Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 79,010
- 53,954
Are there any players you'd rank higher all-time if they only retired sooner?
Messier for sure for me. If he retires before the Vancouver and New York 2.0 fiasco, I can see myself ranking him higher.
Roenick is another. After the lockout, he scored 96 points in 239 games. I think that hurts him. Would make his PPG look much better. Granted, he was only 35 after the lockout, but clearly not the same player as in 2004.
Yzerman maybe? Many people rank Sakic over him because Sakic looked better in his later years. What if Yzerman retires after 2002? We don't see his waning production, in injury-riddled seasons (albeit in the DPE.)
Is Paul Coffey ranked higher if he retires after 1997 and skips out on his forgettable Chicago/Carolina/Boston stints?
Would Terry Sawchuk be a more unanimous choice over Hall and Plante if he retired several years sooner?
A lot of guys from that era played too long. Messier, Coffey, Chelios, Yzerman, Hull, Roenick, Amonte, Gilmour, etc. Seems like a good number of them ended up in Phoenix around that post lockout era too...