More underrated talent: Nicklas Backstrom or Jari Kurri?

[MadLuke]

'09/'10

That an interesting one, Backstrom over peak Ovechkin on the same team.

Alex Ovechkin that year had a ridiculous 70.4% GF at even strength:
Player Season Totals - Natural Stat Trick

+51, on the ice that year by 60 minutes

Ovechkin
GF: 4.4
GA: 1.85

Backstrom
GF: 4.28
GA: 2.42

Virtually same deployment zone start wise, similar opposition (80%+ of Ovechkin time was with Backstrom on the ice with him) :
Nicklas Backstrom - Opposition - Individual - Natural Stat Trick
Alex Ovechkin - Opposition - Individual - Natural Stat Trick


That could be mostly due to Backstrom having to play without Ovechkin in the line up while the other way around didn't occur that year, but Ovechkin GF% when seperated from Ovechkin goes nearly to 80% while Backstrom when he played without Ovechkin when down to 50%.

Should seem a bit of a strong word.

 

[GreatSaveEssensa]

Nobody underrated Kurri in his heyday. The passage of time may have dulled memories, but I tend to think this is a fiction from those who weren't around to see him in the first place.

No one thought of the Oilers as a one-man team. No one expressed shock when they won the Cup 22 months after the Gretzky trade. Everyone knew how good Kurri was back then.

In the 80s, people thought of him as about on the same level with Messier, trailing only Gretzky, on one of the best teams of all time. He wasn't underrated. He was properly rated a giant.

Was no different then Jordan/Pippen for comparison sake in my mind.

 

[alphabetical]

However, a big difference is that Kurri had to go without Gretzky for two seasons (1988-89 and 1989-90) and he thrived, going top-10 in scoring, being a 2nd-team All Star, and then winning the Cup again in 1990 with 10 playoffs goals (incl. a Finals' hat-trick). Backstrom hasn't had that kind of situation yet... and it appears he never will, as Ovechkin's contract is pretty stable and Ovechkin is some kind of bionic superman who will never get injured.

so backstrom is more underrated because he hasn't played on a team without ovechkin?

 

[The Panther]

so backstrom is more underrated because he hasn't played on a team without ovechkin?

That's kind of what I'm implying, yes. If Backstrom retired tomorrow, people will largely remember him as "that good player who set up Ovechkin a lot."

 

[RorschachWJK]

Both are absolute scrubs, carried by others...











...am I doing this right, is that underrated enough?

 

[Confused Turnip]

I guess Sedin was kind of a weak winner and there's an opening to argue for someone else that year.

But Ovechkin scored 8 more points (and 17 more goals) in 10 fewer games, I'm not sure Backstrom was doing anything else so remarkable that he could be called the better player in that duo.

And that doesn't even get into the argument of whether the Hart should go to a player who's highly dependent on another, which applies to both Ovechkin/Backstrom and Sedin/Sedin.

If anything suspensions, Russian factor and voter fatigue cost Ovechkin the Hart that he fairly clearly deserved that year.

 

[Dondini]

Off topic but no one ever mentions Marcel Dionne lol.

 

[DeysArena]

Kurri was better than Backstrom, but Backstrom is more underrated because Kurri played for a better team.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

I didn't fully appreciate Jari Kurri when he played with Gretzky. That changed when he led the Oilers in scoring the season after 99 was traded to LA by scoring 102 pts. He also won a cup a year later without Wayne scoring 25 points in that playoff run. Great player, had 99 not been traded, I don't think he would have fully gotten the recognition he deserved. Maybe even today some do not realize how great a 2 way player he was.

 

[Aurinko]

Jari Kurri.

70+ goal scorer with a CAREER 19.1% shot. How many player with more than 1k games has better shooting percentage? Easy to guess.


Gretzky might have fed him, but Gretzky also took so much of the attention that very few actually knowledge what kind of an ultra talent Kurri was.