Which players benefited most from the era they played in?

[Felidae]

Play style wise, maybe in terms of how they were perceived also? Idk, take everything into consideration.

Also, which players benefited the least in the era they played? should also probably be added in the title but only thought of it after i submitted the thread

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[BraveCanadian]

Sidney Crosby.

 

[MXD]

The Smart Players.

 

[Michael Farkas]

That's a sorta broad ball of wax...but I recall Daniel Briere and Brian Campbell striking it rich on the other side of the lockout...Campbell, in particular, struggled before the break...

The heavily padded goalies of the dead puck era too..."new" efficiency goaltending combined with very loose restrictions on pad size...created some mattress goalies, who otherwise, had somewhat limited talent levels...

 

[Big Phil]

I think there are a lot of goalies mid 1990s an onward who have benefitted from the lax size of the pads. Garth Snow would have been pumping gas somewhere if he wasn't dressed up like the Michelin Man. In fact, there are less and less goalies everyday that are noticeably good. There are a few at the top and then just a string of mediocre ones throughout the rest of the league. We'll see how things change this year as all of the equipment is supposed to be regulated now. That will drown out the phonies.

As for players, some benefitted, but I don't know if there are ever any truly great ones who still wouldn't be great. Things such as Messier and Howe benefitted from a lot less camera angles, especially Howe. Clarke benefitted from being able to do some really cheap plays.

 

[MadLuke]

A lot of those player that had a nice nhl career purely for the fighting ability in the 70s to around 2010 or when it started hard to make a career and lot of money from it. Benefited from league expansion and different factor that made it possible versus pretty much all the rest of the league history.

Tony Twist, PJ Stock, etc...

What about Patrick Roy, did he arrive around the perfect time to dominate the league that much in the late 80 very early 90s ?, with the equipment getting ready for butterfly, etc... ?

Would it be possible for a goaltender to distance himself/be different to popularize a style as much today ? Does seem to be optimized by now.

 

[VanIslander]

The most: Phil Housley

The least: Herb Carnegie

Conn Smythe, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, watched Carnegie play as a member of the Toronto Young Rangers. He is alleged to have said either that he would accept Carnegie on the team if he were white or that he would pay $10,000 to anyone who could turn Carnegie white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Carnegie

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Bobby Holik came to mind immediately.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Derian Hatcher is another.

 

[GlitchMarner]

"Conn Smythe, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, watched Carnegie play as a member of the Toronto Young Rangers. He is alleged to have said either that he would accept Carnegie on the team if he were white or that he would pay $10,000 to anyone who could turn Carnegie white."

Wow.

 

[crobro]

Maurice Richard during the war years.

 

[FissionFire]

Scott Stevens for sure. He'd be run out of the league today.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Bobby Holik came to mind immediately.

Derian Hatcher is another.

i think you could also say both found the right coach at the right time in his career.

those guys were both high first round picks, pre-clutch and grab era. they each found a way to make good use of their size, obviously, but both guys would have been good players either way. because they both had great hockey intelligence to go with size and skill.

The Smart Players.

exactly.

jagr is another one. he adapted his skillset, and even his body, to his era. he got a little bigger, a little slower, and dominated over his peers more than he would have in a more wide open era, where his ridiculous lower body strength wouldn't have given him quite as big of a leg up. but obviously jagr is at least a dionne level scorer in any era.

 

[Hobnobs]

Craig Ludwig as the DPE extended his career significantly.

 

[Killion]

Craig Ludwig as the DPE extended his career significantly.

Yeah?.... I'm gunna go with Lars Bjorn. Towering Defenceman at 6'4" & 225lbs Won 9 (record) Swedish Ice Hockey Championships with Djurgardens between 1950 & 1963 and played over 200 games for Tre Kronor winning 2 Gold & 3 Bronze Medals. Also a Bronze in the Olympics.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Peter Forsberg's style was perfect for a clutch-and-grab and hack-and-slash but don't fight era.

 

[feffan]

Peter Forsberg's style was perfect for a clutch-and-grab and hack-and-slash but don't fight era.

I often hear this, but I´m not sure I agree. As with Lindros. Had they both came in to this era instead, they would surely (stop calling me Shirley...) had either gotten more penalties or most probable adapted (well... he already did during his career, as his Art Ross version took nowhere near the penalties his 24-25 year old version did...). But both Forsberg and Lindros would probably had benefited not playing in the DPE, as the style they played may have been suited for it but their bodies not. Jagr is also described as one that benefited from the DPE. But look at his first (also 2-3) season after the lockout (or Forsbergs first half in Flyers before his injuries caught up...). I believe Forsberg would have stood out more today. And especially a younger Forsberg in 05-10. Younger Forsbergs skating was elite and was not given the moment to shine in the DPE. And he wasn´t Bure, but he was a great decisionmaker on the fly.

 

[VanIslander]

Peter Forsberg's style was perfect for a clutch-and-grab and hack-and-slash but don't fight era.

Agreed!

I've watched hockey since the 1970's and thought Forsberg and Nieuwendyk were MADE for their era: stickhandling and puck control in traffic against big, slow-footed defensemen and tons of clutching and grabbing.

Lindros in comparison would THRIVE today but suffered from his head-down I-wuz-biggest-in-juniors mentality. The bull headed get head butted, in that era.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Scott Stevens for sure. He'd be run out of the league today.

I find it almost impossible that a Hall of Famer with a 22 year career would get "run out of the league" a little more than a decade after he last played. Particularly one who quite noticeably adapted his playing style from one half of his career to the other. You'd have to think he'd be smart enough to not keep throwing the same hits, and taking the same suspensions, over and over again, if his style of hitting wasn't to be tolerated.

 

[MXD]

Scott Stevens for sure. He'd be run out of the league today.

Stevens was successful at least partly because he was smart, and being smart, he would play differently in our era.

 

[Michael Farkas]

That's correct. In fact, he'd probably do better for himself in that regard than a player that grew up in this era like Niklas Kronwall...who felt the need to jump into so hits that most hockey circles that I'm in recognize "Kronwalling" as a verb...

 

[BenchBrawl]

Russell Bowie benefited from playing in the childhood of hockey, but that's probably not what you meant.

One name that comes to mind is Gretzky, but I think the style of an era can be a function of the top players and top teams playing in it just as the top players' accomplishments can be a function of the style of the era they play in.It's a mutual transformation.Gretzky transforms the league into a more offensive league, and the offensive league transforms Gretzky's numbers.The more impact you have on changing your era, the less your results should be diminished/adjusted due to it's style, since you were responsible for changing it, which is an invisible accomplishment on it's own.

 

[ICM1970]

I remember reading or watching an interview with Wendel Clark in which he commented on how some the hits he delivered back during the Chuck Norris division era of 1985 to 1990 (my label, not his) would probably be frowned upon today.

 

[Tawnos]

I think the best case here can be made for Bobby Orr, who came into a league that very literally couldn't handle him

 

[Tawnos]

Thinking some more on this, I think Gretzky and Orr both benefitted hugely from the eras they played in. Orr mostly from the fact of expansion and a major, major dilution in talent across the board. In Gretzky's case, it was threefold, but all on goaltending. 1) the talent pool for goalies lagged behind that of skaters. 2) the coaching of the position was behind other areas of the game, thus stand-up goaltending was still dominant and vulnerable to offensive attack. 3) the equipment was junk.