Do you think Vladimir Konstantinov was on his way to the Hall before the accident?

[TheGoldenJet]

In an era with Lidstrom, Stevens, Leetch, Bourque, Chelios, Niedermeyer....

He's not top 3

Borque and Chelios had both fallen off considerably by the mid/late 90s. Zubov could hang with most of the other guys.

 

[Lukin1978]

Nope he wasn't close to a hof career

 

[The Panther]

actually i was slighting 1997 leetch somewhat. was he really better in 97 than 96, when he finished a distant third to bourque and cheli?

i can’t say i followed the late 90s rangers, but i do remember they were considered a stronger team in 96, when messier to his last hart-conversation season. i have to assume leetch should get at least some of the credit for that team’s last real hurrah in 96, and by extension some of the responsibility for its decline even with a gretzky/mess 1-2?

I don't think 1997 was a "decline" for the Rangers with the Gretzky/Mess 1-2. They had a not-bad regular season, but made the playoffs handily and then surged to the third round (the '96 club had been smoked by Pittsburgh in round two). The decline started in 1997-98, post-Messier.

Leetch, for me, was about 50% D-man and 50% rover, so you tend to look at his defensive numbers as being more indicative of how strong he was (being that his offense is always good, and he was a power-play specialist). His numbers overall are better in 1997 than in 1996 -- in 1997 he was on the ice for more team goals-for than any other NHL player.

Much is made of Leetch's strange drop from +31 to -36 in one season ('97 to '98), but if you look at his numbers the goals-against isn't significantly any worse in '98 than in '97 (esp. considering the Rangers dropped 20 points in the standings). The difference is that the Rangers stopped scoring (dropped from 4th to 22nd in one season).

 

[Sentinel]

He had disgusting GA numbers and was on the best team in hockey. Can’t imagine a surefire member of the +500 club doesn’t get in.

Does "disgusting" mean "great" or "terrible" in this context?

I actually think he would do alright with the voters. Shutting down Forsberg and Lindros on the way to their first Cup would have gone a long way. True, he would be competing with his own all-time great teammate, but remember: part of Lidstrom's legend was that in the absence of Vladdy (and Fedorov for most of the year), the team's defense didn't suffer at all.

Plus, with Konstantinov in the lineup the Wings do not acquire Chelios next year, so...

As for Konstantinov vs. Zubov: Zubov was better offensively, Vladdy better defensively.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Does "disgusting" mean "great" or "terrible" in this context?

I actually think he would do alright with the voters. Shutting down Lindros in the Finals would have gone a long way. True, he would be competing with his own all-time great teammate, but remember: part of Lidstrom's legend was that in the absence of Vladdy (and Fedorov for most of the year), the team's defense didn't suffer at all.

Plus, with Konstantinov in the lineup the Wings do not acquire Chelios next year, so...

Beyond great. The check-your-math-five-times kinda great.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Plus, with Konstantinov in the lineup the Wings do not acquire Chelios next year, so...

Or Krupp...

 

[Dingo]

Not sure. He would have to have compiled about five more years like the last two he had.... personally, he makes my, ‘Hall of Great Level Achieved’