Teams who would have done better if all Players were in their prime

IggyFan12

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
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6
My question is what teams would have done alot better if their roster was in their prime and/or not injured. I have come up with 3 examples below(Not in Order) can anyone think of more?

1)2003-2004 Leafs:

This roster was loaded with future Hall of Famers but too bad most of them were way over the hill in 04. If you look at some of their forwards they are stacked with some great players:

Sundin, Moginly,Nieuwendyk, Nolan, Roberts, and Francis. Thats 2 lines of great forwards.

On Defence they also have a couple of All-star players in:

Leetch, Kaberle and McCabe.

Add in a HHOF goalie in Belfour and you get one impressive roster.

2) 2003-2004 Colorado Avalanche:

This is one impressive roster but injuries and poor goaltending hurt this team. Players like Sakic, Forsberg, Tanguay, Hejduk, Kariya and Selanne up front with Blake, Foote and Liles on the point and Salo in net. I know Aebischer started but Salo in his prime was alot better than Aebischer. All though as a Flames fan I'm sure glad this team didn't live up to its promise or else the 04 Flames run wouldnt have included a Western Conference Championship.

3) 1979-1980 Hartford Whalers:

Any team with Howe and Hull on a line in their prime would be unstopable.

Any more???
 

begbeee

Registered User
Oct 16, 2009
4,158
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Slovakia
St. Louis Blues 1996

Gretzky, Hull, MacInnis, Pronger, Hawerchuk, Esa Tikkanen, Geoff Courtnall, Shayne Corson...
..and...
...Charlie Huddy :laugh:
 

Blades of Glory

Troll Captain
Feb 12, 2006
18,401
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California

Yeah, seriously. It's not even a debate. A prime Chelios and a prime Lidstrom on the same defense? Seriously? With a prime Hasek behind them? A prime Fedorov-Yzerman-Larionov-Datsyuk down the middle? Brett Hull in his prime? Brendan Shanahan and Luc Robitaille too? Christ. That team won the Stanley Cup with all of those players well past their primes (other than Datsyuk and Lidstrom). If they had all those players in their prime, they would have broken every single-season and playoff record by a team.
 

Blades of Glory

Troll Captain
Feb 12, 2006
18,401
6
California
You can pick just about any Detroit team that did not win the Cup between 2003 and 2006. In 03-04, they had Datsyuk, Hull, Yzerman, Shanahan, Lidstrom, Chelios, Schneider, Zetterberg, Whitney, Hatcher, Thomas, Hasek, and Joseph.
 

IggyFan12

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
317
6
Yeah, seriously. It's not even a debate. A prime Chelios and a prime Lidstrom on the same defense? Seriously? With a prime Hasek behind them? A prime Fedorov-Yzerman-Larionov-Datsyuk down the middle? Brett Hull in his prime? Brendan Shanahan and Luc Robitaille too? Christ. That team won the Stanley Cup with all of those players well past their primes (other than Datsyuk and Lidstrom). If they had all those players in their prime, they would have broken every single-season and playoff record by a team.

Thats better than both all-star teams this year!!
 

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
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12,663
I would say that any team in hockey history would be better if all of their players were in their primes. Anyway, cleally the Red Wings and Rangers teams from recent years would all be ridiculous if they had all of their players in their primes. The early 90s Penguins would have looked ridiculous with Trottier and Jagr in their primes. Even great teams like the 1973 Canadiens would be much better, since you would basically have the later dynasty Canadiens in their primes plus Frank Mahovlich and Cournoyer in their primes as well. The 1956 Canadiens would be even more ridiculous if they had prime Bouchard as well.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
31,703
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I thought of the 2004 Leafs right off the bat as well. Maybe because I thought the exact same thing in 2004........"man, if these guys were all in their primes"

Got to agree with the 2002 Red Wings though. That is a team that has as many HHOFers (or unanimous future HHOFers) as it is and is only equalled by the 1973 Canadiens. But can you imagine a 155 point Yzerman? A Hart winning Fedorov? Norris winning Chelios and Lidstrom? 60 goal man Robitaille? Hart and Vezina winning Hasek? Hart winning Hull? 1984 Igor Larionov and a 2010 version of Datsyuk. Oh did I forget a 50 goal man in Shanahan? That team is frightening. Three different players won a Hart trophy in their career.

Have to mention another team. The 1991 Pens. Granted a LOT of those guys were in their prime as it is. But add a 1999 version of Jagr, a 1985 version of Coffey and a 1982 (or so) version of Trottier. Not to mention Mullen in his prime. (shudder)

Someone mentioned the 1980 Whalers. They failed to mention that in between Hull and Howe would be a prime Dave Keon. And a prime Mark Howe. This team would lack depth and goaltending but just try and stop that 1st line!

The 1993 Sabres fare well too. A prime Lafontaine and Mogilny as well as Andreychuk and Hawerchuk. Nice goalie tandem with Fuhr and Hasek. Weak defense though, even a prime Mike Ramsey shouldn't be your best guy. Don't pick a fight with Mogilny though because Rob Ray, Brad May and - while I hate him - Matthew Barnaby are there.

Another team I'll mention is the 1967 Leafs. Had a lot of stars in their primes, but imagine Kelly and Horton as prime defensemen. Sawchuk and Bower at their peak in net.
 

Padan

Registered User
Aug 16, 2006
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2) 2003-2004 Colorado Avalanche:

This is one impressive roster but injuries and poor goaltending hurt this team. Players like Sakic, Forsberg, Tanguay, Hejduk, Kariya and Selanne up front with Blake, Foote and Liles on the point and Salo in net. I know Aebischer started but Salo in his prime was alot better than Aebischer. All though as a Flames fan I'm sure glad this team didn't live up to its promise or else the 04 Flames run wouldnt have included a Western Conference Championship.

Aebischer was actually Avs MVP that year. He put up .924 in the regular season and continued that in the playoffs. Too bad Forsberg was stuck in the arms of Scott Hannan vs. Sharks, Tanguay disappeared as usual come playoff time, Selanne shouldn't have played at all and Kariya sat out for the entire playoffs...
 

IggyFan12

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
317
6
Never knew that Aebischer had that good of a year.

Another team would be the 05-06 Pens. Imagine a team with prime Mario, Crosby, Rechhi, Gonchar, Leclair, Palffy, Fleury, Whitney, and Orprik.
 

unknown33

Registered User
Dec 8, 2009
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Got to agree with the 2002 Red Wings though. That is a team that has as many HHOFers (or unanimous future HHOFers) as it is and is only equalled by the 1973 Canadiens. But can you imagine a 155 point Yzerman? A Hart winning Fedorov? Norris winning Chelios and Lidstrom? 60 goal man Robitaille? Hart and Vezina winning Hasek? Hart winning Hull? 1984 Igor Larionov and a 2010 version of Datsyuk. Oh did I forget a 50 goal man in Shanahan? That team is frightening. Three different players won a Hart trophy in their career.

You could technically add Zetterberg as he was drafted in 1997 ....
 

reckoning

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Jan 4, 2005
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There's several examples you could use. One would be the 89-90 L.A. Kings. Up front you'd have Gretzky, Nicholls, Robitaille, Sandstrom, and Krushelnyski, plus Dave Taylor, John Tonelli and Steve Kasper all on the downward slide of their careers. But the kicker would be the defence: what a combo Larry Robinson and Barry Beck would've made in their younger days. Plus you'd have Rob Blake and Steve Duchesne.
 

blogofmike

Registered User
Dec 16, 2010
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1991 Penguins won the Cup, with Lemieux, Stevens, Recchi, Murphy, Francis and Barrasso all at or near the top of their game, but Paul Coffey and Brian Trottier were a little too old and Jagr was very young.

Also the 91-95 Kings and 94-97 Rangers had a ton of teams that would have been very close to the dynasty Oilers.

Quebec with Lafleur + Sakic.

The Marcel Dionne + Lafleur 89 NYR team probably wouldn't have been great, but would have been better. Like any team would.

Almost any team with Eric Lindros, Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, or Brett Hull.
 

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
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There's several examples you could use. One would be the 89-90 L.A. Kings. Up front you'd have Gretzky, Nicholls, Robitaille, Sandstrom, and Krushelnyski, plus Dave Taylor, John Tonelli and Steve Kasper all on the downward slide of their careers. But the kicker would be the defence: what a combo Larry Robinson and Barry Beck would've made in their younger days. Plus you'd have Rob Blake and Steve Duchesne.

nicholls was traded for sandstrom and granato, so you'd have to choose between nicholls and sandstrom. but yeah, what a team. you'd also have chris kontos, who was awesome in his two week prime.

the '91-'92 king were great too though:

up front you have gretzky, kurri, robitaille, all hall of famers. plus taylor and sandstrom were both 40 goal scorers. but the defense was magnificent-- robinson, coffey, blake, with huddy and mcsorley, who were both underrated and fantastic playoff performers. and darryl sydor, as if the team needed any more playoff experience and help on the PP. goaltending would still be terrible though.
 

arrbez

bad chi
Jun 2, 2004
13,352
261
Toronto
1991 Penguins won the Cup, with Lemieux, Stevens, Recchi, Murphy, Francis and Barrasso all at or near the top of their game, but Paul Coffey and Brian Trottier were a little too old and Jagr was very young.

Yeah, that team had 8 guys who had scored over 110 points in season at one point in their careers.

Mario Lemieux - 199
Jaromir Jagr - 149
Paul Coffey - 138
Bryan Trottier - 134
Kevin Stevens - 123
Mark Recchi - 123
Ron Francis - 119
Joe Mullen - 110

They had Larry Murphy too.

That roster had a combined THIRTY-FIVE 100 point seasons.
 

Eisen

Registered User
Sep 30, 2009
16,737
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Duesseldorf
I know this kind of defeats the purpose why you asked, but pretty much every team would do better if all their players would be in their primes.^^
 

John Flyers Fan

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
22,416
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Visit site
Three Flyers teams come to mind:

1983-84

Clarke
Sittler
Barber
MacLiesh
Kerr
Propp
Poulin
Holmgren
Sinisalo
Sutter brothers

Howe
Crossman
Marsh
McCrimmon

Lindbergh

96-97

Lindros
LeClair
Brind'amour
Renberg
Hawerchuk
Prospal
Otto
Zubrus

Desjardins
Coffey
Svoboda

Hextall

05-06

Gagne
Forsberg
Knuble
Primeau
Handzus
Carter
Richards
Umberger
Nedved
Eager
Patrick Sharp
Sami Kapanen
Brian Savage
Brashear

Desjardins
Hatcher
Rathje
Pitkanen
Kim Johnson
Seidenberg
 

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