Hardyvan123
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I'm not someone who wants to induct every good player from the 1960s, so I sympathize with your general point.
But Armstrong was not a marginal HHOF induction. He was named to the Hall in 1975, 4 years after he retired. Andy Bathgate and Marcel Pronovost were both eligible, yet were passed over in favor of Armstrong. Contemporaries Bert Olmstead, Allan Stanley, Fern Flaman, and Leo Boivin were all passed over for years before being inducted in the 80s and 90s.
Looking at players a few years younger than Armstrong, Bob Pulford and Dick Duff had to wait decades to get into the Hall. From players a few years older, Bill Quackenbush, Edgar Laprade, Woody Dumart, Bobby Bauer, and Roy Conacher all had to wait until after Armstrong was selected.
I just don't think Armstrong was a borderline selection at all. If you don't think Armstrong belongs, it would follow that quite a few honoured members from the 50s and 60s shouldn't be in the Hall (assuming the selection committee could reasonably assess Armstrong as a player in 1975).
To your last point, that's the Pandora's box here if Armstrong belongs then it becomes the Hall of the pretty good not the great and it opens up the debate that there should be many more modern players in the Hall to compensate and make things equal.
The current practice of only allowing around 4 players in a year in a 21-30 team league from 1980 to present eligible players make the bar go much higher than a George Armstrong or many of those players named in this post from the same time era.
The bottom line is that players from the past are definitely over represented in the HHOF. Alot of this is due to the smaller size of the league and the less difficulty of being in the top 5 or 10 of any stat as well as only 6 teams competing for the Stanely cup every year.
Armstrong would need to have a better playoff record to make up for his lack of any time of ever placing in the top 10 in any offensive stat in his 14 full seasons in the 06 era.
He was never in the top 8.33% of scorers in the league during his playing time which is the what the top 10 would be in a 120 player league.
Once he was 7th in PP goals.
Compared to today that would mean never being in the top 50 in scoring EVER in his career.
Was he really that good of a leader and defensive player to make up for that?
I never saw him play but I find nothing in the record to indicate that he is really worthy of getting into the Hall.