Was Trevor Linden Really Even Better Than Cliff Ronning?

Canucks1096

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Vadim Sharifijanov read 2nd paragraph and 2nd last paragraph of last message. Thanks
 
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tony d

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Ronning's a player I've always liked. Still linden gave you much more than scoring. He brought grit and leadership along with occasional scoring.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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I remember a poll done once asking who was better between 1988-'96 between Linden and Modano and to be honest you really had to think about it. Linden and John Leclair collided during the 1996-'97 season and it caused him to miss half of the year with his knee. He was never the same after that. He had 38 points in 67 games in 1998 and no one knew this was going to be the norm for him going forward. He still managed to get on the 1998 Olympic team because they figured the old Linden was still who he really was. If the Olympics were even just a year later he'd have never made that team because he just started to decline.

However, I'll still say he was a better player than Ronning, although not as big of a gap as some people might care to believe because as I noted he really slowed down really fast and stayed that way the rest of his career. Even in his late 20s you knew he was washed up.
 

Moose Head

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Number comparisons can be really deceiving at times. For instance, does anybody think Pierre Mondou was a better or more valuable player than Bob Gainey for the Habs? Hell, was he even more valuable to the great habs teams than Doug Jarvis even? Mondou was a Nice player any team would like, but I think you guys gets my point.
 
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Canucks1096

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Overall I do think Linden is a little bit better Ronning but I find Linden overrated. When talking about Linden people usually bring up his all around game like being physical, pk, great defensively. Making players better

Linden was not really that physical. I think a lot People just remember the Norton hit in 1995 and they assume he always plays like that. Sure he does have potential to be really physical but he doesn't do it often enough. It not consistent he might do once every 5 to 10 games. There is a reason why Linden never took the next step to being a better scorer because usually he plays smaller than his size. I remember reading a lot of hockey books in early 90s about his scouting report a lot of book saids plays smaller than his size/not physical enough,

Defensively he ended his career -67. 11 seasons he was minus player. 2 seasons even. 6 seasons plus player. I admit plus/minus can he a little misleading but it's not misleading it's so many season he is minus player. Can some even tell me which player he complete shut down or PK shift that he completely dominated. I can't think of any.

Not sure who he made better
 

rewing84

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According to hockey references point shares

Cliff Ronning 78.1
Trevor Linden 73.3
Geoff Courtnall 70.6
 

The Panther

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Quite a thread bump!

I thought Linden was awesome circa 1988 to 1995, but he is your go-to example of "declined suddenly" (prematurely) after that. During those seven years, he was consistently better than Ronning ever was, in my opinion.

Ronning probably does deserve a little more appreciation and he was a small scrapper, so I respect him. But in addition to the many intangibles that pre-1996 Linden had over him, I think a key distinction here is that when the games got bigger and the checking got tighter, Linden rose to the occasion, whereas Ronning kind of folded (not unusual in small players in such situations).

Someone mentioned the '91 L.A. series. Ronning looked like a stud early, and was the toast of BC after his overtime goal in game three. But then he basically disappeared after that, and I don't think that was an isolated incident.

Ronning did age well and more consistently, though.
 

BraveCanadian

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Jun 30, 2010
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Respectfully he was not.

Agreed -- I'd take Linden 10/10 times over Doan, despite the fact Doan was a consistent player with size.

There is a reason players like Linden, Clark, Gillies, and other players of that nature are "overrated".

You just had to see them on a regular basis to appreciate them for more than the stat lines..
 

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