Teemu Selanne vs. Luc Robitaille

[vadim sharifijanov]

Teemu easily, luc is one of the slowest skaters i've seen on film, not sure how he puts up those point totals.

because he was one of the smartest goal scorers i've ever seen. he had a very accurate, but not particularly blistering, shot; wasn't bigger and stronger than anyone; skated like i do; but he had great timing, knew how to get into scoring areas, knew where rebounds were going to go, and while he wasn't a physical player by any stretch of the imagination, he was tough enough to take the abuse he had to take to score 650 goals in the NHL, most of them from high traffic areas.

selanne was the better player. the only thing robitaille has over him is consistency in their respective primes, and that was probably mostly because he was more durable.

but i want to point out that the one time in his prime robitaille was the man on his team, he was fantastic. he set the single-season record for goals by a LW (since broken), as well as points (ovie hasn't taken that one yet). teamed with post-prime kurri, he took on a much bigger defensive and leadership role, and led the kings to the playoffs with gretzky out for most of the year. selanne would eclipse robitaille's '92-'93 season in the late 90s, but i don't think selanne as a rookie was nearly as complete a player as robitaille was that year.

pre-gretzky, robitaille was never the clear-cut main guy on his team, as nicholls and carson were very good. as luc hit his prime, gretzky got there and robitaille wasn't asked to do as much as he might have if it were his team. in his second LA stint, he was no longer able to carry a team into the playoffs if he was its best forward, but i think he could have done more in his prime under different circumstances. still probably not as much as selanne did at his peak, though.

 

[Hardyvan123]

It's really not close. Their results look "close" because Robitaille spent his prime in the highest scoring era in league history, while Selanne played all but a few years in the dead puck era.





LW vs. RW is relevant in an all-time draft, but not relevant to determining the better player IMO. RWs have historically scored more than LWs because they have been better players on average. (One reason given is that most elite playmaking centers are LH shots, so historically the best sniper on the team was put on the right side of the line).

I totally agree, using adjusted stats Luc has only one season of over 50 goals and one 100 point season where Selanne has 2 60 goal seasons and 4 over 50 and 4-100 point seasons as well. To put it simply Luc was a high level compiler at a weak position but IMO he is in the 2nd tier of all time great LW's.

 

[tony d]

Teemu Selanne