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Top 10 Most Dominant Players of All Time


nowhereman

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I guess these are the kind of threads that pop up, when you're in the midst of a mind-numbing lockout but at least a little bit of hockey discussion can stoke the fires.

This thread is a bit different than the "Greatest Players of All Time" thread, in that I'd like to see who people think are the most dominant players of all time. For instance, Eric Lindros would make my top 10 list, even though fortune didn't exactly smile on his health and his legacy ended up a shadow of what it could be. As such, I consider him one of the most dominant players of all time but definitly not one of the "greatest". I also rank Lemieux ahead of Gretzky, even though Gretzky's career accomplishments are more impressive than Mario's. And Hasek, I think, is ahead of Roy, Sawchuk, and Plante, based purely on how he controlled a game and not how many cups he's won or records he's set.

I guess you could say this less about stats but more about performance.

My top 10:

1. Mario Lemieux

2. Bobby Orr

3. Wayne Gretzky

4. Jaromir Jagr

5. Dominik Hasek

6. Gordie Howe

7. Guy Lafleur

8. Sidney Crosby

9. Eric Lindros

10. Raymond Bourque

HM: Doug Harvey, Peter Forsberg, Valeri Kharlamov

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I think the top 3 always has to be Gretzky, Lemieux, and Orr. Then the rest might look like this: (if we're only doing past greats)

4) Gordie Howe

5) Dominik Hasek

6) Jamior Jagr

7) Peter Forsberg

8) Ray Bourque

9) Eric Lindros

10 Mike Bossy

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I guess these are the kind of threads that pop up, when you're in the midst of a mind-numbing lockout but at least a little bit of hockey discussion can stokes the fires.

This thread is a bit different than the "Greatest Players of All Time" thread, in that I'd like to see who people think are the most dominant players of all time. For instance, Eric Lindros would make my top 10 list, even though fortune didn't exactly smile on his health and his legacy ended up a shadow of what it could be. As such, I consider him one of the most dominant players of all time but definitly not one of the "greatest". I also rank Lemieux ahead of Gretzky, even though Gretzky's career accomplishments are more impressive than Mario's. And Hasek, I think, is ahead of Roy, Sawchuk, and Plante, based purely on how he controlled a game and not how many cups he's won or records he's set.

I guess you could say this less about stats but more about performance.

My top 10:

1. Mario Lemieux

2. Bobby Orr

3. Wayne Gretzky

4. Jaromir Jagr

5. Dominik Hasek

6. Gordie Howe

7. Guy Lafleur

8. Sidney Crosby

9. Eric Lindros

10. Raymond Bourque

HM: Doug Harvey, Peter Forsberg, Valeri Kharlamov

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So basically, for me, it's the same thing as the "greatest players" except that you ignore longevity. I was gonna make a simple list, but you know me, I had to go on and expand on each player and stuff.

1. Wayne Gretzky

Gretzky is the most dominant player, period. He controlled the ice like none other. It seemed like he always knew exactly what was going to happen.

2. Bobby Orr

No defense man ever dominated like Orr. He could change the speed of the game with just one rush.

3. Mario Lemieux

Lemieux dominated with such an unstoppable force during his reign.

4. Mike Bossy

One of the best snipers of all-time. He could make nothing turn into a goal with a good shot.

5. Dominik Hasek

He gets bonus points for his nick-name. :P. The Dominator really dominated when he was at the top of his game. Some others were more consistent, but few were better during their best moments.

6. Joe Malone

If you've never heard of Joe Malone, look him up. He's the only player with more than 100 games that has scored MORE than 1 goal per game. He scored a mind boggling 44 goals in 20 games in 1917-18. He also scored 7 goals in one game, another record.

7. Marcel Dionne

Over 1.3 points per game over his career. Dionne had six seasons of 50 goals or more as well as six seasons of 120 points or more, including three consecutive 130+ point seasons.

8. Pavel Bure

No bias here. Seriously. Most of this list is based off statistics. The stat that put Bure on this list is his career goals per game. He has the 3rd highest goals-per-game of players since 1940 (min. 100 games).

9. Sidney Crosby

Thus far Sidney Crosby has slowly been dominating the league more and more. When he started in the NHL he was one of the most dominant players in the league. Now, he's pretty much the undisputed most dominant player in the league. He hasn't finished his career yet, but so far he's been very dominant when he's healthy.

10. Valeri Kharlamov

The only non-NHLer on the list, Kharlamov completely dominated with the Red Army team in the 1970s. He didn't let up against Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, when Canada had to get Bobby Clarke to break his ankle to stop him from almost single handedly beating the Canadians.

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Some people seem to be forgetting how dominant Forsberg was in this thread. Not too many players brought the mix of skill and brute force that he did. And not many players enjoyed physical punishment more than him.

If we're talking about being a dominant player, it has to include being physically dominant too, does it not? If that's the case, there's no way Crosby is more dominant than Forsberg. Forsberg put up similar numbers to Crosby when he was younger, while being an absolute freight train on skates.

For those who forget:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRtrQ1YrCzw

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Some people seem to be forgetting how dominant Forsberg was in this thread. Not too many players brought the mix of skill and brute force that he did. And not many players enjoyed physical punishment more than him.

If we're talking about being a dominant player, it has to include being physically dominant too, does it not? If that's the case, there's no way Crosby is more dominant than Forsberg. Forsberg put up similar numbers to Crosby when he was younger, while being an absolute freight train on skates.

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Don't forget that guys like Crosby and Ovechkin are controlling games and putting up historic numbers despite playing in a league where checking is much tighter, defences are far better and goalies are leagues better than what they were with new technologies helping their equipment.

No disrespect to Gretzky and Lemieux, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as dominant in todays league as they were during their eras and it's something we shouldn't forget when comparing players of different times.

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