Who is the fastest skater in NHL history?

[habsfanatics*]

Just skating, Russ Courtnall, his own hands couldn't keep up. Bob Errey was pretty fast too.

 

[RadimBicanek]

Todd Marchant was super fast.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Bure leaves everyone ever in the ****ing dust.

 

[Rhiessan71]

Bure leaves everyone ever in the ****ing dust.

Naw, his top end was behind some others mentioned.
What Bure excelled in was ridiculous acceleration and ability to do things well at top speed.
What one could say is that Bure was among the fastest ever with the puck.
A lot of players mentioned in this thread like a Courtnall or a Gartner slowed down with the puck.

Orr was easily the fastest overall in any situation, with or without the puck and I have yet to see anyone that could match Orr's lateral movement at any speed with or without the puck. Especially with.

 

[livewell68]

Naw, his top end was behind some others mentioned.
What Bure excelled in was ridiculous acceleration and ability to do things well at top speed.
What one could say is that Bure was among the fastest ever with the puck.
A lot of players mentioned in this thread like a Courtnall or a Gairtner slowed down with the puck.

Orr was easily the fastest overall in any situation, with or without the puck and I have yet to see anyone that could match Orr's lateral movement at any speed with or without the puck. Especially with.

I really think this thread needs more Federov and Coffey. More recently, I would say Karlsson was the fastest skater with or without the puck pre- achilles injury.

 

[Boxscore]

Here are some names...

Morenz
Joliat
Orr
Cournoyer
Bure
Fedorov
Gartner

 

[Big Phil]

Naw, his top end was behind some others mentioned.
What Bure excelled in was ridiculous acceleration and ability to do things well at top speed.
What one could say is that Bure was among the fastest ever with the puck.
A lot of players mentioned in this thread like a Courtnall or a Gartner slowed down with the puck.

Orr was easily the fastest overall in any situation, with or without the puck and I have yet to see anyone that could match Orr's lateral movement at any speed with or without the puck. Especially with.

Coffey perhaps? Him just gliding is almost faster than anyone else. He certainly didn't slow down with the puck either.

 

[sr edler]

Does anyone remember that both Bure and Russ Courtnall played on the PK together for the Canucks at one point in time? I remember them giving the opposing teams headaches when both were on the PK. I remember they scored shorthanded goals in 3 straight games. One of the commentators even mentioned during the game that it would be better off for the opposing team to decline the powerplay. I can not find any footage of this, but those 2 together on the PK was really fun to watch.

Here's footage of Bure|Courtnall on the PK, against the Blues in the 95 playoffs.

 

[Plural]

http://www.powerscouthockey.com/who...r-tracking-data-finally-provides-the-answers/

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Bure

 

[Sentinel]

Fedorov was the most graceful. Gave me an aesthetic joy to watch him glide.

 

[danincanada]

Fedorov was the most graceful. Gave me an aesthetic joy to watch him glide.

Yeah, Fedorov is definitely up there and I had the same joy. I remember him making great skaters like Roenick and Leetch look like amateurs in the early 90's. He was an agile thoroughbred on skates in his younger days.

 

[Moose Head]

I recall Keith Acton was a competitive speed skater. He was fast, but I don't recall him blowing people away with his speed on an NHL rink though.

Going to obscure guys from the past, Ron Flockhart was extremely fast. Zero hockey IQ though.

 

[livewell68]

http://www.powerscouthockey.com/who...r-tracking-data-finally-provides-the-answers/

Wow that's awesome. People forget how fast Ovechkin really is.

I think Kovalchuk would give Ovechkin a run for his money though.

Question then, are Russians as a Nation the fastest ever?

 

[Laphroaig]

Bure sure seemed fast. Orr and Coffey were super fast. Gartner could fly. All are good answers

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Fastest with the puck?
Fastest without the puck?
Fastest from a standing start?
Fastest at top speed?

Can't give absolute answers, but Gartner, Orr, Bure and maybe Cournoyer should be in the mix.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Bure probably.

 

[Hippasus]

Wow that's awesome. People forget how fast Ovechkin really is.

I think Kovalchuk would give Ovechkin a run for his money though.

Question then, are Russians as a Nation the fastest ever?

I think so. They just tend to have these diamonds in the rough type players. Canada and the US are probably close though overall.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Wow that's awesome. People forget how fast Ovechkin really is.

I think Kovalchuk would give Ovechkin a run for his money though.

Question then, are Russians as a Nation the fastest ever?

Europeans in general tend to be quicker. The reason, or theory, is that because they tend to focus more training on their lower half where as North Americans tend to focus on the upper half. Guess is just depends on the hockey culture/style you grew up in. Across the pond it's more speed and skill, over here it's lots of board work,checking and outmuscling people.

 

[DFC]

Paul Coffey needs some more love. He beat Fedorov (by a hair) in the skills competition in the mid-nineties at something like age 34. In his prime he was even faster. Not sure if he was the fastest all time, but he wouldn't be a bad bet.

There was also a window of time when Paul Kariya deserved to be in the conversation.

Rico Fata might've been the fastest player I've ever seen though, if he counts.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I see a lot of Bure but I thought Fedorov was faster than him. Fedorov was the "sexiest" anyways, gets my vote

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Europeans in general tend to be quicker. The reason, or theory, is that because they tend to focus more training on their lower half where as North Americans tend to focus on the upper half. Guess is just depends on the hockey culture/style you grew up in. Across the pond it's more speed and skill, over here it's lots of board work,checking and outmuscling people.

Ironically it's been proven the best way to reach quicker your top speed is to work a lot on your upper half

Acceleration begins from the upper body.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

so what do you guys make of the "small skates" legend?

i remember people used to make a huge deal out of coffey and gretzky wearing skates that were 2-4 sizes too small because they said it made them faster. like, so small they had to take their skates off during intermissions for circulation purposes.

 

[Joedaman55]

From the 90's on I would say Gartner with Bondra pretty close; Federov, Bure, and Gaborik, and Hagelin are close too.

Currently, Hagelin is probably the fastest with Grabner right on his heels.

EDIT: My ****** punctuation.

 

[livewell68]

Ironically it's been proven the best way to reach quicker your top speed is to work a lot on your upper half

Acceleration begins from the upper body.

Actually it comes from the core. It has nothing to do with huge arms and chests but all in the abdominal and lower back section. Your legs are directly connected to the core.

Bure, Jagr and Federov were pretty skinny when they joined the league but had very strong legs.