Bobby Smith was a star for the North Stars and then the Habs. But he has pretty mediocre offensive numbers given when he played. But then he has remarkably high playoff point totals.
Cully Wilson was a notorious goon of a hockey player. He is also one of the rare early pros to have success in all four major pro leagues. Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?
Anders Hedberg’s Hall of Fame case is very similar to that of his countryman’s, Ulf Nilsson. Both came to North America at the same time. Both dominated the WHA and won Avo Cups. And then they left the Jets together for the Rangers, where they had some team success and less individual success. (And lots of injury problems.)
Whether or not you think George Hay belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame depends a lot on how much weight you put on a player scoring at a point-per-game pace in the Western Canada Hockey League. It’s worth noting that Hay lost the scoring race to both Duke Keats and Bill Cook in different WCHL seasons – i.e. he was never clearly the best offensive player in the WCHL/WHL. Nor was he ever a true star in the NHL: His brief NHL career isn’t particularly distinguished compared to the careers of his contemporaries, given the size of the NHL at the time.
by Schyffel [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]
By some metrics, Ulf Nilsson was the Greatest Player, or at least Greatest Forward, in WHA history. (APG and PPG, specifically.) But when he moved to the NHL he saw his numbers plummet and his career fall apart due to injuries.
In this episode we discuss whether or not Ulf Nilsson did enough in the WHA for us to say he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
by Resolute [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
It might seem like a silly question. However, as if this writing, Jere Lehtinen is the only eligible player with at least three Selke trophies not in the Hall of Fame. (If Datsyuk doesn’t get in once he’s eligible, there will be two.)
In this episode we discuss Lehtinen’s case in light of Guy Carbonneau’s induction in 2019.
The “Little Ball of Hate” scored 500 goals and racked up nearly 3,000 penalty minutes. But otherwise, he doesn’t have much of a case to join the Hall of Fame, it would seem. So why did we talk about him?