Some slight errors in this post, I think:
- he played dirty, like really dirty.
Yeah, he played dirty, but not
that dirty! You're making him sound like Matt Cooke combined with Bryan Marchment. I would say he was a lot cleaner than players like Gordie Howe or Chris Chelios. There were a lot of elbows and 'wild-man' kind of posturing in his early years, but this was toned down, as it is with most players, after about 1984.
- his time in Vancouver. Ruffled a lot of feathers demanding a number that had unofficially been retired by the team.
Again, exaggeration. You make it sound like the team said, "Mess, that number is unofficially retired", and Messier said, "Give it to me anyway!" In reality, that didn't happen. It was always part of Messier's contract, whoever he signed with, that he'd want to keep his number 11. He happened to sign with Vancouver. The Canucks didn't tell him about the Maki think, and he probably didn't know until he got to Van and the press started asking him. He did later contact the Maki family, who clarified that they didn't mind him wearing it at all, but that they wished they'd been asked first (which wasn't his job to do).
The team sucked the three seasons he was there...
You forgot they sucked the year before he got there, missing the playoffs. In the Van media at the time, there was talk of a divided locker-room. All before Messier.
...and made the playoffs the season after he left.
You overlooked the team's enormous improvement in Messier's third year, when they almost finished .500 and Mess was voted by the Vancouver fans as team MVP.
If you came of age in hockey anytime from the mid-90s onward Messier received a lot of press and attention, but did nothing to deserve it.
He was 2nd in Hart voting in 1996. Matched Gretzky in scoring in 1997. Was 2nd in scoring on the Canucks his first two seasons, and 1st in PPG his third (aged 39). 2nd on the Rangers at age 43. Of course, he was never himself after 1997, and maybe he did stick around too long, but it's not like he was a passenger on any of those teams. I don't see extending your career by being a 2nd-line guy as a reason to dislike a player.
- He's synonymous with 'leadership' - Like the above, from the mid 90s on-wards, with 2 franchises he was the captain who didn't even make the playoffs but was still lauded as the best example of leadership in hockey. Post lockout the NHL creates the 'Messier Leadership Award' which doesn't seem to mean anything, but is named after someone who current fans can't remember ever showing leadership or winning so he's become 'overrated' for those who don't want to dig back through older footage.
Again, like the Maki thing, this has nothing to do with Messier. It's not like Messier made the Leadership Award and named it after himself!
Messier, just like Gordie Howe, had a tremendous love for the game, great respect for all his opponents... and was a mean SOB at times.
The one fanbase who might have a legit reason to dislike Messier would be Calgary's... yet, I've never heard Calgary fans talking him down. They know a winner when they see it.