ChiTownPhilly
Not Too Soft
I'm warming up to this Round- a LOT. THIS is the one that I sort-of wish we had another week to discuss. [I understand that there's no appetite for this.] What I WOULD do if I had more time would be to do a "playing-year-by-playing-year" comparison of my half-dozen favorites from this Round. That would really get some meat on the bone of the inter-positional comparisons, I think. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking- and i don't think I'll have time for that. So (because our time is limited), let me just run through a few observations I made during my additional research.
1) Sergei Fedorov made his way into the NHL at playing age 21. It was his bad luck to have his worst "hockey-card-stats" campaign of his opening seven seasons in the final year of his contract. His team had just prevailed in the Stanley Cup- and (although I don't want to try to re-litigate the Smythe issue here), would there have been that much outcry if Fedorov made off with that trophy?! One other thing I looked up-- +/- for that span. Fedorov was league-wide #1. Now, of course, he played on (not so much a stacked team as much as it was) a really deep team... but that #1 position included cresting his teammates, as well. If not necessarily the best player in the world at the time, one could say he's at least in the conversation(?) So- negotiation positions harden, Detroit makes the qualifying tender, and dares Fedorov to go out and find an offer-sheet from a team willing to part with the five first round picks, all while publicly asserting that they'll match anything put out there. About 60 games of hockey lost, as a 28 year old- all sacrificed on the shrine of human stubbornness. [More on additional offerings to that shrine later.]
2) Boris Mikhailov has a career arc that looks like a better MPG version of Duncan Keith, strangely enough. 13 seasons with CSKA, 12 of which involved scoring more than a point a game. [The one time he missed, he barely missed.] Doubtless better as a finisher- but Soviet league scoring stats look like they're worthy of considerable skepticism on the matter of under-counting assists. Played with All-World teammates, to be sure- but integrated with everyone who lined up alongside him. That's got to count for a lot, right?!?
3) Brian Leetch- interesting among Defensemen in that he arrived in the NHL with some very well-formed fitness to purpose. It's a stretch to say that a Defenseman at this stage in our conversation can reliably go into 'take-over-game' mode... but if there's any Defenseman left here who could (at their Peak) do so, it's this one. Also not forgetting that he was Captain of Team USA's World Cup of Hockey victory in 1996. Mention was made upthread placing a query on Leetch's NHL captaincy- with the comment that perhaps he tried to do too much. May I humbly suggest that it's more plausible to say that, after his injuries, he was tasked with doing too much? Massive even-strength minutes, first option on Penalty Kill and Power Play, AND captain of an aging, declining team, all while physical degradation was taking its inexorable toll. Wasn't what he accomplished in his first 9-10 years in the league enough to merit serious consideration at this point?!
4) Eric Lindros. The whole Sault Ste Marie affair laid a marker for what could be anticipated by those who had eyes to see and minds to process the information. Just for historical purposes, I looked at how decisively Quebéc decided to commit to the Tank Battle to land in the #1 drafting spot. The Tale of the Tape: next-to-last in goals scored, last in goals against, last in shots taken (by over 100) worst in shots allowed (by more than that) and bottom 5 in Save %. Not really so much a Tank Battle as a Tank Rout. Then, Aubut dug his heels in even more firmly than the ownership in the Soo did, with predictable results.
I know that there will be those who call out "common denominator," and I won't ignore that perspective. Yes, I think any dispassionate person would concede that Lindros would have benefitted from full-time Professional Representation and Management. Still, one should realize that Lindros' thoughts to proceed in a different direction probably did not issue from his mind unbidden; they were likely placed there. Having said that, Professional Team Management should have been aware that one does not dialog with family members the way one dialogs with hard-boiled Agents. One of the fundamental lessons of Management is that Leadership cannot effectively use one manner of interaction for all persons without regard for circumstance. The putative Team Professionals (in both Quebéc & Philadelphia) could have been expected to be more- well... Professional.
(t) 5] Bill Gadsby & Duncan Keith: and I STILL go back-and-forth on these guys. Like Leetch above, multiple Norris winners who were (arguably) the most important player on their team during Stanley Cup success (successes) are getting in short supply about now. Alternatively, Gadsby was more NHL-relevant earlier in his career, in a league that was a tougher place to compete, day-to-day. Keith carries the playoff-tested seal-of-approval. That said, could Keith even win one Norris if his competition was Harvey and Kelly? I can't wish away Keith's 2017-18 and go
like it never happened. It was a real egg. I'll be more sure about this one after Keith retires- and I can judge the full careers of the two. Right now, I got Gadsby in front by a bumper.
1) Sergei Fedorov made his way into the NHL at playing age 21. It was his bad luck to have his worst "hockey-card-stats" campaign of his opening seven seasons in the final year of his contract. His team had just prevailed in the Stanley Cup- and (although I don't want to try to re-litigate the Smythe issue here), would there have been that much outcry if Fedorov made off with that trophy?! One other thing I looked up-- +/- for that span. Fedorov was league-wide #1. Now, of course, he played on (not so much a stacked team as much as it was) a really deep team... but that #1 position included cresting his teammates, as well. If not necessarily the best player in the world at the time, one could say he's at least in the conversation(?) So- negotiation positions harden, Detroit makes the qualifying tender, and dares Fedorov to go out and find an offer-sheet from a team willing to part with the five first round picks, all while publicly asserting that they'll match anything put out there. About 60 games of hockey lost, as a 28 year old- all sacrificed on the shrine of human stubbornness. [More on additional offerings to that shrine later.]
2) Boris Mikhailov has a career arc that looks like a better MPG version of Duncan Keith, strangely enough. 13 seasons with CSKA, 12 of which involved scoring more than a point a game. [The one time he missed, he barely missed.] Doubtless better as a finisher- but Soviet league scoring stats look like they're worthy of considerable skepticism on the matter of under-counting assists. Played with All-World teammates, to be sure- but integrated with everyone who lined up alongside him. That's got to count for a lot, right?!?
3) Brian Leetch- interesting among Defensemen in that he arrived in the NHL with some very well-formed fitness to purpose. It's a stretch to say that a Defenseman at this stage in our conversation can reliably go into 'take-over-game' mode... but if there's any Defenseman left here who could (at their Peak) do so, it's this one. Also not forgetting that he was Captain of Team USA's World Cup of Hockey victory in 1996. Mention was made upthread placing a query on Leetch's NHL captaincy- with the comment that perhaps he tried to do too much. May I humbly suggest that it's more plausible to say that, after his injuries, he was tasked with doing too much? Massive even-strength minutes, first option on Penalty Kill and Power Play, AND captain of an aging, declining team, all while physical degradation was taking its inexorable toll. Wasn't what he accomplished in his first 9-10 years in the league enough to merit serious consideration at this point?!
4) Eric Lindros. The whole Sault Ste Marie affair laid a marker for what could be anticipated by those who had eyes to see and minds to process the information. Just for historical purposes, I looked at how decisively Quebéc decided to commit to the Tank Battle to land in the #1 drafting spot. The Tale of the Tape: next-to-last in goals scored, last in goals against, last in shots taken (by over 100) worst in shots allowed (by more than that) and bottom 5 in Save %. Not really so much a Tank Battle as a Tank Rout. Then, Aubut dug his heels in even more firmly than the ownership in the Soo did, with predictable results.
So- one of closest things in Hockey History to a functional NHL Superstar 18-year-old was deprived of an entire season right on the front-end of his career, on account of Aubut's willingness to cling chancelessly to the fantasy that a change-of-heart would somehow ensue. Then, as if two monuments to Front Office Stupidity weren't enough, the Bonehead Trinity was completed by Philly's front-office giving Lindros a qualifying tender in the form of a publicly-humiliating two-way contract. So, yet another season was surrendered to History. These lost years are nothing like losing time to more altruistic matters like Wartime Service- but they're part of the story, all the same.Eric Lindros said:
I know that there will be those who call out "common denominator," and I won't ignore that perspective. Yes, I think any dispassionate person would concede that Lindros would have benefitted from full-time Professional Representation and Management. Still, one should realize that Lindros' thoughts to proceed in a different direction probably did not issue from his mind unbidden; they were likely placed there. Having said that, Professional Team Management should have been aware that one does not dialog with family members the way one dialogs with hard-boiled Agents. One of the fundamental lessons of Management is that Leadership cannot effectively use one manner of interaction for all persons without regard for circumstance. The putative Team Professionals (in both Quebéc & Philadelphia) could have been expected to be more- well... Professional.
(t) 5] Bill Gadsby & Duncan Keith: and I STILL go back-and-forth on these guys. Like Leetch above, multiple Norris winners who were (arguably) the most important player on their team during Stanley Cup success (successes) are getting in short supply about now. Alternatively, Gadsby was more NHL-relevant earlier in his career, in a league that was a tougher place to compete, day-to-day. Keith carries the playoff-tested seal-of-approval. That said, could Keith even win one Norris if his competition was Harvey and Kelly? I can't wish away Keith's 2017-18 and go
like it never happened. It was a real egg. I'll be more sure about this one after Keith retires- and I can judge the full careers of the two. Right now, I got Gadsby in front by a bumper.
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