Billy, with no one here to defend this team, you're really going to town, so I have to address some things.
[Offensively, who is better? It's a tough call. Green was 3x top 16 in goals
Whoa there cowboy, let's not get carried away.
Green was 10th in goals when the NHL was one of three top leagues. Then 7th and 16th when there were two top leagues. Converted to post-merger figures, one could conclude that is like being 30th, 14th, and 32nd. There are other ways to determine how impressive those finishes are, but using a rough dirty method, that's what they look like.
In 1926, when he was 16th, there were only 40 forwards who played 28+ games. 16th out of 40 eligible forwards is nothing worth mentioning, other than his goals percentage was about 38%, or similar to having a 25-goal season in the 1980s.
In terms of offense, it's tough to call. I'd say Ftorek is the better goalscorer. In terms of playmaking, Ftorek's got 3x top 5 in assists in the WHA, Himes has top 10s in the NHL in the early days....
...Advantage probably goes to Himes here. In terms of overall offensive ability, I'm not sure. Ftorek has some great quotes about his stickhandling ability and great hands. Himes was 7th in points once, Ftorek was top 7 in points in the WHA 4 times, winning the MVP award once as well. Himes has a 6th in Hart, but Ftorek was a 1st team all star and 2nd team all star in the WHA twice each. Overall, give me Robbie Ftorek
what do you mean, "early days"? This was post-merger and Himes was a top-20 scorer four times while carrying the offensive load for his team like few others in history have. He once had 50 points, no one else on his team topped 29. Even when he was 30th in scoring in an 8-team league he led his team. Offensively, I don't think these two are even close.
It's not an exact science, but based on what a number of players did when going to the NHL from the WHA, or vice versa, it seems the appropriate rate at which to convert the two currencies is about 0.65. Based on Ftorek's NHL performance, this appears to mostly hold true for him. It's fair to say that his WHA achievents at age 24-27 were all worth about 71-76 points, or about 55-65% in percentage scores.
That brings us to what I think is the biggest mismatch in the comparison of these 2 lines. Bob McDougall and Wayne Babych. Babych has the advantage in physicality and two-way play. We don't really know of any intangibles that McDougall brings. What he does bring is a lot of scoring ability, finishing 1st, 3rd, 3rd, and 7th(1st in goals/game) in goalscoring during his career. Babych had one great season, finishing 6th in goals but his next best is 44th and it gets worse from there. Despite having more intangibles, it's nowhere close to being enough to make up for a large, large gap offensively between the two. Bob McDougall is the more effective player here, no doubt.
Well, you are right that McDougall is way better, BUT don't forget the fact that a line still has to "work". Babych is somewhat of a power forward, he's a big, burly guy who will go to the dirty areas and create space for this line. His offensive resume is very weak aside from one season, but he does have a role here.
Sands' 3 best goalscoring finishes were 8, 10, and 20. Davidson's were 2nd, 5th, 6th. Double Davidson's(I'm being generous to you here) finishes for league size, 4th, 10th, 12th. Offensively in terms of goalscoring, I think they're pretty much a wash. Add on Sands' added two-way ability compared to the pretty much non-existent Davidson intangibles, I'd say an advantage goes to Philadelphia here because of similar offense, but better intangibles from Sands.
Why not compare them in total points instead of just goals, which Sands seemed to specialize in? (his points finishes are 19, 27, 36, 38) You could triple Davidson's scoring finishes if you like, and he'd still have an enormous offensive edge on Sands. The kind of edge that is generally not surmountable by being a "pretty good checker".
I'm sure you'll be quick to point out that Red Green wasn't the best member of his line. That's true. Burch was the best player on that line, but I'd say Red was definitely 2nd best, ahead of Shorty.
Really, why?
1924 and 1925 are the only two seasons in which either seemed to do anything significant offensively at the NHL level. They both had 13 points in 1924, and Red outscored shorty 34-27 in 1925. I would conclude Red was better based on this, except the people who watched them play had other ideas. Shorty finished 9th in Hart voting with 28 points, Green was 14th with 8 points. Not sure what Shorty did better than him that year, but I'm sure it was something.
This is totally fair.
He had a half year of semi-decent scoring success at the NHL level. His best percentage score Vs3 (Gretzky and Dionne tied for first) if you extrapolate his numbers to a per game basis would have been 63%. Color me so impressed.
You're being a little harsh on him, but if what I said about the 0.65 "exchange rate" earlier is correct, then Ftorek's offensive resume is similar to having six seasons at a 55-75% rate. That's Reichel/Stumpel/Boldirev/Chouinard/Gomez territory. that's not great for a 1st line center, but it's not so bad that he can't do an "OK" job there, either.
