@Hockey Outsider
unrequited
71. Bower
78. Vasiliev
80. Ullman
90. T. Esposito
95. Št'astný
96. T. Blake
99. Iginla
Bower was left off the lists of 14- so there's that. Toe Blake>Lach is an interesting perspective.
Finally, congratulations to Hockey Outsider for having the first documented instance of Zero Cherry Popping Daddies!
I really like these lists, thanks for putting them together.
Bower - I posted about him earlier. What impressed me about him is he was great at stopping the puck (six save percentage titles in eight years), and combined that with tremendous playoff success. Some people criticized him for playing in a platoon situation - there's some truth to that, but he was still 2nd in games played in the 1960's. The real strike against him (which I don't think I took into account when I made my list) was lack of contemporary recognition - just one year-end all-star selection. That definitely lowers him. I still think highly of Bower and I think he should be in the top 100, but I'd probably knock him down 20 spots.
Vasiliev - I think I commented on him as well. I overrated him initially, probably because he seems to have a very North American style of play (so I was probably looking at him with that implicit bias). Yes, he was the 2nd best Soviet defenseman after Fetisov, but I don't think I really understood just how far behind him he was. I'd now have him in my top 120, but not the top 100.
Ullman - I said before that he'd be a serious omission, and I stand by that. I did briefly question his defensive ability (a lot of the plus/minus and R-on/off data didn't look great) - but we know that (unlike, say, Frank Mahovlich, who was criticized for the same reasons), there are lots of contemporary accounts about Ullman being a great defensive player. He has the best offensive resume of any remaining NHL forward (and if we give him a boost for limited powerplay time, as we did for Henri Richard, he looks even better). Not much was said about his playoff resume, but he finished 1st, T-1st and 2nd in playoff scoring in a span of four years. Ullman's omission was simply a mistake from our final list.
Esposito - he probably belongs as well. Someone compared him to Joe Thornton (tremendous career value in the regular season, disappointing in the playoffs), and that's probably a fair comment. Some metrics have Esposito as high as top three all-time in regular-season career value; that's definitely overstated a bit, but there's no doubt he was elite for a very long time. I also think his playoff struggles are somewhat exaggerated.
Blake over Lach was a mistake. The main knock against Lach is several of his accomplishments took place during the talent-depleted WWII years, but that applies to Blake as well.
Won't comment on Iginla specifically, he was on the bubble on my list (though I will say - inconsistency from season to season hurt him in my rankings).