Does Pavel Datsyuk Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Pavel Datsyuk was arguably the best two-way forward of his era, able to dominate other teams defensively without taking many penalties, while scoring enough to sometimes rank in the Top 10 in league scoring. He was the NHL’s first “Corsi God,” a player who drove possession so well that, once the NHL started tracking possession numbers, Datsyuk was simply the best player in the league by those metrics.

However, Datsyuk does not have the gaudy offensive numbers of other NHL Hall of Famers, and he was often played as the second best forward on his own team.

So where does Datsyuk rank all time? Listen to us talk about Pavel Datsyuk here:

Continue reading “Does Pavel Datsyuk Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

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?

Continue reading “Defensive Defensemen”

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.

Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Martin St Louis Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

Does Ziggy Palffy Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

A lot of people probably think Ziggy Palffy doesn’t have a case in hell for Hall of Fame. Well, we beg top differ.

In our latest episode, hear us make a case for Palffy’s induction, based upon the standards set by previous inductees.

Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Ziggy Palffy Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

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.

Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Chris Pronger Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

Does Sergei Zubov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

by Eric Wallace from Plano, Texas, USA [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

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.

Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Sergei Zubov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

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:

Continue reading “Does Sergei Fedorov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

Does Phil Housley Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Phil Housley has some of the most impressive career offensive totals of any NHL defenceman, especially an American.

He is also -53 for his career.

Should the Hall of Fame inducted a player who appears, on first glance, to have not been very good in his own end?

We discuss in our latest episode. Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Phil Housley Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

Does Sergei Gonchar Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

We doubt Sergei Gonchar is a name many would have considered for induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But he had a rather great career despite his lack of accolades.

In our latest episode, we debate whether or not Sergei Gonchar deserves to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Listen here:

Continue reading “Does Sergei Gonchar Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”

Does Sergei Makarov belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Sergei Makarov was a star in the USSR for a decade before playing in the NHL. In fact, he might have been the best hockey player in the world not in the NHL for much of the 1980s.

But given how much the Hockey Hall of Fame focuses on NHL experience, did he deserve to be inducted?

Listen here to find out:

Continue reading “Does Sergei Makarov belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”