Back Check

Does Mike Modano Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Mike Modano never scored more than 93 points in a single season and yet some people regard him as one of the greatest American-born hockey players ever, if not the absolute greatest.

Others look at his offensive output and think he’s horribly overrated.

Which is it? Does he belong or has he been horribly overrated?

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Does Vincent Damphousse Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

By offensive numbers alone, it sure looks like there’s no much of a case for Vincent Damphousse to be included in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

However, some of us remember him as being particularly reliable defensively.

Was he? Did he do enough on that end? Have we forgotten how good he was because he never won the Selke, or are we mis-remembering?

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Does Rod Brind’Amour Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Rod Brind’Amour was a borderline offensive star in his early years and a consensus star defensive forward in the latter half of his career, winning the Selke twice. He is -39 for his career.

Was Brind’Amour that elite defensively? Was he a good enough all around player to be inducted?

Listen to us discuss Brind’Amour’s Hall of Fame case:

Is Nicklas Lidstrom the 2nd Best Defenseman of All Time?

If you judge strictly on the basis of Norris Trophy wins, Nicklas Lidstrom is the second best NHL defenseman of all time.

Obviously Norris wins are not the only criteria we should use when evaluating NHL D, so in this episode we look at his entire career and try to figure out where he ranks all time.

Listen to us talk about Nick Lidstrom here:

Defensive Defensemen

Since the position of defenseman was created, there have been defenders who contributed to the team’s offense and there have been players who didn’t much. But this difference was exacerbated by the expansion of the NHL in 1967 and the phenomenon of Bobby Orr, who destroyed scoring records for defenders, and showed that teams could expect scoring from the back-end in ways they never imagined.

This change essentially created a dichotomy between “offensive” defensemen, who scored a lot, albeit not quite as much as Bobby Orr, and “defensive” defensemen, who didn’t score much at all. For our purposes, we’ve arbitrarily assumed that a “defensive defenseman” is a defender which manged .35 adjusted PPG or less throughout their NHL career.

The Hall of Fame’s attitude towards defensively inclined defenders also changed since expansion. The Hall of Fame has inducted six NHL defensemen from that era who scored less than .35 adjusted PPG (of a total of 16 legitimate candidates they could have inducted). But the Hall of Fame has inducted exactly one player who fits the bill, Rod Langway, to play the majority of his career since expansion.

This leads to three possible conclusions:

Rod Langway was the best defensive defenseman since expansion, significantly better than any other, and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame while no other player with a similar skill set deserves the honour. OR
There are other players of Rod Langway’s ability who have been forgotten or overlooked because they didn’t get the awards votes (Norris and Hart) that Langway got, and they deserve to be in. OR
Rod Langway’s awards votes are a historical curiosity that won’t happen again and he didn’t necessarily deserve them, nor do other players who fail to contribute offensively, and no defensive defensemen should be inducted into the Hall of Fame going forward.

How do we sort out this problem?

Does Martin St Louis Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Martin St. Louis will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in October. Yet there are people who strongly believe he either doesn’t belong or that he should have “wait.” (Why someone should have to wait, we don’t know.)

In our latest episode, we talk about how open and shut St. Louis’ Hall of Fame inclusion case truly is even though one of us doesn’t personally like the guy for no particular reason.

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Does Chris Pronger Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Chris Pronger was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame even while under contract to an NHL team. What was the rush inducting while he was still technically active? Was he really that good.

In this episode we discuss Pronger’s career and his HOF case.

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Does Sergei Zubov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Sergei Zubov was one of the best defencemen in the NHL for nearly two decades yet, when he recorded this episode, he was not yet in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Why did it take so long? Was it because he’s Russian? Was it because he played most of his career in Dallas and wasn’t watched enough?

In this episode, we marveled at how Zubov was not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Of course, since then the Hall of Fame corrected their mistake. Still, it’s a fun episode.

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Does Sergei Fedorov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Sergei Fedorov had a couple great seasons and a very long career. Yet he was inducted very quickly, as if he was a no-doubter. Did Fedorov deserve that treatment?

Listen to us discuss Fedorov’s case here:

Does Marian Hossa Belong the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Marian Hossa combined long-term offensive productivity with defensive dominance on the wing, does he belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

He has the career numbers given when he played but he never dominated offensively and he was never awarded the Selke.

Listen to us discuss Hossa’s case here: