Eden Hall's biggest advantage is the strength of our first line
I'm going to spend a lot of time comparing first lines - as I think that's where the biggest difference between the teams lies- and it's very much in Eden Hall's favor. Both teams have good, but not great lines 2-4 with various strengths and weaknesses.
First lines
Eden Hall has an explosive first line - one of the fastest in the entire draft. McGimsie "was one of the fastest forwards of the day, as well as one of the finest passers," Drozdetsky was described as "explosive," and Mickoski, the two-way worker "skated like the wind." (All quotes are sourced in their profiles).
Both Drozdetsky and McGimsie can score goals and pass the puck at an extremely high level for the MLD, and Mickoski , "the most diligent worker" of the late 50s Blackhawks was a big man who could win battles and serve as the defensive conscience of the line, while still possessing the wheels to keep up with his smaller, highly skilled linemates.
First line centers
Billy McGimsie is a superstar at the MLD level. His stats show him to be almost as good at scoring goals as Tommy Phillips. who many contemporaries considered the best hockey player ever prior to World War I. There are no reliable assist records for the Manitoba League when McGimsie played, but he appears to have had a reputation as the primary playmaker on the Phillips - McGimsie - Hooper line. So if McGimsie is almost as good as Phillips at scoring goals and more well-known as a playmaker, then why is Tommy Phillips universally regarded as the better player? The main reason is that Phillips was an elite player in all areas of the ice, while nobody really talks about McGimsie's two-way game. Plus, Phillips had a knack for coming up huge in Stanley Cup challenges; McGimsie was good in them... but not as good.
Still, McGimsie has to place among the elite offensive players at the MLD level.
Boldirev, on the other hand, is quite weak as first line centers go. As far as I am aware, Boldriev, like McGimsie, is an offense-only player, but his offense isn't nearly as the same level. He never finished Top 10 in any scoring category. He finished top 20 in points just once – 16th in 1978, a finish less impressive than it sounds, as it was only 65% of the second place scorer’s total. (Remember how watered down the late 70s were, with so much of the world’s talent either in Europe or the WHA).
I don’t see the point of trying to figure out McGimsie’s percentages when assists weren’t even recorded and the eras were so different, so I’ll compare Boldirev’s vs. 2 numbers (removing the Orr or Esposito when either one comes up as #2) with those of Scott Gomez and Alexei Zhamnov. I’m using those two since I think they are both above average but not spectacular second liners… and Dreakmur already did the work of figuring out their percentages.
Boldirev points % = 66, 65, 60, 59, 55, 53, 52, 50, 49,
Gomez points % = 80, 74, 68, 66, 54, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53
Zhamnov points % = 93, 74, 64. 59, 57, 57, 56, 54, 51
Needless to say, Boldirev’s offense output is not impressive as MLD centers go.
First line center is a very large advantage for Eden Hall. McGimsie was one of the top overall offensive players of his era, while Boldirev’s numbers are very unimpressive compared to his peers.
The Scoring Wingers
Nikolai Drozdetsky vs. Jack MacDonald
It’s hard to compare an early ear guy like MacDonald with a Soviet player like Drozdetsky. Still, I think Drozdetsky’s greatness is better established.
I don’t find sub top-10 finishes in the pre-1926 split leagues to be meaningful at all, so I’ll list MacDonald’s top 10 finishes from Judge’s profile.
Goals: 4th, 7th (NHA/NHL); 6th (PCHA)
Assists: 4th, 4th, 8th, 9th, 10th (doesn’t say what league, but I assume these are all split leagues.
Hard to place him without known the points finishes or percentages (feel free to do the hard work, Judge), but I’d say MacDonald looks like one of the top playmaking wings in the draft, but merely adequate as a goal scorer, considering the strength of his leagues (all pre-consolidation). Unfortunately, the guys he would be passing to are unimpressive scorers themselves.
Drozdetsky finished 3rd, 3rd, 10th in overall scoring in a very strong Soviet league before Tikhonov buried him and was named Soviet Player of the Year in one of those seasons (over the members of the Green Unit).
He scored an outstanding 64 goals in 109 games for the National team (0.58 GPG), despite never playing on the top unit. For comparison, Makarov scored 189 in 315 (0.60), Krutov scored 150 in 255 (0.59), Kapustin scored 120 in 208 (0.57), and Balderis scored 74 in 147 (0.50).
Drozdetsky is definitely the better goal scorer, and MacDonald is probably the better playmaker (but who is he passing to?) Impossible to know for sure who the better overall player is, but I think Drozdetsky’s greatness has been better established compared to players who are known quantities (the other Soviet greats of the early 80s).
The “glue guy” wingers
Nick Mickoski vs. Michael Renberg – both these guys play the same role on their respective lines – the big body who serves as the puck winner and defensive conscience of the line. Mickoski is definitely a faster skater, which is good because it means he can keep up with his linemates. How do them compare offensively?
Mickoski points %: 58, 53, 52, 49, 49, 42, 39 (seventieslord)
Renberg points %: 81, 68, 58, 42
Renberg has several seasons in the 30-39% range, but I omitted them, as literally 100s of players had such seasons post-expansion. Even in Renberg’s poor seasons, he continued to get power play time, and I’m pretty sure Mickoski rarely got PP time even in his good seasons. Such will happen when 30 teams each have 2 PP units vs. 6 teams each with 1 unit in the 1950s.
With that in mind, I really don’t think Renberg’s second best season is any better than Mickoski’s best season, especially when you consider:
1) Percentages tend to actually make post-expansion players look better than they actually are versus pre-expansion players.
2) Mickoski got his numbers generally playing on the checking line and likely with very little PP time, while Renberg played a few seasons as the third wheel of one of the best lines of the modern era and received PP time his entire career. In fact, during Renberg's one and only outstanding season, his linemate (Lindros) tied for the league lead in points.
Both men brought similar things to the table away from the puck, though Mickoski did it for longer. Renberg has the better peak offensive season, but Mickoski has several more seasons as a productive player. I prefer my glue guys to be consistent, so my personal preference is for Mickoski who was a hard working two-way player during long NHL career. Though I don't think the difference is all that big either way.
Fun fact: A testament to Mickoski’s consistency is that as of the 1967 expansion, he ranked 84th all-time in NHL scoring. I believe that Gus Bodnar (65th) is the only player ahead of Mickoski on this list to fall to the MLD.
Overall: The biggest difference between these two teams is the substantial advantage Eden Hall has on the first line, particularly the large difference in the quality of our first line centers. I expect Eden Hall's first line to score quite a bit more often than Thunder Bay's first line in this series.
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