Pavel Bure 2 important wins away from guranteed HHOF?

[Big Phil]

Hardyvan123 with two great posts, and Big Phil and his nearly 10K posts are nowhere to be found. Convenient.

I guess a person can't leave their home for a day or two or actually not visit this site for a day?

The biggest problem with Mike Gartner was his complete lack of dominance at any time in his career.

His best goal scoring season of 50 was only the 115th best goal scoring season during the time he played 80-98.

His best points season of 102 was the 43rd best.

These are his best seasons.

Sorry to say but his longevity and playing at a good level in the highest scoring times in the NHL should put him in the hall of the very good not the HHOF IMO.

If he had ever been considered a top 10 player in the NHL even for a short stretch then I can see the argument but was he ever even in the top 20?

1984-'85 would be a year I'd call him a top 10 player, or at least borderline.

This isn't Gartner's specialty. He wasn't a guy who dominated seasons but someone who flew under the radar for so long. As it stands, you didn't win the Cup if he was your best player but another post you made tells a good story. In the years he played 12 players topped 500 goals. Gartner hit 200 more. Yes there are 500 goal scorers that were better players than him but like I said his HHOF enshrinement is more about statistical thresholds rather than elite play. He was always very good and even if people don't like that the truth is he is a rare specimen with his consistency and his numbers. There just wasn't much of a dip in his career at any time, not even at the end.

In my opinion he is an exception to the rule of "he was never elite". The reason being is that I believe there would be legions of people pushing for his induction if he weren't in already. How do you leave a 700 goal scorer out? Not to mention there hasn't been anyone else to really match his consistency in the NHL. If it were that easy everyone would rack up 30+ goal seasons in their late 30s.