who are some players who stand out when you watched them then or in old clips now? Gilbert Perreault is the best I've seen from the 70s/80s era. Kent Nilsson and Rick Middelton also stand out. Who else?

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[carjackmalone]

Ivan Bolderiev

Thomas Gradin

 

[BraveCanadian]

Yes puck handling was a recent invention lol

 

[MS]

Ivan Boldirev is usually the go-to answer for questions like this.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Orr, Savard, Balderis, Frank Mahovlich...

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

Orr, Savard, Balderis, Frank Mahovlich...

I was amazed to learn how much of a difference the new sticks make. I was raised on wood sticks and cooper blades. In my youth I would go into corners and curbs confidently (in my little fishbowl) always expecting to win stick battles which I did about 80 percent routinely. B
Then I came back in mid-life and started playing beer league. Beginner intermediate. No new stick for me. Got me a wooden job and a pair of 39 dollar Walmart skates and hit the ice. A quite decent skater for my level, after about three games I realized I had lost basically every stick battle. Old age? It took me a while to realize that it might not be me.

So, I got a new stick and started winning stick battles immediately, just like the old days. I could not believe the difference. I eventually weighed the stick and found out that my OLD one was five times heavier than my wood stick whose weight had always felt 'right'. All of that weight goes down to the wrists where the difference is felt more. It has gone unused since.

I now realize that the old stick handlers were living in a very different universe than McD, Hughes and co are. No basis for legit comparison imo.

 

[Dingo]

this forum is funny.

anyways, Denis Savard was the best I saw as a kid. Kharlamov and Perreault were obvious but a bit before me, although Gilbert still played.

Savard was def #1 for me until Bure came along with his wooden stick.

 

[BraveCanadian]

this forum is funny.

anyways, Denis Savard was the best I saw as a kid. Kharlamov and Perreault were obvious but a bit before me, although Gilbert still played.

Savard was def #1 for me until Bure came along with his wooden stick.

Yeah Savard had some moves.. as others have mentioned already - Perreault, Kharlamov, .. actually a whole bunch of Soviet trained players.. Middleton, Lafleur, the 80s Oilers.. WHA Jets.. so many to choose from.

 

[Overrated]

Pete Mahovlich showed some sick moves against the Soviet team in SS72

 

[Michael Farkas]

Yeah, as someone that started playing with wood sticks myself (I still did when I played dek, on rare occasion to get me in shape before a real season), it's pretty wild. Then, too, someone of these guys were using flat blades too, they don't have the tape that they do these days...

Meanwhile, you have guys - even "worst" Hall of Famer - like Edgar Laprade working guys over and going short side back three quarters of a century ago... (20:49)

 

[Overrated]

 

[ESH]

I was amazed to learn how much of a difference the new sticks make. I was raised on wood sticks and cooper blades. In my youth I would go into corners and curbs confidently (in my little fishbowl) always expecting to win stick battles which I did about 80 percent routinely. B
Then I came back in mid-life and started playing beer league. Beginner intermediate. No new stick for me. Got me a wooden job and a pair of 39 dollar Walmart skates and hit the ice. A quite decent skater for my level, after about three games I realized I had lost basically every stick battle. Old age? It took me a while to realize that it might not be me.

So, I got a new stick and started winning stick battles immediately, just like the old days. I could not believe the difference. I eventually weighed the stick and found out that my new one was five times heavier than my wood stick whose weight had always felt 'right'. All of that weight goes down to the wrists where the difference is felt more. It has gone unused since.

I now realize that the old stick handlers were living in a very different universe than McD, Hughes and co are. No basis for legit comparison imo.

I’m not sure if you just weighed them wrong or if you’re making that up but that makes no sense at all. A 5x difference would be insane. Part of the reason we use composite sticks now is because they’re lighter than wood sticks (and also obviously flexier).

Do you really believe a hollowed-out piece of composite is 5 times heavier than a solid block of wood?

 

[Cursed Lemon]

If there's a difference between "stickhandling" and "ragging", Orr was the ultimate ragger

 

[GlitchMarner]

The first names I thought of (Perreault, Orr, Savard) have already been mentioned.

I feel Gretzky probably deserves a mention. Not necessarily the slickest or the fanciest, but he could maneuver around with the puck.

I guess guys like Dionne, Stastny and Hawerchuk at least deserve honorable mentions?

Nilsson and Middleton were excellent. Nilsson was smooth and Middleton was very adroit.

 

[Michael Farkas]

If there's a difference between "stickhandling" and "ragging", Orr was the ultimate ragger

There is a difference, yes. Ragging traditionally goes away from pressure a lot more than the traditional use of stickhandling. Orr was great at both, of course.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

I’m not sure if you just weighed them wrong or if you’re making that up but that makes no sense at all. A 5x difference would be insane. Part of the reason we use composite sticks now is because they’re lighter than wood sticks (and also obviously flexier).

Do you really believe a hollowed-out piece of composite is 5 times heavier than a solid block of wood?

Lighter. That's what I remember and I'm usually pretty careful about such things.
I went back and found where I raised your concern. Edited. Thanks for mentioning.

 

[BraveCanadian]

The first names I thought of (Perreault, Orr, Savard) have already been mentioned.

I feel Gretzky probably deserves a mention. Not necessarily the slickest or the fanciest, but he could maneuver around with the puck.

I guess guys like Dionne, Stastny and Hawerchuk at least deserve honorable mentions?

Nilsson and Middleton were excellent. Nilsson was smooth and Middleton was very adroit.

Hawerchuk was a wizard.. Gretzky is (somehow?) underrated technically all over the boards here. He had serious skills in several areas that are downplayed a lot because a lot of posters only saw him as an old man with a bad back.

 

[Staniowski]

Puck-carrying and stickhandling are different things but they are certainly related. Guys like Trottier and Gretzky were great puck carriers, for example, but they'd be a bit lower on a list of stickhandlers. There are many defensemen who were great puck carriers too.

Many great stickhanders during the '70s and '80s, including:

Makarov
Kharlamov
Orr
Perreault
Lafleur
Lemieux
Khomutov
Loob
P. Mahovlich
LaFontaine
Hawerchuk
Gretzky

 

[The Panther]

Does anyone know why I can't get GIF's to work on this forum anymore?

 

[meangene]

Appreciate the replies! Wish there was more video available of some of these guys :/

 

[authentic]

Puck-carrying and stickhandling are different things but they are certainly related. Guys like Trottier and Gretzky were great puck carriers, for example, but they'd be a bit lower on a list of stickhandlers. There are many defensemen who were great puck carriers too.

Many great stickhanders during the '70s and '80s, including:

Makarov
Kharlamov
Orr
Perreault
Lafleur
Lemieux
Khomutov
Loob
P. Mahovlich
LaFontaine
Hawerchuk
Gretzky

Good list. I’d add Yzerman and Coffey.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

Puck-carrying and stickhandling are different things but they are certainly related. Guys like Trottier and Gretzky were great puck carriers, for example, but they'd be a bit lower on a list of stickhandlers. There are many defensemen who were great puck carriers too.

Many great stickhanders during the '70s and '80s, including:

Makarov
Kharlamov
Orr
Perreault
Lafleur
Lemieux
Khomutov
Loob
P. Mahovlich
LaFontaine
Hawerchuk
Gretzky

I like your distinction. Makarov was my favourite Russian for the longest time, until Pavel D came along. But the main thing I remember about SM was how often he seemed to inflict damage at the national level. I hadn't noted that he was an elite stickhandler but I'll take your word for it. I just remember thinking, There goes Makarov again. To me, he stuck out more that Krutov and Larianov that way, On your list the two that stand out to me, as stickhandlers are GP, definitely, and Mario and maybe Lafontaine. I tended to think of VK as more of a north-south player, more of what you might call a puck carrier who went around people .

 

[Overrated]

Does anyone know why I can't get GIF's to work on this forum anymore?

They lowered the maximum size of a gif to 5mb unfortunately. Interestingly I can see the gifs when I try to quote your post. Sick moves by Gretzky. He had a very similar playstyle to Lionel Messi.

 

[Overrated]

I like your distinction. Makarov was my favourite Russian for the longest time, until Pavel D came along. But the main thing I remember about SM was how often he seemed to inflict damage at the national level. I hadn't noted that he was an elite stickhandler but I'll take your word for it. I just remember thinking, There goes Makarov again. To me, he stuck out more that Krutov and Larianov that way, On your list the two that stand out to me, as stickhandlers are GP, definitely, and Mario and maybe Lafontaine. I tended to think of VK as more of a north-south player, more of what you might call a puck carrier who went around people .

Makarov despite being clearly the best Soviet player internationally actually stood out scoring wise way more in the Soviet league than internationally. Unfortunately I have never been able to find a single Soviet league game from that time except for some game from 89 that was on youtube. During his prime 79/80 --> 85/86 he absolutely demolished the Soviet league:

 

[Michael Farkas]

I believe I have one Soviet League game somewhere...a Russian gentleman who I struck up a conversation with at a bar by chance, had one and dropbox'd it to me...I gotta see where that was. If today's league and the junior league are any indication (along with the champions of it), it was a woefully unbalanced league...

How many of those top 10 scorers aren't CSKA or Spartak players? Balderis...anyone else? Belousov?