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Is Nikolai Khabibulin A HOF'er ?

Big Phil

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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panorama01 said:
Khabibulin is better than Barrasso and his stats are better than Joseph's and unlike Joseph he won a Stanley Cup, which is what seems to matter so much and is why someone like Fuhr is there. His numbers are similar to Kolzig's only that Kolzig never won that cup either. He is better than the overrated Vernon and his numbers are better than Richter's.

Some impute bad motives for his movements but he had no choice in the matter for the cases cited. Tampa Bay needed to shed people for the salary cap and Tortorella seemed to have this thing for Grahame at the time. As for Chicago, they had no room for him under the salary cap either. They were committed to Huet. One can blame Khabibulin for his difficulties that caused the Hawks to get Huet, but this suggestion that he's a money-grabbing Russian and that's why he should be condemned I think is unfair. I also notice that there is impatience for recent American goalies of note to be acknowledged (Richter, Barrasso in particular).
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Khabby is not better than Vernon, Fuhr, Barrasso. He's close and debatable with Richter though. Kolzig? Sure why not. But not the first three I mentioned.

Fuhr didn't only win 5 Cups, but he won a Vezina and was a starter on Canada Cup teams. Vernon was erratic but at the end of the day won more, and Barrasso was acknowledged three times as being the top 2 goalie in the game. Plus his two Cups. The Hall is hard to get in for a goalie, it is so tough that Vernon and Vachon are still waiting. Khabby will not get in
 
Kyle McMahon

Kyle McMahon

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May 10, 2006
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panorama01 said:
In the late '90s, early '00s, Khabibulin was considered to be one of the league's top goalies - mentioned along with the likes of Roy, Hasek and Brodeur. Osgood and Barrasso were never so considered, except perhaps when Barrasso started out in 1983 or so. Barrasso is supremely overrated. He cost the Penguins the possibility of a third cup in 1993. He lost the starting job in Pittsburgh to Ken Wregget. He showed that Ron Tugnutt was better than him after he was traded to Ottawa.

Khabibulin however crossed paths with a stingy Coyotes franchise and as it would not sign him he sat out nearly two years during his prime. From 99 to 01, he played only two games for Tampa Bay at the end of '01. Through most of '01-'02 he had a .930 save percentage not unlike one Hart and Vezina Trophy winner...

Khabibulin played in Winnipeg, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Chicago and Edmonton... with the exception of Chicago, he played on the league's fringes and even in Chicago that's when the old regime was still there and it was not very good. Only in his third year there were they back, so to speak, as a "relevant" franchise. Now some will blame him for its not being revived immediately after his arrival as he was supposed to be some kind of messiah but the goaltender can only do so much - notice that the Hawks improved remarkably after a coaching change last year.

At any rate, Khabibulin's career stops will be held against him just as Tomas Vokoun will not benefit from his playing in Nashville and Florida ... I remember when they said he would be better than Theodore, and they sure were right about that.
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And who's fault is this? Khabibulin missed two prime years because of Khabibulin, not the Phoenix Coyotes.

You can rag on Barrasso for gassing it in '93, but Khabibulin was shaky all of last years playoffs. The lack of key saves let the Flames hang around longer than they ought to have, and he absolutely sucked against Detroit. Both goalies played great in Cup-winning seasons. Don't forget that Barrasso is considered by many the have been the most important Penguin other than Lemieux in Pittsburgh's two Cup wins. I still say Khabi's save on Jordan Leopold in Game 7 against Calgary was the best I've ever seen (well, maybe until Fleury in the dying seconds last year), given that it preserved the Cup-winning margin. But he's not a HOFer. Not enough great seasons or meaningful accomplishments.
 
seventieslord

seventieslord

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panorama01 said:
Barrasso started off on the excellent defensive Buffalo Sabres and won the Calder and Vezina immediately in 1983-84 and became some great new phenom at age 19. The next year, the Sabres' goalies won the Jennings. After that, his stats were awful for several years and the Sabres replaced him with Darren Puppa. He then benefited from playing on the Mario Lemieux Penguins that were improved through management's astute moves in 1991 and 1992, as well as the arrival of Jaromir Jagr. He blew the 1993 playoffs - it's well-known that if not for Barrasso's goaltending David Volek would not have had a chance to eliminate the Penguins in game seven in overtime.

Jose Theodore won a Hart and a Vezina - clearly he should be in the Hall of Fame, isn't that right?
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Barrasso was consistently among the sv% leaders throughout his career. his stats were never awful. He also faced more shots per game than any stanley-cup winning goalie of the past 25 years. (his 1991 and 1992 cup runs are first and second)
 

panorama01*

Guest
For five years over the span of his career, Barrasso was among the leaders in save percentage. Two of them were at the beginning on an excellent defensive Sabres team, and another was on the Kevin Constantine Penguins... the year that sticks out really as very good for him is 1987-88 - why he probably deserved the Vezina instead of Fuhr, who as I remember was subject of a media love-in that spanned 1987 and 1988... I think that Barrasso's .896 was probably more impressive than Roy's .900 on those Canadiens that was the top defensive team at the time. I see that it was significantly better than Puppa's statistics for that year.

That said, I still think Barrasso was overrated. I thought it was a mistake for Ottawa to get him when it did.

I don't really think that Khabibulin should be in the Hall of Fame. I still think however that he is underrated because of certain circumstances. Russians have this reputation for being money-grabbing complainers - I wonder how many think that he wanted his contract thrown out and replaced by something more lucrative as Alexei Yashin used to do. I was reading about reactions to his hold-out (he did not have a contract at all) and it was the Coyotes who were seen as overly stubborn and people were mystified that they did this to someone considered to be a franchise player, and he was not the only one. Robert Reichel also could not get a contract. Khabibulin was seen at the time as one of the league's top goalies. Isn't this one of the things they look for - was a goalie seen as a top goalie in the league, not just someone very good for a long period of time?

One other thing to consider - the Tampa Bay Lightning decided that it preferred to keep the Lecavalier -Richards - St. Louis combination and cut costs by replacing Khabibulin with Grahame. Tampa Bay lost quite a bit of ground there after they did that.
 
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MXD

MXD

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Oct 27, 2005
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Actually, he's really similar to Kolzig as far as resume is concerned, and why I've seen tells me that Kolzig was probably better.

And Kolzig is just NOT getting in - inducing Andy Moog would probably look good if that would happen.
 

stanleyorbust

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Nov 29, 2009
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One Olympic Gold, One Olympic Bronze, World Junior Gold, Stanley Cup, First Russian Goaltender to Win a cup... 41 shutouts, over 300 wins.. definitely a VERY GOOD goaltender.. but unfortunately probably not quite good enough to get into the hall of fame. Same reason someone like Cujo probably isnt good enough either. Not enough hardware, and not enough accomplishments
 
Big Phil

Big Phil

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JohnnyD said:
Frank Brimsek: Born 9/26/15 in Eveleth, MN. Inducted into the HHOF in 1966

Not sure if there are any others.
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No there aren't any other US goalies in yet. Barrasso, Richter and Beezer are the only ones that make some noise. Out of that trio only Barrasso deserves to be at least on the fence IMO. And I'm pretty sure Tim Thomas and Dipietro will never grace the Hall either. Miller? A long ways to go.
 

Habs4Vie

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Jan 2, 2010
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Definitely not. Cujo just retired, and some people don't think HHOF and Cujo should be used in the same sentence. With the stats that Cujo had, Khabi definitely doesn't deserve to be in the Hall. Sure, he's a great goalie, but you need to be more than great to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame,
 
ekcut

ekcut

The Refs shot JFK.
Jul 25, 2007
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Big Phil said:
No there aren't any other US goalies in yet. Barrasso, Richter and Beezer are the only ones that make some noise. Out of that trio only Barrasso deserves to be at least on the fence IMO. And I'm pretty sure Tim Thomas and Dipietro will never grace the Hall either. Miller? A long ways to go.
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Funny that Ritcher and Beezer are probably hurting each others chances. Both lost prime playing time while splitting duties with each other.

Barasso wont make it, simply because he was such a big A-hole.
 
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