billybudd
Registered User
- Feb 1, 2012
- 22,049
- 2,249
What are the thoughts on John LeClair?
He was a favorite of mine as a kid and I would love to see him go in, but I don't know that he has the career to make it, unless a lot of others in waiting are taken care of and there's a weak year. He has six straight years of really good goal scoring but that's about it.
Had 5 or 6 really good seasons, but thinking back, I'm not sure anybody would have said he was the best player at his position at any point in his career. Not in any season Kariya played an appreciable number of games at least.
And even in those Kariya didn't, Keith Tkachuk was putting up similar numbers (while playing with more jam edit: and holy Hell, he had 41 even strength goals in "the year of the goalie") without the benefit of playing next to Eric Lindros on every shift 88 stepped over the boards for. To my mind, those two would need to be in the Hall before Leclair could even be considered (and Tkachuk probably doesn't have a prayer).
Come to think of it, why doesn't Kariya get more consideration? For 3 or 4 years there he was in the conversation for best player in the sport, even if he wasn't the conventional correct answer. It's almost like he's being punished for getting fouled in the teeth so many times.