Wow, lots of new candidates this time around. My initial thoughts on them...
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Peter Stastny: He has a case here. Remember, he was an elite player in Europe for several years behind the Iron Curtain. As good an offensive player as anyone not named Gretzky during the first half of the 1980s. Probably could have been a 100-point player in the NHL for years before he actually arrived. Another center in the Thornton/Dionne mold, though his playoff results are generally better than theirs are.
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Disagree but it´s good that you´ve brought that up so we can quickly re-visit Stastny´s pre-NHL career.
First and main point: Stastny had only one big season before NHL and that was his last one before he emigrated to Quebec.
Peter Stastny´s Golden Stick voting record: 15th (1976), 12th (1977), 12th (1978), 6th (1979), 1st (1980).
I think we can safely put off his first three international seasons since he was not even considered a top 10 player within his own country. 1979 - the season where Stastny won the League title, Slovan Bratislava upset the SONP Kladno and became the first Slovak team to win the 1st Czechoslovak League.. pretty good, but...
There were two forwards who dominated the whole Golden stick voting + the League´s All-Star team voting + the League´s scoring --> Vladimir Martinec and Peter´s linemate Marian Stastny (older brother). Furthermore, despite finishing decent 6th place, a Slovan´s goalie (Marcel Sakac) also finished ahead of Peter at 5th place, so Peter Stastny was considered still just a 3rd best player on his own team. I don´t think it was a particularly noteworthy season in an all-time sense, Stastny as 3rd-5th best CSSR forward in the season when Soviet hockey was arguably peaking.. USSR absolutely dominated the Czechoslovaks at the 1979 World Championship (11:1 and then 6:1 wins!), and at this championship, P. Stastny scored 5 points in 8 games, 6th in his own team. In sum, I think Stastny was not a top 20 player in 1979 Europe yet.
On the brighter side, 1980 should definitely be considered as the one season in Peter Stastny´s resume that adds some decent value. First, he won the Golden Stick award for the best CSSR player of the season. That has to count for something even though it was a weaker season for the Czechoslovak hockey overall (disappointing 5th place finish at OG 1980, and also League´s quality of play generally declining).
The top 10 of 1980 GS voting:
1. Peter Šťastný 687 TJ Slovan CHZJD Bratislava
2. Milan Nový 681 TJ Poldi SONP Kladno
3. Jaroslav Pouzar 477 TJ Motor České Budějovice
4. Jiří Králík 471 ASD Dukla Jihlava
5. Vladimír Martinec 442 TJ Tesla Pardubice
6. Miroslav Fryčer 329 TJ Vítkovice
7. Vincent Lukáč 308 TJ VSŽ Košice
8. Karel Lang 245 ASVŠ Dukla Trenčín
9. Jiří Novák 198 TJ Tesla Pardubice
10. Jindřich Kokrment 174 ASD Dukla Jihlava
Stastny also featured in 1980 Izvestia trophy voting for the best player in Europe with decent 8th place finish (the highest place among CSSR players as it would be expected):
1979/80:
1) Sergey Makarov 550 (137-62-27)
2) Boris Mikhaylov 384
3) Valery Vasilyev 175
4) Mats Näslund 166
5) Jukka Porvari 163
6) Vladislav Tretyak 143
7) Vladimir Krutov 114
8) Peter Šťastný 102
9) Pelle Lindbergh 81
10) Aleksandr Maltsev 77
This is also supported by the actual scoring numbers. The only time, pre-NHL P. Stastny ended up in top 10 tournament scoring, happened precisely at Lake Placid 1980, where he registered fairly impressive 14 points (7+7) in just 6 games, which was good enough for 2nd overall scoring finish (1 point behind his fellow teammate Milan Novy).
EDIT: Stastny actually finished top 10 also at 1976 WHC.
On a more positive side and not to sell Stastny short here, it´s true that Peter did have a couple of pretty good WHC showings given his age (WHC 76 - 5th in CSSR team with 12 points in 9 games, WHC 78 - 3rd in CSSR team with 11 points in 10 games). It´s also true that Stastny did impress Czech and Slovak observers with his skills very early on, as he entered the international competition when he was 19 y/o - little bit younger than most of other CSSR hockey stars from the 1960s up to 1980s. Finally, right before Stastny´s breakout season, Jan Starsi (CSSR assistant coach between 1974-1979) in 1979 had already proclaimed Peter as one of the most talented Czechoslovak players ever:
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After WHC ´79, there was an interesting interview with Jan Starsi, assistant coach to Karel Gut at the National Team between 1974-1979 (Gut left a year later). Given that Starsi officially finished this tenure, interview was conducted in a balanced appraising mode. I picked just a three questions and answers that caught my attention the most:
Journalist: Which rookie during your tenure fit into the team the most quickly?
Starší: “Definitely Peter Šťastný in a year 1976, one of the most striking talents of our hockey. Already then, three years ago, he managed to increase the level of Nový´s line and to score goals.”
Journalist: 43 players have played during your tenure. Which of them have you perceived as a world class players?
Starší: “Goaltenders Holeček and Dzurilla, defensemen Pospíšil, Bubla and forwards Jiří Holík, Martinec, Hlinka, Ebermann, from younger generation Marián and Peter Šťastný.”
Journalist: Any player whom you gave a chance and left you disappointed?
Starší: “It was an honor for everyone whom we gave an opportunity to fight for a national jersey and their biggest goal was to play for Team Czechoslovakia. Of course not everybody has fully succeeded. For example I expected more from very talented Vincent Lukáč.”
The last sentence was a bit revealing to me. Anybody who closely followed the scoring of CSSR league of 70s and 80s had to notice excellent numbers that Lukac was producing. His domestic scoring finishes are no worse than Martinec´s for example.. Yet, Lukac´s international record looks nothing like a Czechoslovak hockey star of late 70s/early 80s. To add to information that at late 70s he was somewhat of an underachiever internationally, Lukac tended not to provide anything more than scoring and was reputed as quite one-dimensional winger, as his this season´s +/- indicates: of all ‘top 30’ forwards and ‘top 15’ defensemen, Lukac´s -119 was by far the worst record.
Still, after all of this, I stand at my position, saying that Stastny had only one meaningful season before 1981, and that was the forementioned 1980. How many points could have Stastny scored in 1980?
In 1981, Stastny scored 109 points in 77 games, 6th overall scoring. In 1982, Stastny scored 139 points in 80 games, 3rd overall scoring. In 1983, Stastny scored 124 points in 75 games, 2nd overall scoring.... I think something between 90-99 points for Stastny, 1980´ edition, is a reasonable hypothesis. This would be 9th to 17th scoring range in NHL for that season.
I don´t think we can assume Stastny would have hit a 100 point mark in any season of his European pre-NHL career. Remember, there were still a bunch of Soviet forwards who were considered better even in 1980.