Does Pavel Bure Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Pavel Bure was a dominant goal-scorer in both the NHL’s highest scoring era and one of its lower scoring.

In this episode we talk about Bure, his stats, and why he wasn’t inducted immediately despite being one of the most dominant scorers in the history of the sport.

Listen here:

Here are Bure’s stats:

Career

• NHL: 1991-2003; 12 seasons, 10 quality
• Totals:
  • 437G (4th Russian All Time),
  • 342A for
  • 779P,
  • +42 in
  • 702 games;
  • 24:24 ATOI (since 1998-99);
  • 93.1 PS
  • [Note: Though Bure is not in the Top 5 USSR-born players in Offensive Point Shares (he’s 8th), it’s worth noting that he has played hundreds fewer games than all the players above him aside from Malkin (2nd, 1 season more than Bure to date) and Kovalchuk (6th, season and a half more than Bure to date) – i.e. if Offensive Point Shares was a rate statistic, Bure would likely be at the very top of the list]
• Per Game: Bure is
  • 5th All Time in GPG (1st Russian) and
  • 24th in PPG (3rd Russian)
• In his draft class (1989), Bure, drafted 113th overall is
  • 23rd in Games but
  • 3rd in Goals,
  • 7th in Assists and
  • 5th in Points
• Era: Of the hundreds of players to play in at least 500 games between 1991 and 2003, Bure is
  • 5th in Goals
  • 1st in GPG
  • 53rd in Assists
  • 45th in APG
  • 22nd in Points
  • 7th in PPG
  • 108th in Plus/Minus
  • 10th in Offensive Point Shares
  • 22nd in Point Shares
• 82-game average: 51G, 40A for 91P
• 3-year peak (1998-01): 73G, 32A for 105P, +13
• Playoffs: 35G, 35A for 70P, +8 in 64 games; 23:58 ATOI (since 1998-99)
• Adjusted: 463G, 360A for 823P
• Adjusted 82-game average: 54G, 42A for 96P
• Bure is 11th All Time in Adjusted GPG and 22nd All Time in Adjusted PPG
• Traded twice in his prime:
  • Traded at 27 with Bret Hedican (29) and Brad Ference (19) and a 3rd rounder (nobody) for Ed Jovanovski (22), Dave Gagner (34), Mike Brown (19), Kevin Weekes (23) and a 1st round pick (Nathan Smith)
  • Traded at nearly 31 with a 2nd round pick (nobody) for Igor Ulanov (22), Filip Novak (19), a 1st (Eric Nystrom), a 2nd (Rob Globke) and a 4th (Guillaume Desbiens)

Accomplishments

• Calder (’92)
• Rocket Richard (’00, ’01)
• Top 5 in Hart voting once (’00)
• Top 5 Player (by PS) twice (’98, ’00)
• Best Offensive Player (by OPS) once (’00), Top 5 four times (’94, ’98, ’01), Top 10 five times (’93)
• Scored 60 goals twice (1 of only 6 players ever), 55 goals four times (1 only 7 players ever), 50 goals five times (1 of only 11 players ever), 30 goals seven times, 20 goals nine times
• Tallied 50 assists once, 40 assists twice
• Scored 110 points once, 100 points twice, 90 points five times, 60 points seven times, 50 points eight times
• Led the league in Goals thrice, Top 5 five times
• Led the league in GPG once, Top 5 five times, Top 10 six times
• Top 5 in Points thrice, Top 10 four times
• Top 5 in PPG once, Top 10 four times
• Top 5 in Plus Minus once
• 1st All Star Team once, 2nd Team twice
• 6 All Star Games.
• Playoffs:
  • Led 36% of his career playoff series in Points (5th All Time – Gretzky, Lemieux, Draisaitl, Kucherov)
  • Top 3 in Points in 73% of his career playoff series (4th All Time – Lemieux, Gretzky, McDavid)

Great Teams

• Best Skater (by points) on one Runner Up (’94 Canucks)
• Best Player (awarded “Best Forward”, led team in points) on one Olympic Runner Up (’98 Russia), Top 6? Forward (by points) on one Olympic Bronze (’02 Russia)
• Top 3 Forward ^{(by points)} on one World Champion Bronze (’91 USSR), Top 6 Forward (by points) on one World Champion (’90 USSR)
• Best Player (awarded “Best Forward”, led team in points) on one World Junior Champion (’89 USSR) and one Runner Up (’91 USSR), Top 3 Forward (by points) on one WJC Runner Up (’90 USSR)
• Top 6? Forward (by points) on two European Champions (’89, ’90 CSKA Moscow), Role Player (by points) on one European Champion (’88 CKSA Moscow).