believe me, i admire those canucks a lot. but i understood "star" to be higher than gradin/smyl/boldirev. it's worth noting that between those three players, they only played in two all-star games. and that was in the era where every team gets one guy in the game, leading of course to the immortal john garrett's legendary performance in 1983 (when he almost won the car full of snacks).
i think if you lead the canucks, or the dead cat bounce blackhawks, with 60-85 points, at a time when the guys leading the flames, jets, and kings are scoring 100-135 points, you're just a very good player, not a star.
whereas, john vanbiesbrouck was a legit star. former vezina winner, two-time post-season all-star, former MVP candidate.
marc-andre fleury played in three all-star games, made the canada olympic team, started on a stanley cup winner.
the canucks had a lot of guys i admire. as you say, in addition to steamer and gradin, harry snepsts, king richard, curt fraser, but i wouldn't call any of them stars. at least not anymore than i would call henrik karlsson a star.
there were two legit stars on that canucks teams, and neither was tiger williams, who was a star in a different way obviously. one was ivan hlinka, but he was past his prime. the other was anders eldebrink, who wasn't in his prime yet.