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Overrated and Underrated players in history


whcanuck

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Hey guys

 

I thought it'd be fun to see who your most overrated forward, defenseman and goaltender of all time is? And the same questions for underrated?

 

For me

 

Overrated (keep in mind I think all these players were good, but not as good as the media made them out to be)

 

Goalie- Grant Fuhr

 

Good glove hand, very athletic. But he seems to get a lot of hype when his team would typically score 6-8 goals for him per night.

 

 

Defenseman- Mark Howe

 

Solid defenseman, but it seems that his name carried a lot of weight. I don't think he's as good as Sergei Zubov and Zubov's not in the hall of fame and Howe is.

 

 

Forward- Mark Messier

 

This will probably make a lot of Canucks fans happy haha. I think he was a great player, but the credit he gets for his leadership abilities is vastly overhyped in my opinion. Plus he did nothing for the Canucks and the team got a lot better after he left. 

 

 

Underrated

 

Goalie: Bill Ranford

 

He plays the entire playoffs for the Oilers in 1990, wins the Cup and the Conn Smythe, the next year, Grant Fuhr plays the majority of the playoff games. Underappreciated might be a better word for Ranford. His skills faded a bit in the late 90s, but in the early 90s he was one of the best goalies in the league. Always played in the shadow of guys like Roy and Belfour.

 

Defenseman: Steve Duchesne

 

Always pretty solid for whatever team had him, Duchesne never got tons of fanfare. He had three 20-goal seasons from the blueline in the late 80s and early 90s and never once made the first or second all-star team.

 

Forward: Pierre Turgeon

 

Hard to believe he's underrated, but look at his stats, more than 500 goals and 1300 points and it seems like he's barely mentioned in discussions for potential hall of famers.

 

 

Feel free to dispute my choices, that's the point. What are your guys' picks?

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i disagree with the grant fuhr choice

i watched the oilers during their heyday

fuhr could shut down the other team when needed and the oilers had a lead

he had a bit of that roy mindset

i accept he is not a top 10 of all time goalie

but he was a critical element to those cup winning oiler teams

and i don't see how he is over rated

you might be overlooking how loosely the oilers played defence back then

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Over rated:

 

Ed Belfour   Breezy Bryzgalov 

 

Dion Phaneuf  Drew Doughty  Luke Schenn lol (wouldn't trade him for 10 firsts!)

 

JRoenick  Mark Messier (post Coil)  Petr Nedved  Dany Heatley   Doug Gilmour   

honorable mention: the cookie monster Phil Kessel

 

 

 

Under rated

 

Curtis Joseph

 

Jyrkki Lumme  Phil Housley  Sami Salo   

 

Patrice Bergeron  Esa Tikkanen  Bryan Trottier  Trevor Linden Steve Larmer  Dale Hawerchuk

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2 minutes ago, oldnews said:

Over rated:

 

Ed Belfour   Breezy Bryzgalov 

 

Dion Phaneuf  Drew Doughty  Luke Schenn lol (wouldn't trade him for 10 firsts!)

 

JRoenick  Mark (post Edmonton) Messier  Petr Nedved  Dany Heatley   Doug Gilmour

 

 

 

Under rated

 

Curtis Joseph

 

Jyrkki Lumme  Phil Housley  Sami Salo   

 

Patrice Bergeron  Esa Tikkanen  Bryan Trottier  Trevor Linden Steve Larmer  Dale Hawerchuk

Everyone says Patrice Bergeron is underrated but he isn't he is just in the middle.

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21 minutes ago, HerrDrFunk said:

Toews and Kopitar to start.

That's debatable. 

 

 

Goals

Toews 28

Bergeron 32

Kopitar 25

 

Assists

Toews 30

Bergeron 36

Kopitar 49

 

Takeaways and turnover differential

Toews 57, +29

Bergeron 67, +33

Kopitar 43, -2

 

Faceoff percentage

Toews 58.6

Bergeron 57.1

Kopitar  53.5

 

Relative corsi

Toews +4.1

Bergeron +20.4 (best in the NHL)

Kopitar  +2.4

 

Relative quality of competition

Toews +1.458

Bergeron +1,444

Kopitar +0.749

 

Offensive zone starts - zone finish differential 

Toews 55.4, -3.0

Bergeron 45.9, +4.7

Kopitar 51.8, -0.7

 

Hits and blocks

Toews  81, 38

Bergeron 77, 56

Kopitar  78, 65

 

 

There is absolutely nothing that separates Bergeron from any of the elite two way players in the NHL - not hard to make the case that he's as good, if not better, than anyone.

 

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Mike Bossy, Rated #20 in all time by the Hockey News.

 

The guy should be Top 10, MINIMUM.

 

9 consecutive 50 goal seasons (Not even Gretzky did that).

 

 Most  60 goal seasons, 5 (tied with Gretzky non-consecutive).

 

Given a minimum of 200 games highest goals per game average. .762. (Beats Gretzky)

 

Most consecutive hat-tricks. 3 (Tied with Phantom Joe Malone).

 

1126 points in 752 games.

 

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, whcanuck said:

Hey guys

 

I thought it'd be fun to see who your most overrated forward, defenseman and goaltender of all time is? And the same questions for underrated?

 

For me

 

Overrated (keep in mind I think all these players were good, but not as good as the media made them out to be)

 

Goalie- Grant Fuhr

 

Good glove hand, very athletic. But he seems to get a lot of hype when his team would typically score 6-8 goals for him per night.

 

Definitely agree here. Fuhr's success was largely a result of his team IMO.

 

Defenseman- Mark Howe

 

Solid defenseman, but it seems that his name carried a lot of weight. I don't think he's as good as Sergei Zubov and Zubov's not in the hall of fame and Howe is.

Disagree on this one. Howe's 80 and 82-point seasons speak volumes. I actually generally consider him underrated among many defensemen. That said, I would say Zubov is underrated.

 

Forward- Mark Messier

 

This will probably make a lot of Canucks fans happy haha. I think he was a great player, but the credit he gets for his leadership abilities is vastly overhyped in my opinion. Plus he did nothing for the Canucks and the team got a lot better after he left. 

Agree. More of a guy who could lead good teams. Had some great offensive years early on and from then on was just consistent more than a star. His leadership fell apart on a bad team.

 

Underrated

 

Goalie: Bill Ranford

 

He plays the entire playoffs for the Oilers in 1990, wins the Cup and the Conn Smythe, the next year, Grant Fuhr plays the majority of the playoff games. Underappreciated might be a better word for Ranford. His skills faded a bit in the late 90s, but in the early 90s he was one of the best goalies in the league. Always played in the shadow of guys like Roy and Belfour.

Haven't looked into Ranford enough to be sure here.

Defenseman: Steve Duchesne

 

Always pretty solid for whatever team had him, Duchesne never got tons of fanfare. He had three 20-goal seasons from the blueline in the late 80s and early 90s and never once made the first or second all-star team.

Never really thought about it much, but I'd generally agree. Not many people remember him despite his great offense.

Forward: Pierre Turgeon

 

Hard to believe he's underrated, but look at his stats, more than 500 goals and 1300 points and it seems like he's barely mentioned in discussions for potential hall of famers.

Absolutely agree. Not sure how he's so often forgotten.

 

Feel free to dispute my choices, that's the point. What are your guys' picks?

Here are mine:

Over-rated

Goaltender - Grant Fuhr

I wasn't going to double up on any of the OP's picks, but Fuhr is by far the most overrated star goaltender in NHL history in my opinion. While his win totals are extremely high, his GAA and Save percentage numbers are far below other goaltenders who are often named around him. While you could argue this was a result of the era, even goaltenders around his win level in the 80s are above him. Roy, Vernon, Vanbiesbrouck, Moog, and Barrasso all rank above him in career save percentage. They also all rank above him in GAA. In fact, Fuhr (who ranks 10th all-time in wins), is below every goaltender in GAA until 33rd in wins, Mike Liut.

 

Defenseman - Scott Niedermayer

Honestly, this one was difficult. I have a tough time picking this one, but for a long time, I've had trouble seeing why people were so excited about him. His skating was great, but it didn't turn into insane point totals. He was definitely a star and among the best defenders in the league at his time, but I felt that he was often just a bit too over-hyped. That said, some say that New Jersey's defensive style of hockey mitigated his offensive potential, so I could have been singing a different tune if his best years were with a different team.

 

Forward - Mats Sundin

I kind of wanted to pick Messier here as well, but I told myself I couldn't pick two of the OP's picks. While Sundin was an incredible leader and a very consistent player, he was never among the very top players in the league. The highest he was ever voted in the Hart Trophy voting was 8th and only got any votes at all four other times in his career. For a guy as hyped up as he seems to be, he wasn't quite the star you'd expect.

 

Underrated

Goaltender - Turk Broda

Despite not playing on a great team, Broda led his team to many victories in the 1940s. He won the Vezina twice and was 4th in the Hart voting once.

 

Defenseman - Brad Park

This was one of those guys who I once didn't know of and was shocked once I checked out his stats. How does this guy fly under the radar? He had three 20+ goal seasons as well as 82 and 79 points in two of those seasons. The only reason I can think of is that he was doing this at the same time Bobby Orr and Denis Potvin were plying their trade, thus making his efforts seem less impressive.

 

Forward - Bernie Federko

"Who?" you ask. Exactly. No one even knows who this guy was, but he was a stalwart for the St. Louis Blues for 13 years during the late 70s and 80s. Federko may have not been well known since he wasn't a goal scorer, but rather a playmaker. He maxed out at 41 goals, but had 10 consecutive seasons in which he had 50+ assists, including a 64-game season. He had four 100+ point seasons and two 73-assist seasons. While he certainly wasn't the star of the 80s, it's a shame no one seems to even know his name.

 

 

Just my two cents. To be honest, I'm more well versed on the underrated players, so I could probably be convinced otherwise on some of the overrated players, especially Niedermayer. I felt like I was grasping at straws a bit on that one.

 

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6 hours ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Mike Bossy, Rated #20 in all time by the Hockey News.

 

The guy should be Top 10, MINIMUM.

 

9 consecutive 50 goal seasons (Not even Gretzky did that).

 

 Most  60 goal seasons, 5 (tied with Gretzky non-consecutive).

 

Given a minimum of 200 games highest goals per game average. .762. (Beats Gretzky)

 

Most consecutive hat-tricks. 3 (Tied with Phantom Joe Malone).

 

1126 points in 752 games.

 

 

 

 

 

I do agree here. It's hard to consider him underrated when he's till highly regarded, but I agree that he's often not regarded highly enough. He's right around the top 10 mark for me.

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7 hours ago, oldnews said:

That's debatable. 

 

 

Goals

Toews 28

Bergeron 32

Kopitar 25

 

Assists

Toews 30

Bergeron 36

Kopitar 49

 

Takeaways and turnover differential

Toews 57, +29

Bergeron 67, +33

Kopitar 43, -2

 

Faceoff percentage

Toews 58.6

Bergeron 57.1

Kopitar  53.5

 

Relative corsi

Toews +4.1

Bergeron +20.4 (best in the NHL)

Kopitar  +2.4

 

Relative quality of competition

Toews +1.458

Bergeron +1,444

Kopitar +0.749

 

Offensive zone starts - zone finish differential 

Toews 55.4, -3.0

Bergeron 45.9, +4.7

Kopitar 51.8, -0.7

 

Hits and blocks

Toews  81, 38

Bergeron 77, 56

Kopitar  78, 65

 

 

There is absolutely nothing that separates Bergeron from any of the elite two way players in the NHL - not hard to make the case that he's as good, if not better, than anyone.

 

Nice research. I'd agree that while Toews and Kopitar are incredibly good, people overrate them just a tad due to their past success. A slightly off year in which Bergeron might out-perform them could be overlooked just because people automatically slot them in as the best two defensive forwards.

 

On that note, I personally think Pavelski is highly underrated. He seems to dominate in the face-off circle and have great defensive stats all-around. On top of that, he's among the best goal scorers in the league too.

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