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-AJ-

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Everything posted by -AJ-

  1. The tough thing about placing Ovi that low is that I consider him to be the greatest goal scorer of all-time. I'm not sure how low I can place a guy I hold in that much esteem.
  2. To be fair, you always hear scary rumours like this about almost any big signing. We'll see if it actually happens though.
  3. Funny...it's not too often I have someone tell me I underrate Shore. I personally have Richard right on the edge of generational--perhaps the peak of whatever the lower tier is, along with Roy. I battle with Shore or Harvey as my #2 defenseman, but I do always say that Shore was the greatest player of the pre-Original Six Era (1917-1942) and wasn't surpassed until Richard came along in the mid 40s.
  4. People forget how good Hawerchuk was when he started out. Six of his first seven seasons were 100+ point years. He had 752 points in 559 games during that span. That said, Hawerchuk was also much less decorated than McDavid. He won the Calder and finished 2nd in Hart voting once. McDavid has already won a Hart and probably wins another this year, in addition to three Art Ross trophies. Removing Gretzky and Mario from the 80s does rise Hawerchuk up quite a bit, but I'm not sure he still be quite at McDavid's level. Looking from 1981-1988, he ranks 6th in points-per-game (Lemieux excluded). I suppose you can maybe try to write off Kurri (4th) for the Gretzky effect and we obviously took out Gretzky (1st) already. You mentioned Bossy (2nd) and Stastny (3rd) as contenders, though there's also Denis Savard (6th) to consider. All in all, I think it's a stretch to say Hawerchuk is equivalent to McDavid--Stastny would be a closer comparable IMO, as Stastny seems like he was the better player and probably the 3/4 with Bossy behind Lemieux and Gretzky. And like McDavid (so far), he never won a Cup.
  5. Absolutely agree. One of the incredible things about Crosby is that he became very capable defensive forward as well. I'd argue he's probably about top 15 "Selke"-like forwards in the NHL most years. In fact, he has four top 10 Selke finishes in his career so far, peaking at 4th in 2018-19.
  6. 30 years ago, I would've agreed, but in the modern era of hockey with 31 (soon 32) teams, I think it's unrealistic to expect all greats to win the Cup. That said, playoff performance is huge and McDavid will need to step it up to really be seriously considered. He has 22 points in 21 playoff games, which is good, but not good enough for a generational talent. Ovechkin has 135 points in 141 games, but much of that was in a more defensive era. The same rings true with Crosby's era (the late 00s and early 2010s) and he has 191 points in 174 games.
  7. I'd tend to agree people are too quick to label a player as generational, although the discussion is one of interest to me. For my money, these are the players who have cemented themselves as generational (in rough chronological order): 1. Howe 2. Orr 3. Gretzky 4. Lemiuex 5. Jagr (gatekeeper) 6. Crosby 7. Ovechkin I would say Jagr is the lowest level a guy can be to reach that high pedestal. Five Art Ross Trophies, three Lester B. Pearson (Ted Lindsay) trophies, one Hart and four 2nd place Hart finishes...pretty high standard to be the "worst" of the bunch. McDavid is trending towards getting in, but he's got a way to go before I think he's written in. There's also a chance that MacKinnon makes a case, but he'll either need to step up his regular season game to win some Art Ross trophies or take home a Conn Smythe or two.
  8. Updated (6/18/21): Defensemen: Career Points (Alex Edler - 409 points) Career Games (Alex Edler - 925 games) Career Assists (Alex Edler - 310 assists) Team: Most recent 6-goal differential (Jan 25, 2021, 7-1 vs Ottawa Senators) Other notes: - We have not won by exactly 5 goals in nearly two years, but we've won by six goals a few times in that span. - Edler (46 PPG) is 2 powerplay goals from tying Salo as the all-time leader in PPGs, who has 48. - Edler is 1 goal from becoming the first Canuck defenseman to score 100 goals with the team. - I decided to count Miller as a winger for this season, so he doesn't get noted on the OT goals/season record (2 would tie the current record, originally set by Messier in 1999-00)
  9. Bogosian always reminds me of Gudbranson and thus doesn't appeal much to me. Something about being big stay-at-home defensemen 3rd overall picks.
  10. People are just hating on Makar because they're jealous. I know I am jealous. Hughes was much better defensively last year and not as good this year. That said, it's too early to write him off, as he is still young and will likely improve defensively as he gets more experience.
  11. Never thought about a performance bonus, but I guess that is an option with his age on a 1-year deal. Would probably make a lot of sense actually.
  12. What's more is that not every retiree joins the alumni. My experience as a young fan taught me that when I expected to see all the 90s legends when going to alumni games and certainly didn't.
  13. I think there's a chance the extra $2M could be huge this year with our cap crunch and worth the loss of $1M next year.
  14. I think a buyout is probably more likely than retirement.
  15. Crazy. They really do look alike.
  16. Nice work. I'm not entirely certain that Eriksson will actually retire and that we'll be able to terminate Virtanen's contract and I think the cap is probably the most difficult part of making your plan work. There are a few other contracts I'm not certain about, but overall, good work.
  17. I saw Pete Webster in the Associate Members for a sec and thought we had this guy:
  18. Context is extremely relevant. For instance, Horvat has a career offensive zone start % of just 44.2% which heavily influences both possession metrics and +/-. On top of that overall team performance also affects +/- and CORSI and should also be factored in. His career FO % is also 53.1%. Nobody is saying +/- is a perfect stat on it's own, but literally no stat is good on it's own. It plays a role in statistical analysis alongside many other statistics. Anyone saying Horvat is terrible defensively because he's a -71 is making an incomplete and unsubstantiated claim, but to completely ignore +/- simply because it isn't a perfect stand-alone stat is too extreme IMO. Every single stat in hockey needs context, support, and corroboration with other stats to substantiate their implications.
  19. In the last 5-10 years, +/- has been overly criticized IMO. It definitely has flaws, but as you say, it still gives valuable info and especially in context, can be useful.
  20. I have a feeling that the Knights are going to demolish the Habs in 4 straight. Habs came out on top against the weakest division imo. Rooting for the Canadiens, but I don't think they have a chance.
  21. I think Trotz shines in the playoffs (though he's obviously still excellent in the regular season). If the award encapsulated the playoffs as well, he'd have probably won it 3 or 4 times already.
  22. It was a bit more broad in the sense that both players were strong players in the AHL, particularly offensively, though I think Rafferty seems to have an offensive edge over McEneny. The Canucks didn't give either much of a shot (only so far for Rafferty).
  23. Almost feels like Evan McEneny all over again.
  24. Great choices all around. I'd go with Quenneville.
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