I feel like a lot of these Nolan as the Forward spot selections are based on nostalgia. He was the best player on a team that for a stretch winning 1 playoff series was considered a successful season. Just making the playoffs was considered a success. He was the loud, emotional leader type that people gravitate towards, I get. But realistically, not only are Marleau and Thornton better players than Nolan was, they have accomplished more for the team than Nolan did too. Expectations are skewing perspective I feel.
Nolan would be on the top 4 anything list for sure, but to say he is the best/most important forward in franchise history is silly, imo.
You're one of those people that says Dan Marino isn't one of the greatest QBs in NFL history because he didn't win a super bowl, aren't you?
Winning is a team accomplishment. It's not Nolan's fault that he played on less talented overall teams than Marleau/Thornton have, or that his teams accomplished less in their time than some more modern ones did. While, yes, the point of team sports is to win the championship, it takes a team to do that, and it's not fair to hang the team's failures on him or downgrade his importance to the franchise because of it.
He was the team's career leading scorer for a long time. he was the first, longest-term "Franchise player" the team had. he is
the iconic Shark for anyone whose franchise world-view was shaped before the mid 2000s, which makes him the iconic Shark during the franchises' formative years. To deny the potential for him to be, for some, the most important player in franchise history to them seems silly just because he has fewer playoff wins than guys who came after him.