Does Kucherov have a shot at becoming a top 5 winger of all time ?

[ViD]

Now, that Kucherov has the NHL record for points in a season by a winger, he enters the conversation of being a top 10 or even top 5 winger of all time.

With his regular season accolades and impeccable play off performances, where do you see him by the end of his career ?

Click to read more...

 

[dirtydanglez]

i cant possibly say all time but in the last 20-30 years the only winger that i can think of that id take over kucherov is ovechkin.

edit: almost forgot jagr

 

[DFC]

Wherever Jagr is, I think Kucherov will rank either just below or just above. Same tier.

 

[AndreRoy]

I’d love to see someone list ten better wingers than Kucherov. His peak is already (at least) top five but I could understand people keeping him out until his career numbers get there as well; anyone who doesn’t have him in their top ten at this point is just crazy.

 

[VinikToWinIt]

That's a tough list to crack, but if he keeps up what he's doing this season... He's up there.

 

[Steven Toast]

Howe, Jagr, Ovi, Hull, Lafleur are ahead. Possibly others as well.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Jagr still has the points record. I think Kucherov has a reasonable chance at being a top 10 winger, if he isn’t already.

 

[Despote]

i cant possibly say all time but in the last 20-30 years the only winger that i can think of that id take over kucherov is ovechkin.

edit: almost forgot jagr

I think Kuch may be better than Ovechkin. He's just so celebral and I see his game aging really well too. Ovechkin was too one-dimensional for most of his career.

 

[kevsh]

I didn't vote because I want to see what he does over a few more seasons.

So far he's only had two (arguably 3) really big offensive seasons so it's a lot to ask putting him top 5. However in terms of pure talent, he's got to be in the conversation already.

 

[Regal]

Top 5 I’d say is Howe, Ovechkin, Hull, Jagr, Richard, which would be a tough top 5 to crack. They all had long careers and I don’t think Kucherov’s prime so far is clearly better than any of them. His cerebral game should age well though, so we’ll see. If he can keep being in Art Ross/Hart convos for a bit it will help. I think he has a better chance at 6th as the guys vying for that position (Lafleur, Bossy, Makarov), all didn’t have longevity as elite players into their 30s

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I’d love to see someone list ten better wingers than Kucherov. His peak is already (at least) top five but I could understand people keeping him out until his career numbers get there as well; anyone who doesn’t have him in their top ten at this point is just crazy.

Howe
Jagr
Lafleur
Ovechkin
Richard
Hull

He's in the top 10, but I dont see him knocking off any of the 6 listed.

 

[Regal]

Howe
Jagr
Lafleur
Ovechkin
Richard
Hull

He's in the top 10, but I dont see him knocking off any of the 6 listed.

Problem with Lafleur is he only really had 7-8 seasons of being a great player and not a whole lot beyond that. Kucherov doesn’t match Lafleur’s 6 year run of being near the top of the leaderboards, but his play over the past 8 seasons hasn’t been far off, including a couple big seasons and playoff dominance. If he stays healthy continues to have a great run into his early 30s, I’d find it hard to take Lafleur

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Problem with Lafleur is he only really had 7-8 seasons of being a great player and not a whole lot beyond that. Kucherov doesn’t match Lafleur’s 6 year run of being near the top of the leaderboards, but his play over the past 8 seasons hasn’t been far off, including a couple big seasons and playoff dominance. If he stays healthy continues to have a great run into his early 30s, I’d find it hard to take Lafleur

Maybe, but it'll take a bunch. Everything Kucherov can did, Lafleur did it better. It'll be interesting

 

[Ace36758]

I think Kuch may be better than Ovechkin. He's just so celebral and I see his game aging really well too. Ovechkin was too one-dimensional for most of his career.

I understand this may be a joke/troll post, but it is ridiculous. Kucherov can’t touch ovechkin from a career or peak standpoint. Also the folks suggesting kucherov had been better than Jagr are off their rockers.

 

[Despote]

I understand this may be a joke/troll post, but it is ridiculous. Kucherov can’t touch ovechkin from a career or peak standpoint. Also the folks suggesting kucherov had been better than Jagr are off their rockers.

Disagree, I prefer Kucherov at his peak to Ovechkin. When did Ovechkin score 145 points?

 

[lipstickjunkie]

Disagree, I prefer Kucherov at his peak to Ovechkin. When did Ovechkin score 145 points?

Oh boy. Here come the era adjustment police again.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Disagree, I prefer Kucherov at his peak to Ovechkin. When did Ovechkin score 145 points?

If that's the standard then Kucherov is better than Crosby, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and Jean Beliveau as well.

 

[Despote]

Oh boy. Here come the era adjustment police again.

Ovechkin never scored as much by any era-adjustment either. He also played far more minutes, especially on the PP in his prime than Kucherov, who is a substantially more efficient player

 

[Video Nasty]

I don’t see why not.

There’s only one untouchable on the list (Howe).

There’s just enough chinks in the armor for the rest to be argued against depending on how the rest of Kucherov’s career plays out…and while Ovechkin is going to have the glory of the goal record clouding a lot of judgement, if we’re being honest, he has spent just two halves as a top 5 player post age 24 (second half of 2012-2013 and the first half of 2021-2022).

 

[Ace36758]

Yeah, and Bernie Nicholls scored 150.

Disagree, I prefer Kucherov at his peak to Ovechkin. When did Ovechkin score 145 points?

?

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Disagree, I prefer Kucherov at his peak to Ovechkin. When did Ovechkin score 145 points?

When did Kucherov?

 

[Despote]

Yeah, and Bernie Nicholls scored 150.

?

There's no era adjustment that brings Ovechkin close to 145 points this year.

Henrik Sedin who played in the same era matched Ovechkin's career high in points playing 3 minutes a night less to boot.

 

[Midnight Judges]

I don’t see why not.

There’s only one untouchable on the list (Howe).

There’s just enough chinks in the armor for the rest to be argued against depending on how the rest of Kucherov’s career plays out…and while Ovechkin is going to have the glory of the goal record clouding a lot of judgement, if we’re being honest, he has spent just two halves as a top 5 player post age 24 (second half of 2012-2013 and the first half of 2021-2022).

Won the Hart in 2013 - not really his fault it was a short season.

And he was the #1 skater in 2015 - if Hart and Pearson voters are to be believed. 6th in 2016. 7th in 2019.

He was also 9th in the 2018 regular season and then went on to win a Conn Smythe - which is very easily enough to bump him into the top 5 (which he was arguably a part of to begin with).

He also has 100 more goals than the second best goal scorer in that timeframe while also being 3rd in the NHL in points.

 

[Matsun]

Right now I think Bossy is a good comparison to Kucherov. Monster playoffs, dynasty, and dominant in the regular season. The difference is that Kucherov is not going up against The great one so he can actually win some individual hardware. I think Kucherov drives his team more than Bossy did and with longevity he will pass him. I am really high on Kucherov and only have 6 wings clearly ahead, but some of them I have a hard time seeing him pass.

Howe
Jagr
OV
Bobby Hull
Lafleur
Bossy/Kucherov
Lafleur had 6 great seasons, 3 of which were amazing. Kucherov has 5 great seasons, 2 were amazing. In the playoffs Lafleur is ahead but Kucherov is closer than people think. Lafleur has very little longevity so I think Kucherov can pass him but it will be hard.

OV and Hull are way ahead of Kucherov in regular season dominance but he has already passed them in playoffs. I can't see him catching them in the regular season, but if he has some strong playoffs (I don't think Tamps wins again) he can build a case.

Feels like no shot at passing Jagr, too much dominance. Here are some of Jagrs distance to the next player behind him in the scoring race:
06 17
01 25 (I skipped Sakic here)
00 2* 15
99 20
96 29* 19
*marks actual margin, the number next to it if the number if everyone plays 82.
Kucherov would need like 2 more seasons like this one to catch up to Jagr. He is ahead of Jagr in the playoffs so he won't need to pass him in regular season achievements, which he probably won't.

Lol at Howe.

 

[Video Nasty]

Won the Hart in 2013 - not really his fault it was a short season.

And he was the #1 skater in 2015 - if Hart and Pearson voters are to be believed. 6th in 2016. 7th in 2019.

He was also 9th in the 2018 regular season and then went on to win a Conn Smythe - which is very easily enough to bump him into the top 5.

He also has 100 more goals than the second best goal scorer in that timeframe while also being 3rd in the NHL in points.

Yet he was not a top 5 player for roughly 13 seasons worth of games since the conclusion of the 2009-2010 season.