Should HoH do a year by year most outstanding player?

[bobholly39]

My vote would be to start the "season" on August 1st. A tournament that was already started prior to August 1st should be counted as part of the prior season, anything that starts after August 1st would be counted as part of the following season.

I think we have to include playoffs and tournaments in this. It will be a struggle to put proper weight on those games in light of the ingrained bias toward teams that make a deep playoff run, but it would be a disservice not to try.

I think discussing how to weight playoffs vs regular season should be a huge part of any preliminary discussion.

Because - it's cool to say that it's my right to give regular season 75% weight, and it's your right to give playoffs 75% weight - but at the end of the day if we do that, any list we come up with is representative of....nothing, really, as we're each ranking different things.

Doesn't mean we have to all agree on an exact consensus, but I think some type of guidance would be important. Because if not - many consider Patrick Roy's 1993 smythe one of the best ever right? Well, the guy who favors playoffs votes him #1. Many consider Lemieux's 1993 season one of the best ever - so the guy who considers regular season votes him first. Than - there's some analytical guy somewhere who wants to do exactly 50/50 playoffs and regular season who'll argue for Gilmour.

 

[Theokritos]

I remember suggesting something like this years ago, so obviously I like the idea.

My vote would be to start the "season" on August 1st.

Which summer tournaments do we have in mind? The Summit Series and the Canada/World Cup, I assume? Because I can't think of any others.

I don't believe a hard cut-off date is required. Sure, August 1st would work for most seasons, but it would have the curious effect of making the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs part of the subsequent 2020-21 season. Let's just say the off-season is the cutoff.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I don't believe a hard cut-off date is required. Sure, August 1st would work for most seasons, but it would have the curious effect of making the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs part of the subsequent 2020-21 season.

OK, so make it August 2nd. Problem solved

 

[bobholly39]

I remember suggesting something like this years ago, so obviously I like the idea.



Which summer tournaments do we have in mind? The Summit Series and the Canada/World Cup, I assume? Because I can't think of any others.

I don't believe a hard cut-off date is required. Sure, August 1st would work for most seasons, but it would have the curious effect of making the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs part of the subsequent 2020-21 season. Let's just say the off-season is the cutoff.

I would propose actually taking the time ahead of this project/ranking to specifically agree on date ranges for each individual year. Most years you can probably do something as easily as a standard date of August 1st - but then for 2020, it obviously makes more sense to have an exception and lump last year's playoffs with last year's season.

So - it's really just an exercise of pointing out specific years where there's bound to be an exception we should be aware of due to a tourney or such, and agreeing to it ahead of time what year it falls into.

I like this idea too.

 

[The Panther]

I think discussing how to weight playoffs vs regular season should be a huge part of any preliminary discussion.

Because - it's cool to say that it's my right to give regular season 75% weight, and it's your right to give playoffs 75% weight - but at the end of the day if we do that, any list we come up with is representative of....nothing, really, as we're each ranking different things.

Doesn't mean we have to all agree on an exact consensus, but I think some type of guidance would be important. Because if not - many consider Patrick Roy's 1993 smythe one of the best ever right? Well, the guy who favors playoffs votes him #1. Many consider Lemieux's 1993 season one of the best ever - so the guy who considers regular season votes him first. Than - there's some analytical guy somewhere who wants to do exactly 50/50 playoffs and regular season who'll argue for Gilmour.

Yes, you are correct, I think.

I tend to avoid talking about seasons or player-seasons that include playoffs, because the problem is a lot of people get overly caught up in playoffs as if they were the be-all and end-all. In the first place, the best player in the world could be on a non-playoff team, so that discriminates against him right there. Then, the playoffs is -- at most -- 7 or 8 weeks after a 25-26 week season of 82 games.

 

[jigglysquishy]

My preference is for regular season as playoffs muddy the waters. I do love the idea of including non NHLers. Outside pre 1926 and the Soviet in the 70s and 80s I don't think any non NHLers end up top 3 though.

Can Kharlamov, Makarov, or Fetisov snag a best season somewhere in there?

 

[Professor What]

My preference is for regular season as playoffs muddy the waters. I do love the idea of including non NHLers. Outside pre 1926 and the Soviet in the 70s and 80s I don't think any non NHLers end up top 3 though.

Can Kharlamov, Makarov, or Fetisov snag a best season somewhere in there?

I see one potential issue with making it regular season only. The Soviets put more importance on the world championships than the domestic season, which makes it pretty hard to ignore that for Eastern Bloc players, even more so when considering how the deck was stacked for CSKA Moscow. Wouldn't it be inconsistent to then ignore the playoffs in North America?