I agree, Jagr was so quick, elusive and tricky. Although to be fair he left the KHL when he was 36, so past his prime. He had already won everything by that point, but no one thought he could come back and keep breaking records. He’s still play in the Czech League I think. Absolutely incredible.

How would you rate Zdeno Chara? Is he a top 5 all time defenseman?

I agree. I was just comparing Crosby Ovi Malkin Kane.

not even remotely close

He’s very good but I wouldn’t go top 5 all time.

Lindstrom is #1 for me. I personally like Larry Murphy over chara

scott niedermayer Paul Coffey. Ray bourque not including guys like Orr who i didn’t see play. Denis potvin

That’s true, there have many great puck moving defensemen who rank ahead of Chara. But what about pure shut down ability? I don’t think anyone does it better than him.

Yeah they are very underrated indeed, mainly because they aren’t flashy.

Who would you say is the better player between Eric Staal and Vincent Lecavalier?

probably staal bc even today hes still great. both are amazing talents.

Gustav or Joakim?



Well, can't argue this time, but the first time around, no.

He had a more impressive post season start, which is a much smaller sample size and is likely to vary wildly. Matthews had a much more impressive start going on the larger sample size.

And I started with 'so you are saying' to make sure I understood you. To say that the player who put up bigger numbers who is getting paid a bit more is not as good (contract wise) as another player who put up smaller numbers just because they won a cup is not a very good reason. Winning a cup takes a full team effort and a lot of luck (injury, reffing, bounces etc), to say that Kane deserves his money while Matthews does not because of that totally ignores all context of that. Also, never pay based on small sample sizes. See ville leino.

Agree. Would you say either of them are better than Nicklas Backstrom or Claude Giroux?

Backstrom imo is the most underrated player in the nhl. He literally scored 7 less points than Tavares the last 3 seasons. But people would say Tavares is a lot better than him. Backstrom is much better than Staal Giroux is a better wing than center again imo

I agree, Backstrom is better than Staal but mainly because he is more consistent. The Backstrom Tavares debate is interesting, because I believe Backstrom is a better pure playmaker but Tavares is better at driving his line and generating possession. Tavares has had players like Moulson and Lee no his line whereas Backstrom has had Ovechkin and Oshie for many years. So in the end I do think Tavares is a little bit better than Backstrom as an overall player. It’s true that Nicklas Backstrom is underrated, do you think he is better than Joe Thornton and Adam Oates?

Thornton is the man hard to say over him

Agree.

What about Patrick Kane and Brett Hull, who’s better?

Hull. Even though he’s s Chester haha

LMAO. But do you think Hull was better than Ovechkin?

No. Ovechkin is the best goal scorer ever imo

Honestly I don’t think it’s fair to only categorize Ovechkin as a pure goal scorer, cuz he’s more than that. Hull was just a one dimensional player who waited around in an open area for his teammates to set him up for a tap in or one timer. He couldn’t drive the play or generate attack on his own. Ovie on the other has tremendous skills with the puck and acceleration, he has scored a plethora of very difficult goals throughout his career going solo. What’d you think?

Great question and great answer. I'm curious about the idea that some players are more "injury prone" than others. Is it all just randomness, as the early analysts of the Hall to NJ trade claimed, or do guys like Vinny Lecavalier who get a few injuries early end up taking injuries more seriously as they add up, and playing shorter careers. In other words:

is Hall still a good bet, now that he's been through the wringer and shown he can still play a little offense?