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:

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Here are Bure’s stats:

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Does Alexander Mogilny Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Alex Mogilny had one of the best goal-scoring seasons in the history of the NHL and one other pretty dominant season. But the knock on him was his consistency, as he had very mediocre years in between his good years.

Mogilny is also notable for being one of the last USSR players to defect to the States, and having never played internationally for Russia once he did so.

In this episode, we discuss his convoluted case for induction:

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Here are his stats:

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James Odie Cleghorn

Odie Cleghorn’s brother is a famous Hall of Fame hockey player. Was Odie also deserving?

In this episode, we discuss whether or not Odie Cleghorn has a comparable case to some other NHA/1920s players who were questionably inducted.

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Odie’s stats are as follows:

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Does Edward Reg Noble Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Reg Noble’s biggest claim to fame is that he set the NHL career record in games played and, when he retired he was way ahead of the next player.

Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? We talk about him here:

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Does Cy Denneny Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If consistency is what matters, Denneny was one of the best, if not the best, wingers of the NHL’s first decade and a half. Though only briefly dominant, he played and scored longer than most players. So we wonder where he ranks all time.

Listen to us talk about Cy Denneny here:

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Does Joe Sakic Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Joe Sakic was one of the great centers of his era, dominating during a hard time to score and then scoring consistently for a very long time. The question isn’t whether he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but where he ranks among the greatest centres of all time.

Listen to us discuss Joe Sakic here:

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Does Georges Buck Boucher Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Georges Boucher aka Buck Boucher was among the very best defencemen of the NHL’s first decade and a half. Where does he rank all time?

Listen here:

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Does Harold Punch Broadbent Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

According to some, Punch Broadbent was the original power forward, the first (NHL?) hockey player to combine skill and physicality in a dominant way.

If that’s true, then even without going through is stats he likely has a pretty good case for the Hockey Hall of Fame. But we’ll look at his career anyway.

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Does Dick Irvin Sr. Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a Player?

Dick Irvin Sr. is arguably not as famous as his son to anyone who isn’t a Habs fan or who isn’t a really old Leafs fan.

But before he was a great coach, he was a player. In this episode of The Back Check we try to decide whether he was a player who was good enough to be inducted just as a player, and not due to his coach record, because that’s a conversation we can have.

Listen here:

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Frank Nighbor, the First NHL MVP

Frank Nighbor was awarded the first ever Hart Trophy for the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. He must have been pretty good.

But did he deserve that trophy? How good was he really?

Listen to us discuss Frank Nighbor:

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