Name a winger who was a vastly better playmaker than goal scorer

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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Inspired by the career so far of Mitch Marner. Traditionally a right winger and he's played that in his brief NHL career but he is a pass-first winger. I mean pass-first in the mold of an Adam Oates or Doug Weight type. I am not saying he is the playmaker Oates was, I just mean in the discrepancy of goals to assists they are comparable. Marner is always looking (and finding) the open man. Did so in his junior days, piled up a ton of assists and yet has the skill to score if need be.

Yet he is not a center. We expect this from Oates and other lesser ones like Weight or Janney and even other HHOFers like Francis who put up far more assists. But they were centers. What wingers did this?

I am not talking about someone like Lafleur or Jagr who were supreme passers in their own right because they both put up huge goal totals too. Both cracked 60 goals in a season. I am talking about wingers that routinely had far more assists year after year and were generally considered to be better passers than scorers.

I am going to throw a couple names to get the ball rolling. Martin St. Louis, Daniel Sedin and Patrick Kane in modern terms. All of them I would consider better passers and definitely pass-first wingers, yet none of them even did it to the extent of Marner. I just have never seen it quite like this and perhaps I am missing someone all-time who is comparable.
 

The Macho King

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TBF MSL had like 7 30+ goal seasons (including a 40 goal campaign), but yeah he was primarily a playmaker. Kucherov is trending in that direction too.

Alfredsson comes to mind.
 

Big Phil

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TBF MSL had like 7 30+ goal seasons (including a 40 goal campaign), but yeah he was primarily a playmaker. Kucherov is trending in that direction too.

Alfredsson comes to mind.

Alfie had a season where he finished 8th in assists and then three seasons where he finished 9th in goals. I think he's pretty even. Harder to find than you think huh? No one in the Marner category that I can think of.

Rantanen obviously

We'll see. His rookie season he had more goals than assists. If he keeps his current trend then yes.

Daniel Sedin does not fit this thread for me...

Me neither, but he's the best I can think of right now. Obviously his brother was the big playmaker on that line.
 

koyvoo

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Wheeler is a good current nominee here. Maybe Voracek too.

I agree that D Sedin doesn’t fit this description.
 

Big Phil

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Yeah, Daniel Sedin was pretty much the designated goal scorer on his line at its peak. That's a weird one.

Finished 3rd in assists twice, 4th in goals once. He doesn't have the discrepancy that Marner has of course. But there aren't a lot of better choices when it comes to wingers. I never thought of him as a "goal scorer" per se either. Especially for having Henrik as his center.
 

koyvoo

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It he wasn’t a “vastly better” playmaker than goal scorer though. Even if he wasn’t a pure sniper.
 
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GMR

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Ray Whitney maybe. Don't remember him scoring too many goals versus assists. Or are we only looking at players who couldn't score worth a lick? There wouldn't be too many like that.
 
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The Panther

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Jagr almost fits this criterion. I know he scored a lot of goals but he had "only" three 50+ goal seasons, and every season of his career he had more assists than goals (in '98 and '99 he won the scoring title with about twice as many assists as goals).

Contemporary one might be Johnny Gaudreau.
 

streitz

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89340vernonrusscourtnall.jpg


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streitz

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It's not like he was a super play maker or anything. Just the first decent player I could think of who had good assist totals and generally sucked at scoring goals.



Fast though.
 

86Habs

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Russ Courtnall had hands of stone and the worst scoring touch of any "star" player I can remember. But he was an extremely fast north-south skater.
 
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The Macho King

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What about Bathgate? 2:1 assist to goal ratio. Only 3 30 goal seasons. Tied for the Ross with only 28 goals.
 
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VanIslander

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Alex Tanguay.

I thought him a wise playmaker as a young Avs winger. He scored 17g, 34a as a rookie and as a sophomore he had 27g, 50a and in the Stanley Cup championship-winning postseason 6g, 15a as a key passer. He often made things happen. He wasn't just a passenger on the Colorado top-6.

Later in his career he got the opportunity to use his playmaking skills at center, as one would expect a coach to do with such a good passer.
 

VanIslander

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Some great passing wingers score goals so well that we overlook their ability to dish off.

Jagr considered himself a playmaker.

Lafleur was so talented at playmaking that goalies couldn't just focus on his quality shots; the Habs put him at center as a youngster and he struggled until a couple of years later he was shifted back to wing and his great 6-year peak suddenly emerged.

Howe is described in history books as equally skilled at passing as shooting, and indeed had more top-5 assist finishes (18) than goals (14).
 
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VanIslander

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Andy Bathgate may be the greatest playmaking winger to have lost potential fame (and even greater success) from playing for a lowly Rangers team in the 1950's and early '60s, where he earned these rankings (all prior to his Toronto dynasty days):

GOALS 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 6th

ASSISTS 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th
 

TheDevilMadeMe

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Recchi and Tanguay are both good answers.

Bathgate isn't actually as skewed as he looks at first glance. He played the point on the powerplay, where he really racked up assists. At even strength, he was more balanced.
 

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