Excellent player and hope he can keep this up for a few years now, but you don't get Hall of Fame inductions from Lady Byng votes or helping Chris Kreider get into the Rocket conversation. No disrespect towards Zibanejad, great career thus far and performing extremely well this season again. Just feels like a bit more is needed for a HoF case.
true. I feel like his slow start is a bit why he doesn't really get consideration for awards. I mean despite that historic 2019-20 season he didn't get a single hart vote, and this year he's barely talked about in the media.
I don't think he's a genuine HOF candidate as it stands now, as you said you don't get in from Byng votes, but what I'm trying to say is he could potentially get some consideration in the future. If he does two things:
1st: win some individual awards. I think with another explosive goal scoring season like he had a few seasons ago, he could realistically win both a rocket, and get some hart consideration. If he also keeps improving defensively, he could also be a Selke contender, however I'm not sure that he'd be able to overshadow players like Barkov or Couturier in that category. I do think the Rocket is the most realistic award for him, as he's already proven he can catch fire and outscore absolutely anyone in the NHL. He'll definitely have to win 1-2 awards to be a serious HOF contender.
2nd: he needs some actual playoff success with the Rangers. This is probably the easiest for him to accomplish, as the Rangers look poised to be a great team for a long time to come, and he's of course got that big contract with them. If he can a cup or two with them, and play a big part in their playoff success that'll be crucial for a HOF bid. I do know if the Rangers do win a cup, any one of him, Panarin, Fox, Shesterkin, or even Kreider could win the Conn Smythe, and it's a little hard to see him winning it over someone like Fox or Shesty. Looking at the Lightning, Kucherov had two unreal 30+ point playoff runs, and lost out twice to Hedman and Vasy, so it'd probably take him scoring a significant amount of goals to even get close to a Conn Smythe on that Rangers team, and this is all assuming they do win a Cup, which while it does seem pretty likely they will within the next few seasons, it's not guaranteed at all.
If he does both those things, and scores somewhere around 1000-1100 points, and ~450 goals, which is entirely possible, he'd be hard to ignore when he retires.
Lastly, I do have to say he's one of my favorite players, as I've been following him since he played with my hometown team of Djurgården back in 2010. I think everyone saw his potential back then, and while it took some time, I'm just glad to see him thriving, and I wish he got more recognition outside of the Rangers community.
Ok that's enough rambling LMAO
