Hockey Outsider
Registered User
- Jan 16, 2005
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The Hall has too many stats compilers that just hung on forever to reach certain milestones that served as criteria at the time. There are 13 retired players who scored 500 or more Goals in 1200 or fewer games and 12 of them are in the Hall of Fame. The ONLY one who isn't??? Peter Bondra
Bondra looks HOF-worthy if you look at goal-scoring in isolation, but there are a number of weaknesses in his resume:
- Despite his great goal-scoring numbers, his (comparatively) poor playmaking meant he was never a top ten scorer in his entire career. He only placed in the top 20 twice (T-11th in 1998 and T-18th in 2001). Two times as a top 20 scorer isn't good enough for an all-offense forward. Nor did he play long enough to get big career totals - he finished with under 900 points.
- During his ten year prime (1993 to 2002), he was 5th in the NHL in goals, but only 27th in scoring overall, behind a bunch of non-HOF players like Turgeon, Fleury, Roenick, Mogilny, Tkachuk, Damphousse, Weight, Amonte and LeClair. Some of those players may eventually make the Hall, but getting outscored by Damphousse (who was a much better two-way player), Weight and Amonte hurts.
- He was never considered the best player at his position. He never placed in the top three in the year-end all-star voting. He finished 4th or 5th a few times, but I don't think that screams HOF. He also never got much consideration for the Hart (he finished 6th once year and never again got any serious consideration).
- Bondra wasn't a great defensive player. Yes, he was used on the penalty kill a fair bit as a threat to score shorthanded goals, but this isn't a case where the player brings more value to the team than his offensive stats suggest.
- His playoff resume is disappointing. 56 points in 80 games is poor for a player of his calibre. His team only made it out of the first round twice in his career and he missed games and was way down on the scoring chart both times (1994 and 1998).