What is Kane missing from being considered as the best player of his generation?

[7even]

He just needs to take one off his jersey number.

 

[wunderpanda]

Publicity, Pat is the new Mike Gartner

 

[daver]

A lot

 

[Steve]

He’s simply not in the same tier of Sid. Great player but doesn’t have the skill set of Crosby.

 

[DougieSmash]

He's not Elias Pettersson, sorry.

 

[Stephen]

I think Patrick Kane is missing "preordained" hype.

 

[JasonRoseEh]

I dislike questions like this because it can only lead to diminishing Kane who is the best American born player ever. Saying he's not Crosby or Ovechkin isn't a slight, but he isn't, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be the better player in the later third of their careers.

 

[blankall]

Currently Kane is just way behind in just about every metric. It'll be interesting though if things continue like this season for the next 4-6 seasons though. If Kane continues to be at the top of scoring while Crosby is 20-30 points back, the conversation alters.

 

[TheGuiminator]

He's definitely an elite player, even a franchise player. However, he doesn't belong in the generational players category, simply because he doesn't produce like one. Yes he had great seasons, still does, but he didn't produce on that level his entire career.

He's slightly above a point per game player (career wise) and to be generational, you need much more than that, you need to atleast average 100 points per seasons and dominate your peers for a relative long period of time. Kane didn't really separate himself from the rest of the pack, except maybe for one occasion.

To give you an idea, Kane would need 272 points in his next 40 games to reach Crosby's career pacing, that's almost 7 points per game!!

The fact is, he's just not at that level and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[vshun]

Lots of very one dimension responses here based on goals in regular season. Do playoffs even matter here?
Anyway, was watching Pens game and Crossby was doing PK at critical time of the game and blocked the shot. Do any of the other 3 ever do it? There is more to elite game than goals in regular season. And Stamkos should not be even close in conversation to these 4, disappearing act in playoffs etc.
To me as Blackhawks fan, Crossby is unquestionably best player of this generation, and I would put Ovechkin behind him. However I can make a case for Kane over Malkin easily. At least he does not get injured that often and does not cost that many penalties to his team that need to be killed. And elevates his game 2 gears up in playoffs when it matters.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

From 07-08- 14-15 there was no questions.

 

[Bingo71]

INTANGIBLES

 

[CanadienShark]

He's missing the ability.

If he were consistently considered the best or close to the best for a much longer period than he has, sure. Stupid thread.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Well, he's not Sidney Crosby, so that's a pretty glaring thing that he's missing when considering the best player of the generation.

 

[ayrton2388]

My guess is goals and assists.

Ovechkin has 300 more goals than Kane, Crosby has like 300 more points.

 

[solidmotion]

there is no argument that kane has been better than crosby, ovechkin, malkin and mcdavid. there's also no argument that forward other than those four has been better than him. given the lack of a truly dominant defenseman or goalie over the last decade (karlsson, burns, keith, doughty, lundqvist, rask, price—all have bigger holes in their resumes than kane does) i'd feel pretty comfortable saying he's the 5th best player of his generation. not bad. probably a top 50 player all-time when all is said and done.

 

[Rypien37]

Hes a phenomenal player and one of the best. I think what stops his from being the "best" is his position. Center is a hard position to play, you have so much responsibility.
Also people will probably disagree but I think his past may have something to do with it as well.

 

[Eisen]

I dislike questions like this because it can only lead to diminishing Kane who is the best American born player ever. Saying he's not Crosby or Ovechkin isn't a slight, but he isn't, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be the better player in the later third of their careers.

He has some catching up to do to get to Chelios.

 

[Dominance]

Do you mean besides being nowhere remotely close to being the best player?

Seriously, how is this even a discussion. His defense and usage makes Ovechkin’s look good, and his effectiveness without the puck has to be among the lowest in the league, while he’s overwhelmingly behind the big three in terms of offensive production, too. That should be enough right there but...

He isn’t better in the playoffs, and he doesn’t have a better trophy cupboard or international record. He isn’t a leader and has bad press. He’s hyped up by preteens who’ve watched his highlight reel, filled with shootout moments and plays that have contributed to his high giveaway numbers, and don’t understand that he isn’t even special in that most rudimentary aspect of hockey - his percentage is 39th all time and behind Crosby and teammate Toews.

His awards are also put in a lot of shade when you realize his production hadn’t been anywhere near that, or has been since, without Panarin. This year is whacky for the entire league and I’m calling his recent tear an anomalous hot streak.

He could sweep the field in awards this season, although he won’t, and he still wouldn’t even be scratching at Crosby and Ovechkin, and really not Malkin, either.

Edit: Obviously, he’s a superstar and fun to watch. Likely to go down as the best American player of all time. But the premise of this thread is outrageous and the denigrating nature of my comment is in direct response to that.

 

[Varan]

Do you mean besides being nowhere remotely close to being the best player?

Seriously, how is this even a discussion. His defense and usage makes Ovechkin’s look good, and his effectiveness without the puck has to be among the lowest in the league, while he’s overwhelmingly behind the big three in terms of offensive production, too. That should be enough right there but...

He isn’t better in the playoffs, and he doesn’t have a better trophy cupboard or international record. He isn’t a leader and has bad press. He’s hyped up by preteens who’ve watched his highlight reel, filled with shootout moments and plays that have contributed to his high giveaway numbers, and don’t understand that he isn’t even special in that most rudimentary aspect of hockey - his percentage is 39th all time and behind Crosby and teammate Toews.

His awards are also put in a lot of shade when you realize his production hadn’t been anywhere near that, or has been since, without Panarin. This year is whacky for the entire league and I’m calling his recent tear an anomalous hot streak.

He could sweep the field in awards this season, although he won’t, and he still wouldn’t even be scratching at Crosby and Ovechkin, and really not Malkin, either.

Edit: Obviously, he’s a superstar and fun to watch. Likely to go down as the best American player of all time. But the premise of this thread is outrageous and the denigrating nature of my comment is in direct response to that.

damn at first I thought you had a bias, but you actually made a ton of sense there, minus a point (he is fantastic in the playoffs)

the bolded really takes into account his trophy case as well as scoring skyrocketing this year. I don't wanna say that he was lucky to have Panarin in 15/16 and scoring going up this year because I feel like i'm taking away from his skill, but it does play a role

 

[Varan]

Lots of very one dimension responses here based on goals in regular season. Do playoffs even matter here?
Anyway, was watching Pens game and Crossby was doing PK at critical time of the game and blocked the shot. Do any of the other 3 ever do it? There is more to elite game than goals in regular season. And Stamkos should not be even close in conversation to these 4, disappearing act in playoffs etc.
To me as Blackhawks fan, Crossby is unquestionably best player of this generation, and I would put Ovechkin behind him. However I can make a case for Kane over Malkin easily. At least he does not get injured that often and does not cost that many penalties to his team that need to be killed. And elevates his game 2 gears up in playoffs when it matters.

malkin doesn't? he was the freaking point leader for the entire playoffs for 2 of their titles for crying out loud

 

[McShogun99]

Kane is the best American born player of all time so he has that going for him.

 

[powerbomb]

I can honestly say that I have never, not once, even considered Kane to be the best player of his generation.

 

[Dominance]

damn at first I thought you had a bias, but you actually made a ton of sense there, minus a point (he is fantastic in the playoffs)

the bolded really takes into account his trophy case as well as scoring skyrocketing this year. I don't wanna say that he was lucky to have Panarin in 15/16 and scoring going up this year because I feel like i'm taking away from his skill, but it does play a role

Of course he’s a great playoff performer, one of the best. But people in here are saying that they’d take him over Crosby and Ovechkin to win a series or a game. I think that’s nuts!

 

[Varan]

Of course he’s a great playoff performer, one of the best. But people in here are saying that they’d take him over Crosby and Ovechkin to win a series or a game. I think that’s nuts!

I see where you're coming from, but he has come up huge in big moments we cannot take that away (2010 OT goal in the finals, hat-trick against LA to take them out in 2013, 3 points in game 7 vs. the Ducks in the WCF and 2 points in game 6 against TBL in the Final, all in 2015)