Is Shea Weber a Hall of Famer?

Statto

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May 9, 2014
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He’s in. He’s been near the top for a sustained period and could easily have a Norris or two and had he done so nobody would have complained. If those seasons where he was close to a Norris were outliers they wouldn’t carry much weight but they are supported by consisted, high quality seasons year on year. Based on the players that made it, he qualifies and depending on who is in his class it may be first ballot.
 
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Goomba

Mario is a Devils fan
May 7, 2021
730
491
9 x top 10 in Norris voting
5 x top 5 in Norris voting
Messier Award
4 x top 25 in Hart voting
225 goals (currently 15th all time and will likely be top 10 by the time he retires)

He was in long ago. Anything else is gravy. He's a first ballot. There's no debate here.
First ballot?

I doubt that
 

SheldonJPlankton

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Oct 30, 2006
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Sundin made it first ballot...despite having a much weaker overall resume and being a lesser talent on the ice in comparison to Weber.

Just saying...
 
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Sanchise90

Registered User
Sep 6, 2019
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Absolutely he is a Hall of Famer, what's the argument against him?

He has 3 top 3 Norris finishes, 2 other top 5s and countless top 10s. He's also made the 1st All Star Team 2x and the Second Team 2x. That is an elite resume, no matter how you stack it up.

I know this is a bit apples to oranges, but it's crazy to me people are parading around MAF for the HOF with 1 top 3 Vezina finish and (I'm assuming) one All Star team finish, but Weber is a borderline to people.

Like what, is it the Cup that matters? Is it Weber's fault he was drafted by Nashville, who was a relatively new small-market franchise at the time? Is it Weber's fault he didn't happen to play with any HOF forwards in his entire career? People do realize Cups are team accolades right?...
 
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ClydeLee

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Mar 23, 2012
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People do realize Cups are team accolades right?...
You understand most voters being a lot of old school hockey minds that vote on the hof don't think that way right? That's what I see most people pointing out about Fleury. That he fits the bill as someone who will get in for the "character" "winning" and "reputation" which to those types is a great reputation.

But the Weber indiction is going to happen too. You are 2nd in voting by like 14? Pts and to some people online they act like that means nothing it's all or nothing you've won or not. That's not the evaluation that will happen on him at all
 

shello

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Mar 5, 2011
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I don't see how he's not a Hall of Famer. People often have the HHOF on some pedal stool without actually seeing the names in there. I'm not intentionally taking anything away from Weber by saying this, but there's a lot worse players than Weber in there.
 

Soundgarden

#164303
Jul 22, 2008
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kevin hatcher is not in the hhof at 1150 games, 677 points, being a 5 time allstar and being american. derian hatcher won a cup as the team captain of dallas and he's not in either.

so being big and durable with a big shot alone will not get you in. weber might get there is he plays a lot more games and/or wins a cup. not sure of the exact formula.

What a stupid comparison, Weber is closer to having 2 Norris wins than Hatcher is to having one.

Norris finishes:

Hatcher: 3, 7

Weber: 2(LOST BY 9 VOTES) ,2(LOST BY 12 VOTES),3(Best year),4,4,6,7,8,10

He had 9 top 10 finishes, he's going in easily.

Again, anybody saying that he's not in because he never won a Norris doesn't realize how close he is to having 2 Norris wins.
 

Weztex

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Feb 6, 2006
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What a stupid comparison, Weber is closer to having 2 Norris wins than Hatcher is to having one.

Norris finishes:

Hatcher: 3, 7

Weber: 2(LOST BY 9 VOTES) ,2(LOST BY 12 VOTES),3(Best year),4,4,6,7,8,10

He had 9 top 10 finishes, he's going in easily.

Again, anybody saying that he's not in because he never won a Norris doesn't realize how close he is to having 2 Norris wins.

Crazy thing is he didn't even lost by that much.

In 2011, if he gets ONE more first place vote he wins the Norris.
In 2012 he actually got 3 more votes than Karlsson but EK had more first place votes. If one voter switch a 1st and a 4th between them, Weber wins the Norris.

Both times a single ballot would have been enough to change the outcome. He was that close.
 
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Legionnaire

Help On The Way
Jul 10, 2002
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The Norris is an unfortunate trophy because it doesn’t really help two-way defenseman. You could argue it wafts between a defenseman version of the art ross and a defenseman version of the hart or selke trophy.

Chara and Doughty are the only defenseman that spring to mind as having been given the norris without scoring a ton of points in recent memory. Otherwise, in the last decade, you have Karlsson, Burns and a host of dmen who scored a ton of points. It doesn’t give you much more information than that.

Langway was the last truly defensive D man to win it

Of course Weber is. How many D men would you take over him since 03?
 

krutovsdonut

eeyore
Sep 25, 2016
16,772
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What a stupid comparison, Weber is closer to having 2 Norris wins than Hatcher is to having one.

Norris finishes:

Hatcher: 3, 7

Weber: 2(LOST BY 9 VOTES) ,2(LOST BY 12 VOTES),3(Best year),4,4,6,7,8,10

He had 9 top 10 finishes, he's going in easily.

Again, anybody saying that he's not in because he never won a Norris doesn't realize how close he is to having 2 Norris wins.

anytime your best point of distinction in comparing two players is the number of runner up votes your guy got for an award, there is a pretty good chance you are overstating your argument.
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
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I actually felt like he was a little overrated. He has a fantastic shot and he's really steady in his own end. But he's never been a big transition guy. So he has some limitations.

But the Norris voting speaks for itself. What I think doesn't matter. He has the resume. There's not a player in the league that can have that kind of Norris voting and not get in. The only debate that might be had is whether or not he gets in first ballot. And that's only because he hasn't had playoff success... yet.

I also think he lost one or two norris trophies by the smallest margins in history.

Not that it probably weighs into the decision, but I think it says something for him to garner that kind of exposure in a market that was still in its relative infancy in a time where expansion team building had to be focused on longer term.
 

Huokaus

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Oct 29, 2010
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I do think he probably makes it in the end but I think he somewhat fell off the surefire HHOF lock trajectory he was on. At some point he was a lock to win a Norris or a few but it just never happened - someone always happened to have a better peak season. Bringing up some worse-than-top5/top10 finishes in any award voting is pretty useless in my opinion though. It just needs a couple of stupid/homer votes for a player to place relatively high.
 

Soundgarden

#164303
Jul 22, 2008
17,386
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Spring Hill, TN
anytime your best point of distinction in comparing two players is the number of runner up votes your guy got for an award, there is a pretty good chance you are overstating your argument.

Fine, let's ignore his five top 5 Norris finishes and nine top 10 finishes for a minute and look at this another way. Who do you think of when you think of defensemen in Hatcher's prime?

Is Kevin Hatcher in the first 5 names you think of? top ten? With Bourque, Leetch, Stevens, Chelios, MacInnis, Pronger and Lidstrom playing in their primes at the same time as him I don't think there's you can say there's a case to be made for Kevin Hatcher over Weber.

When you think of defenseman between '08-15 you may think Lidstrom, Chara, Keith, Weber, Doughty and Karlsson. Weber doesn't look out of place on that list compared to someone like Hatcher.

Weber has been a top 25 player in the entire league and top 5 at his position for 5-10 years. He's going to get into the hall.

I do think he probably makes it in the end but I think he somewhat fell off the surefire HHOF lock trajectory he was on. At some point he was a lock to win a Norris or a few but it just never happened - someone always happened to have a better peak season. Bringing up some worse-than-top5/top10 finishes in any award voting is pretty useless in my opinion though. It just needs a couple of stupid/homer votes for a player to place relatively high.

I somewhat agree with you, but mostly on the point that the Norris is voted on by hockey writers which could lead to homer votes, but at the same time do you really think Weber benefited in his prime years, playing on a Predator squad before Nashville was the "it city"? As opposed to, say an established defenseman that played on an original 6 team?
 

Huokaus

Registered User
Oct 29, 2010
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I somewhat agree with you, but mostly on the point that the Norris is voted on by hockey writers which could lead to homer votes, but at the same time do you really think Weber benefited in his prime years, playing on a Predator squad before Nashville was the "it city"? As opposed to, say an established defenseman that played on an original 6 team?
At least he was a good ol' Canadian boy who was playing hockey "the right way" and had some national team appearances to boost his profile
 

ScaredStreit

Registered User
May 5, 2006
11,082
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Tampa, FL
I think Weber makes it in but I don't think he should. I'm a smaller room kind of guy. The fewer names in it, the more prestigious it is. With that said he wouldn't be my hill to die on in terms of players allowed in.
 

zizbuka

Registered User
Apr 4, 2017
1,075
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9 x top 10 in Norris voting
5 x top 5 in Norris voting
Messier Award
4 x top 25 in Hart voting
225 goals (currently 15th all time and will likely be top 10 by the time he retires)

He was in long ago. Anything else is gravy. He's a first ballot. There's no debate here.

I'll debate, I don't think he deserves to go. In the running for a major award isn't really that impressive. And it's an award without a clear criteria, where playing defense doesn't seem to matter so much. He's been good, but he's not close to great.
 

krutovsdonut

eeyore
Sep 25, 2016
16,772
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Fine, let's ignore his five top 5 Norris finishes and nine top 10 finishes for a minute and look at this another way. Who do you think of when you think of defensemen in Hatcher's prime?

Is Kevin Hatcher in the first 5 names you think of? top ten? With Bourque, Leetch, Stevens, Chelios, MacInnis, Pronger and Lidstrom playing in their primes at the same time as him I don't think there's you can say there's a case to be made for Kevin Hatcher over Weber.

When you think of defenseman between '08-15 you may think Lidstrom, Chara, Keith, Weber, Doughty and Karlsson. Weber doesn't look out of place on that list compared to someone like Hatcher.

Weber has been a top 25 player in the entire league and top 5 at his position for 5-10 years. He's going to get into the hall.

i think you made my point for me that the norris voting comparison is not impressive. there is no comparison between hatcher's contemporaries and weber's. weber would have the same or worse norris roting record as hatcher if weber had played at the same era as bourque, leetch, stevens, chelios, macinnis, pronger and prime lidstrom, and you forgot four more hhof members in niedermeyer, blake, coffey and murphy. that is eleven hall of famers. your comparative list for holding back weber is five guys plus 39 year old lidstrom.

hell, 39 year old lidstrom outpointed weber in 08/09 which was arguably weber's best season. he was also at 39 a way better dman than weber.

the truth is that weber is an understated solid player just a tier below your classic all rounder 1d who needs to pad his resume a little to get into the conversation. i like weber and i think he has been let down a bit by being on only good to middling teams his whole career, but he never broke through to being a true top dman and he needs to win a cup or at least be a major factor in dragging his team to an scf to get into the hall.
 

BruinDust

Registered User
Aug 2, 2005
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I don't see much difference between Shea Weber's career and that of Rob Blake. Blake is in the Hall.
 

HarrySPlinkett

Not a film critic
Feb 4, 2010
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Weber and Fleury are both first ballot hall of fame players.

Small point on Fleury - his GAA is virtually identical to Roy’s, he has more shutouts (by one, but he’s still playing), his save % is better than Brodeur, he has three rings, three trips to the Finals as a starter, and he’s 3rd all time in wins with a good look at catching Patrick for second place.

In what universe would that not be a Hall of Fame career?
 
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