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You could be right. I have not made a list yet so I have no idea where I would put Sundin. I was merely reading through the top 200 preliminary thread and someone mentioned Sundin should be fine at 180-200 and nobody challenged it, which I thought was possible, but figured if I said 160-200 its more likely.The 160th to 200th range doesn't seem proportionately correct for the 24th highest goal scoring forward and 28th highest point scoring player in the history of the game who was also the face of a franchise for a decade and a half and a significant international player.
Even if we started him off as the 28th best player in the game based on his career point totals and I spotted you an additional 60 forwards, 40 defensemen and 25 goalies to put ahead of him, no questions asked, that still doesn't get us to 160th.
Here were some of the posts on Sundin I noticed after someone said "Any list without Sundin not in the top 200 should be thrown out!"
Thrown out? No, definitely not. Would I strongly agree he belongs on the list? Yes. As the holder of many minority and even fringe opinions, you should agree that it's at least defensible to have him off the list and those who think he doesn't belong should be respected.
There are players about whom this "suggestion" could apply, and Mats Sundin is definitely not one of of them.
Sundin is my favorite player, but I don't know...
I mean, I guess it would be hard not to include him, but his peak in the NHL isn't one of the stronger ones for a big name player and while he was fine in the playoffs, he didn't really have a defining run. If someone is obsessed with things like top five Hart voting finishes, I can see him being left off. If you really like things like consistency, dependability and a solid overall game, he makes it. Other things in his favor are that he was clutch (ranks high in both GWGs and OT goals) and great Internationally.
I see him in the same tier as guys like Hossa, Robitaille, Alfredsson, Elias, Recchi, Shanny except he was a centre. At least some of these players will make some lists.
Sundin around 180-200 is fine with me.
Quite frankly, a 50 spot difference later in these lists doesn't mean someone wasn't amazing. Its a lot of players we are discussing.
This only came up because earlier in the thread, someone said this:
Compared to more recent NHL centers, who do you pick between...
Mats Sundin or Evgeni Malkin
Mats Sundin or Niklas Backstrom
Mats Sundin or Jonathan Toews
Mats Sundin or Joe Thornthon
Mats Sundin or Henrik Sedin
Mats Sundin or Eric Staal
Mats Sundin or Anze Kopitar
And I responded with "Malkin and Thornton are well above Sundin's Tier. The rest are up for Debate."
Marcel Dionne vs Thornton is a much more realistic comparison than Sundin and Thornton. Its actually a funny comparison when I think about it. Marcel Dionne is the one guy in history I can literally say "that guy has a significantly stronger regular season record than Thornton, but his playoff record is way worse"