So who *are* the NHL's generational players?

[authentic]

I challenge you to go watch a Flyers game from Lindros' peak Legion of Doom era and then come back to me and tell me he was not as good as Malkin or Ovechkin in their primes.

If we are looking at only prime vs prime, Ovechkin has an edge with his shot, but not by as much as you'd think. Malkin has a slight edge in terms of playmaking, but not by as much as you'd think. In every other category, Lindros massively dominates each of them. Speed, power, aggressiveness, face-offs, defense, fighting, hitting, etc. A true specimen of the perfect hockey player if there ever was one.

That said, both have had better careers than Lindros, which I 100% admit. Lindros was injury prone, reckless at times, and in an era where concussions were viewed as something you needed to "shake off".



I'd prefer to argue hockey than insult people. I'll leave it at that.

Dude you laughed at a post that simply said Lindros wasn't MUCH better than Peak Malkin and Ovechkin, and even in the same post I said he was very slightly better at best. I grew up watching Lindros, he was one of my favourite players and I have an autographed rookie card of his.

You just said Lindros massively dominates Ovechkin in speed, and now you're on your high horse saying you don't insult people. Get over yourself man, your opinions are laughable.

 

[gretzkyoilers]

OP has a lot of names listed of players nowhere near generational status, along with Matthews

Hell, by my understanding of the term, I’m not even fully sold on anyone past Lemieux.

Generational talents would not lose scoring races to players the caliber of Benn and Sedin, for example. They’d consistently lap the field.

THIS. Players like Orr, Gretzky and Lemieux were so far ahead of everyone it was silly. Unless there was a serious injury and significant games lost, no one was taking an award form these guys....

 

[edog37]

Cult of the Penguin strikes again. They really did a number on you bro.

nope, some guys just don't like to hear the truth.

 

[Sweetpotato]

I challenge you to go watch a Flyers game from Lindros' peak Legion of Doom era and then come back to me and tell me he was not as good as Malkin or Ovechkin in their primes.

If we are looking at only prime vs prime, Ovechkin has an edge with his shot, but not by as much as you'd think. Malkin has a slight edge in terms of playmaking, but not by as much as you'd think. In every other category, Lindros massively dominates each of them. Speed, power, aggressiveness, face-offs, defense, fighting, hitting, etc. A true specimen of the perfect hockey player if there ever was one.

That said, both have had better careers than Lindros, which I 100% admit. Lindros was injury prone, reckless at times, and in an era where concussions were viewed as something you needed to "shake off".



I'd prefer to argue hockey than insult people. I'll leave it at that.

While I agree with your over arching point that Lindros was significantly better than most give him credit for, I have to disagree with the bolded. OV was one of the fastest accelerating players in the history of the game in his prime and that's backed by actual raw clocked numbers(there's a graph somewhere showing the work done on this. OV, McDavid before he was in the NHL, Karlsson and Hall at the time were the fastest blue line to blue line rushers). Lindros while a great skater let alone for his size, was not near that.

 

[McVespa99]

Help me out because I don't know my hockey history that well.

Lost Generation (1885 - 1910)

• Georges Vezina

Greatest Generation (1911 - 1924)

• Maurice Richard

Silent Generation (1925 - 1945)

• Gordie Howe

Baby Boomers (1946 - 1962)

• Mike Bossy
• Ken Dryden
• Wayne Gretzky
• Bobby Orr
• Denis Potvin

Gen X (1963 - 1979)

• Dominik Hasek
• Jaromir Jagr
• Mario Lemieux
• Nik Lidstrom
• Eric Lindros

Millennials (1980 - 1996)

• Sidney Crosby
• Patrik Kane
• Evgeni Malkin
• Alex Ovechkin

Zoomers (1997 - 2012)

• Connor McDavid
• Auston Matthews
• Connor Bedard

Gen α (2013 - Present)

Gretzky, Orr, Lemieux, Crosby, Ovy, McDavid. Before that I have no idea

 

[Pyrophorus]

Matthews generational? Someone has been watching too much TSN

If OV is in why not him?

 

[jigglysquishy]

If OV is in why not him?

Ovechkin first 6 years
Hart finishes of 1,1,2,6
3 Pearsons, 1 more year as a finalist

Matthews
Hart finishes of 1,2,6
1 Pearson, 1 more year as a finalist

The gap is pretty clear. On top of this,
Point finishes of
Ovechkin: 1,2,2,3,7
Matthews: 5,6,9

 

[beowulf]

A 15 year old at 2.0 ppg in WHL
McDavid was at 1.0 ppg at same age

Really you know little of hockey. First what has he done in the NHL? Second he is not 15 but 17 soon to be 18 in July. Now at the same age, 17 turning 18 the year of his draft, McDavid played 47 games and had totals of 44-76-120 or over 2 points per game...so ya.

 

[beowulf]

This is quite the charged debate, mostly how long is a generation of player if we say that it is around 10 year's (i.e. how long a very high prime tend to be that a player challenge the best players in the league position) and we start with somewhat modern hockey in the 20's, that would give us 10-11 generational talent (once in a generation level of players)

By when they enter the nhl:

early 20's: Morenz
later 20,s: Shore
early 40's: Richard
Late 40's: Howe
late 50's: Hull
late 60's: Orr
early 70's: Lafleur
early 80s: Gretzky
mid 80's: Lemieux
early 90s: Jagr-Lindros-Hasek
mid 2000s: Crosby-Ovechkin
2010s: McDavid

That around 15 names with many discutable (creating a list of arguable name that would compete with them, Beliveau, Roy, Bourque, etc...), some did not pan out like Lindros or where not once in a generation prospect coming to their draft but developed into something special.

You can have talent so rare they happen once in a generation close to each other like Lemieux-Gretzky, specially during baby boom and drought, but in total you want it to average to one every 7-10-12-15-20 year's depending of what you define has a generation of nhler and would exclude the Mike Bossy, Dryden type of candidate.

Hasek was not generational and not even sure about Lindros.