Most/ Least Satisfying Careers

[psycat]

Lidström got a pretty satisfying career, golden goal, numerous Norris+Cups, Smythe, universially respected with few controversies(other than which placement amongst the all time greats I suppose)
Of course Gretzky is the obvious answer.

I agree with Tretiak not making it over the pond being a huge letdown. On a, very much so, smaller scale and from Swedish perspective I suspect that if Söderberg wen't over earlier instead of being such a momas boy he would have had a very good shot at making it as a solid first liner. Lecavalier?

 

[GMR]

Lidström got a pretty satisfying career, golden goal, numerous Norris+Cups, Smythe, universially respected with few controversies(other than which placement amongst the all time greats I suppose)
Of course Gretzky is the obvious answer.

I agree with Tretiak not making it over the pond being a huge letdown. On a, very much so, smaller scale and from Swedish perspective I suspect that if Söderberg wen't over earlier instead of being such a momas boy he would have had a very good shot at making it as a solid first liner. Lecavalier?

I never thought of Gretzky as a candidate for this thread. Yes, he's the best player ever and has records nobody will break. However, I'm sure he has plenty of regrets about not staying in Edmonton and winning more Cups, not having more team success with the Kings, Blues, Rangers, 1998 Olympics, etc. The 1990's had to be hard on him after having so much team success in the 1980's.

And I'm not going to start on his coaching tenure in Arizona.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

given Rob Scuderi's near-comical inability to produce offense in the NHL I'd assume he's pretty satisfied with two Stanley Cup rings to his name

 

[NHL WAR]

Lidström got a pretty satisfying career, golden goal, numerous Norris+Cups, Smythe, universially respected with few controversies(other than which placement amongst the all time greats I suppose)
Of course Gretzky is the obvious answer.

I agree with Tretiak not making it over the pond being a huge letdown. On a, very much so, smaller scale and from Swedish perspective I suspect that if Söderberg wen't over earlier instead of being such a momas boy he would have had a very good shot at making it as a solid first liner. Lecavalier?

Yeah, Lidstrom has to be near the top of the list. Played his whole career with one team, too, which is important, to me atleast, for this kind of thing. Bugs me when a guy like Brodeur has 20 seasons with one team and then ends their career on a whimper with another. Mike Modano is another example.

 

[psycat]

Yeah, Lidstrom has to be near the top of the list. Played his whole career with one team, too, which is important, to me atleast, for this kind of thing. Bugs me when a guy like Brodeur has 20 seasons with one team and then ends their career on a whimper with another. Mike Modano is another example.

Agreed, adding to that by the critera mentioned career relative to expectations he gotta rank incredbily high.

 

[95Tal]

How about Dr. Randy Gregg for a slightly different take on most satisfying? Five Stanley Cups even though he was leaning toward his second career the whole time of being a doctor. Retired from the Oilers twice but came back and kept winning championships.

I wish Cam Neely would have had a better end to his career than five final seasons of such limited time due to injuries.

 

[Ceremony]

exactly my first thought too.

for players in the post-expansion era i'd nominate joe sakic. just checks off every box: two cups, captain of a powerhouse that made the third round six out of seven straight years, conn smythe, hart trophy, 600 goals and top 30 all time, 1,000 assists and top 15 all time, 1,600 points and top 10 all time, top 10 all time in playoff goals and points, storied junior career including a CHL player of the year, WJC gold, world cup gold, world cup gold, olympic gold.

the one single blemish is the end of his career, when he got his million dollar left hand mangled in a snowblower. he was nearing the end anyway, but i would have loved to see him stick around for two more seasons after that one and walk away with another olympic gold in the vancouver games, where he 100% would have been captain if he could still play. could he have done it? he scored 100 points in 2007. 40 points in an injury-plagued 44 games in 2008, plus 10 points in 10 games in the playoffs. 12 points in 15 games in 2009 before the snowblower. he was 39.

Sakic was already injured when he stuck his hand in his snowblower, a back injury. He was starting to get Old Man injuries, so I doubt he would have wanted to stick around for another year just to be a bit-part player at a home Olympics.

 

[Jyssy]

Tony Hand for least satisfying. Not saying he would have been a Hart contender or anything but apparently he was really good and many people said he could have played in the NHL. Decided to spent his whole career on the British Isles.

 

[Sticks and Pucks]

Lidström got a pretty satisfying career, golden goal, numerous Norris+Cups, Smythe, universially respected with few controversies(other than which placement amongst the all time greats I suppose)

Lidstrom also played his entire career relatively injury free so his career seems more complete as well.

 

[The Panther]

Yeah, Lidstrom has to be near the top of the list. Played his whole career with one team, too, which is important, to me atleast, for this kind of thing. Bugs me when a guy like Brodeur has 20 seasons with one team and then ends their career on a whimper with another. Mike Modano is another example.

Lidstrom is also the rare player of the recent/modern era who had a long, productive career for one team and the team was always good. Of course, we see this more in the Classic-6 era (I refuse to call it "original" 6), largely with Montreal Canadiens' players -- Beliveau and Henri Richard being prime examples (though their later careers went into expansion, but before expansion teams won Cups). But after the mid-1970s or so, it's extremely rare, largely because of free agency and also no teams being great for long, long periods of time. Yzerman had crappy teams his first three years, a team retrogression circa 1989 to 1991, and then years of playoff disappointments. Sakic came in on arguably the worst team of all time, for a longer stretch. Mario entered and then exited with his career team at the bottom of the League.

By contrast, here's how the Wings did in the regular season during Lidstrom's career:
.613
.613
.595
.729
.799
.573
.628
.567
.659
.677
.707
.671
.665
.756
.689
.701
.683
.622
.634
.622
(And the next-to-lowest of these -- the .573 season -- was a Stanley Cup win!)

I mean, we will never see this again for a player with such a long career. I'm not sure we have ever seen this, for any player...ever? Maybe Beliveau or H. Richard...

 

[streitz]

Most

Gretzky
Howe
Messier
Francis
Bourque
Lidstrom
Yzerman
Sakic
ect

Least
All the injury prone guys

Orr
Lemieux
Lindros
Neely
ect

Also all the good players who played on crap teams and never won
Dionne
Hawerchuk
ect

 

[The Pale King]

Ziggy Palffy and Tomas Sandstrom were both HOF talents who struggled mightily with injuries. If Palffy scores an extra 10 goals across three years, he's a three time 50 goal scorer. 45+ three times, and he's probably remembered a bit differently if he hits that threshold once or twice, especially at the height of the DPE.

Both excellent players who accomplished a lot, but guys who you just wish could have strung a stretch of healthy play together while on competitive teams. Sandstrom has that great playoff run in '93, but he missed more than half of the regular season that year.

 

[solidmotion]

Lidstrom is also the rare player of the recent/modern era who had a long, productive career for one team and the team was always good. Of course, we see this more in the Classic-6 era (I refuse to call it "original" 6), largely with Montreal Canadiens' players -- Beliveau and Henri Richard being prime examples (though their later careers went into expansion, but before expansion teams won Cups). But after the mid-1970s or so, it's extremely rare, largely because of free agency and also no teams being great for long, long periods of time. Yzerman had crappy teams his first three years, a team retrogression circa 1989 to 1991, and then years of playoff disappointments. Sakic came in on arguably the worst team of all time, for a longer stretch. Mario entered and then exited with his career team at the bottom of the League.

By contrast, here's how the Wings did in the regular season during Lidstrom's career:
.613
.613
.595
.729
.799
.573
.628
.567
.659
.677
.707
.671
.665
.756
.689
.701
.683
.622
.634
.622
(And the next-to-lowest of these -- the .573 season -- was a Stanley Cup win!)

I mean, we will never see this again for a player with such a long career. I'm not sure we have ever seen this, for any player...ever? Maybe Beliveau or H. Richard...

the penguins have not been under .598 during evgeni malkin's tenure.

(.354 in 05-06 rules out crosby)

washington dipped to .549 in 13-14 and missed the playoffs but other than that have been over .561 and in the playoffs every year of backstrom's career.

 

[a79krgm]

If we are talking about injury hampered careers, then 1st overall pick, Gord Kluzak must be mentioned as having the least satisfying career.

I would list Ken Morrow as having one of the most satisfying career since he took part in one of the biggest wins in sports history and then capped that off with four straight Stanleys.

 

[The Panther]

the penguins have not been under .598 during evgeni malkin's tenure.

(.354 in 05-06 rules out crosby)

washington dipped to .549 in 13-14 and missed the playoffs but other than that have been over .561 and in the playoffs every year of backstrom's career.

Good call on Malkin; his teams have done extremely well. Still, I think he's working on his 12th such season (?), whereas Lidstrom had 20. Not to mention Malkin's had a lot of partial seasons, either due to injury or NHL lockout.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I would list Ken Morrow as having one of the most satisfying career since he took part in one of the biggest wins in sports history and then capped that off with four straight Stanleys.

morrow in 1980-'81 is definitely on my short list for most satisfying short stretches, but yeah i guess you could extend his satisfaction to cover all four years up to '83.

the other great short spell that comes to mind: sakic wins the hart trophy and leads his team to the best record in the league, then caps off the season by captaining probably the most memorable cup win of the last twenty years, handing the cup directly to ray bourque and in game seven drawing three defenders in the slot (including scott stevens) to give tanguay room for his beautiful wraparound wrister, then personally picking up an assist on the cup winner by streaking in alone and wristing one that martin brodeur couldn't handle to set up a yawning cage for a wide open tanguay (because stevens is totally out of position chasing sakic to cover for colin white's pinch), then putting it away with a goal of his own in the third (yep, brutalizing stevens by making him bite on the fake then wristing it through his legs top corner).



then eight months later is the best player in the olympics and wins canada its first best on best tournament in more than a decade scoring the tournament winning goal and just absolutely dominating with a two goal, four point night, finishing it off with a breakaway goal in the third for good measure.



the two biggest hockey games of the 21st century, game seven of the stanley cup finals with ray bourque's cup on deck and the gold medal game on US soil to end a 50 year gold medal drought, and joe sakic is on the ice for seven of eight goals, and gets a point on six of them, including both game winners.

but then of course you also have 1987-'88 gretzky, of course: retro rocket, ross, hart, cup, canada cup, cup, conn smythe, wedding, sold for $15 million.

 

[frisco]

Larry Robinson. Six Cups. Two Norris trophies. Two best on best Canada Cup wins. A Smythe. Plus in every season in his career and career leader in +/-. Won a Cup as a coach. No real blemishes, controversies, etc., on his resume and overall well respected as a human being.

Richard Martin. 11th all-time in goals per game. Set rookie record with 44. Career effectively ended at 29 with a knee injury which was misdiagnosed and never treated properly. Never won a Cup. Almost a sure HOFer without the injury. Made the 1972 Summit team as a rookie and was a member of the 1976 Canada Cup team. 382 goals in 681 games and just missed the highest scoring era of the early 80's because of the injury.

My Best-Carey