Most Overrated Player by The Hockey Media?

[quoipourquoi]

Jarome Iginla being a three-time Hart nominee seemed excessive.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

i just said he was a late starter to become a good player so he's going to have to stick around for a while

Became a point per game player at the age of 23. Tough scene for Kucherov.

 

[Hattrickkane88]

Became a point per game player at the age of 23. Tough scene for Kucherov.

yeah it's really rough, the statistics show forwards scoring ability peaks hard at around 22-26 and while great players can produce much longer then that the players who weren't able to produce until they reached their peak like kucherov often hit quite a wall as their peak ends.

 

[Morbo]

Rick Nash

 

[GMR]

Thats... interesting, can you expand on that theory?

It’s no theory. I just happen to have Apps, Conacher, and Broda easily ahead of him. After that, I’d also put Kennedy and Horton ahead of him. Some will argue for Sundin and Sittler as well.

The highest I can see Keon is 4th on that list. I’m not sure when the hockey media began advocating Keon as the best player in franchise history, but I always cringe when I hear that.

 

[Cyclones21]

Rick Nash

As a NYR fan, was going to mention him as well.

 

[seventieslord]

Niedermayer, Toews, Nieuwendyk, Yzerman, Ovechkin, Brodeur, Marleau, MAF, Osgood, Nash, Carter

 

[djboos22]

MAF easily.

Media and some fans love to talk about him like a future HOF'er and act like he was as important to the Pens as Crosby or Malkin. When really he was a passenger.

Only 1 of the 3 Cups were with him as the starter.

2016, he started 1 game in the playoffs while Murray was lights out.

2017, was a split load (15 for MAF, 11 for Murray). But it was Murray who played the 2nd half of the conference finals and the entire Cup finals.

He's never been a consistently elite/top 10 goalie in his career.

Sv% top 10: 5, 6, 10
GAA top 10: 3, 8, 9
Vezina: 4, 5, 7, 8
Never an AS-1 or AS-2 (best finish is AS-4)

People point to the wins, but a trash can would've racked up wins on those Penguins teams.

He's in the same mold as Joseph and Osgood. The exception being Joseph and Osgood have better individual stats and finishes than MAF

Came on here to say this. He is absolutely not a hall of famer, but after that one season in Vegas the media is painting him as a jr Roy.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Mark Messier.

Could do no wrong in his heyday.

I wouldn't say he was overrated, because he was damn good. But he was given a very favorable treatment. I just wouldn't call it "overrating". More like they loved him too much, so like you said he could do no wrong. But Messier deserved his place in the pecking order, which mean just below Wayne and Mario.

 

[sr edler]

When he broke up with Madonna it was Madonna's fault. Because he could do no wrong.

Until he came to Vancouver.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Whoever the best D-man is that's available around the deadline. If you hear the pundits talk then, you get the impression that some middle of the road top 4 guys are morphing into borderline HOF guys in their minds.

 

[scott clam]

I wouldn't say he was overrated, because he was damn good. But he was given a very favorable treatment. I just wouldn't call it "overrating". More like they loved him too much, so like you said he could do no wrong. But Messier deserved his place in the pecking order, which mean just below Wayne and Mario.

I agree. His was more a case of favoritism than being overrated. If that makes sense.

Like you can argue he didn't deserve the Conn Smythe in '84 over Gretzky, as a case of him being overrated, but it's actually a pretty small case when you consider that Gretzky was sweeping all the other awards at the time.

 

[The Panther]

Jarome Iginla being a three-time Hart nominee seemed excessive.

What's this based on? His Hart nominations (2,2,3) seem exactly right to me.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

I think with players like Toews and Matthews they get talked about so much as "overrated" that it kind of comes around to the other side.

This is the drum I often beat for both of these players however, I accept their mentions in "overrated by the media" threads. If anyone mentions them in overrated as hfboards I flip shit for this exact reason. Even with that in mind Matthews is slightly overrated at worst and there are much more overrated Leaf players...basically all of them.

 

[The Panther]

Mark Messier.

Could do no wrong in his heyday.

The flaw with saying that Messier was "overrated . . . by the hockey media" is that he won the Pearson, as voted by NHL players, in 1990 and in 1992.

Also, "could do no wrong" is not accurate. Messier was frequently noted by hockey media for taking bad penalties. Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal used to say that every season Messier led the NHL in rookie penalties. I was watching a game from 1986-87 a few years ago and the color-commentator noted that Messier was a great player but often had a lack of consistency. And does anyone else remember Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live mocking Messier (as 'Opera Man') in 1992?

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

The flaw with saying that Messier was "overrated . . . by the hockey media" is that he won the Pearson, as voted by NHL players, in 1990 and in 1992.

Also, "could do no wrong" is not accurate. Messier was frequently noted by hockey media for taking bad penalties. Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal used to say that every season Messier led the NHL in rookie penalties. I was watching a game from 1986-87 a few years ago and the color-commentator noted that Messier was a great player but often had a lack of consistency. And does anyone else remember Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live mocking Messier (as 'Opera Man') in 1992?

Being on the East coast in the 1980s, pre-Internet, I didn't get to read much from the Edmonton Journal. Speaking mostly about national media, the Hockey News and the New York media. The only one I recall being critical of Messier was Bill Clement.

So being on separate coasts could account for different perception. Or, it could be because I really disliked Messier.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Whoever the best D-man is that's available around the deadline. If you hear the pundits talk then, you get the impression that some middle of the road top 4 guys are morphing into borderline HOF guys in their minds.

It was like that for Shattenkirk.

 

[MadArcand]

Niedermayer, Crosby, Getzlaf

 

[quoipourquoi]

What's this based on? His Hart nominations (2,2,3) seem exactly right to me.

2001-02 is totally justified. No complaints there. 2007-08, I wouldn’t take him over Nicklas Lidstrom or Pascal Leclaire, but that’s fine.

2003-04 just seems like a mis-read of how much more Calgary was dependent upon his own teammate who finished 4th in Hart voting. Iginla was 16th in scoring - tied with Steve Sullivan - in what was already a down year for a lot of players. Team went 7-9-2 during Kiprusoff’s injury with Iginla going scoreless in 10 of those games.

10 GWGs is an impressive number, no doubt, but this was a year where 7 players had between 9-10, so it wasn’t a standout feat. Mats Sundin, for example, had 10 GWGs, outscored Iginla overall, and had a 22-point lead over Bryan McCabe which was comparable to Jarome Iginla’s 26-point lead over Craig Conroy (who missed 19 games).

It was certainly a year of Martin St. Louis and everybody else (how many years do we have our #2 and #3 Pearson finalists who aren’t even among the #2-5 Hart runner-ups), but with Brodeur, Kiprusoff, Luongo, Naslund, Sakic on the table - and even a few non-factors in voting like Mats Sundin or Robert Lang or Ilya Kovalchuk - I don’t know how the media spun the wheel and landed on Jarome Iginla. Or why THN would look at that year and rank him #1 in the 2005 yearbook - just above Forsberg, Brodeur, Pronger, Sakic, Thornton, Niedermayer, and St. Louis.

 

[NyQuil]

Saku Koivu generated a lot of attention for a centre who had two seasons over 70 points and hit 20 goals only three times.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I like Toews as a player but to have him on the top 100 list just doesn't work for me.

 

[NyQuil]

I like Toews as a player but to have him on the top 100 list just doesn't work for me.

It's sad that the stupid list will be his legacy around here.

He's an extremely good player with a tremendous career.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

It's sad that the stupid list will be his legacy around here.

He's an extremely good player with a tremendous career.

Yeah anyone who watched him play in the playoffs and on that Team Canada team loaded with superstars can see that he was a really good two way player. The whole intangibles thing just has become a meme.

 

[NyQuil]

Yeah anyone who watched him play in the playoffs and on that Team Canada team loaded with superstars can see that he was a really good two way player. The whole intangibles thing just has become a meme.

What's interesting about Toews is that he had a pretty solid and consistent career in the limelight.

He had sort of that Scott Niedermayer effect of winning a lot of different tournaments which results in a bit of mania on the part of the media ("he's a winner everywhere he goes!") which in turn leads to a backlash by the hardcore fans.

 

[NyQuil]

Jarome Iginla being a three-time Hart nominee seemed excessive.

What's funny about Jarome Iginla is that I always got that Dany Heatley vibe from him.

People would call them "power forwards" and while they had big frames, they weren't exactly hitting everything in sight and were more snipers IMO.