seventieslord
Student Of The Game
I should have had Lindros as an HM, and I guess I could have Sakic, though I really think Sakic's best stretch was 1999 - 2004. Basically in the regular seaosn in the 1990s, I think Sakic was a clear step down from Oates. Maybe I should have included him based on his 1996 playoffs alone.
Jagr was awesome in the 2nd half of the decade, but really wasn't anything special before 1995. He'd have a good case for #1 from the 1995-2007 timeframe though.
http://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=points
just saying, Oates and Sakic were 10 points apart in the same GP in the 1990s, but Sakic had 100 more goals. He was more or less even with Yzerman over the course of the decade, too.
I think there are 7 forwards who legitimately have a shot at a top-10 for the decade: Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic, Messier, Oates, Hull. they all peaked at a high enough level and played enough of the decade (except in Lemieux's case, but ya know...)