Who really belongs in the Hall of Fame?
Every NHL player's case analyzed
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:
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:
Continue reading “Does Cy Denneny 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:
Bullet Joe Simpson was considered by none other than Newsy Lalonde as the best hockey player in the world. How good was he? How can we tell?
Listen here:
Continue reading “Does Joe Simpson 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.
Continue reading “Does Harold Punch Broadbent Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”Herb Gardiner may have been one of the premier defencemen of his era, and was awarded the Hart Trophy as a result.
But how good was he really? Can we even know? How do we evaluate defencemen from the 1920s who didn’t score a lot? Can we trust Hart trophy wins from the past when we know they sometimes awarded them for controversial reasons?
Listen to us talk about Herb Gardiner here:
Continue reading “Does Herb Gardiner Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”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:
Continue reading “Does Dick Irvin Sr. Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a Player?”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:
Continue reading “Frank Nighbor, the First NHL MVP”Frank Foyston was a star in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) but never really reached the same level in the NHA, WCHL or NHL, all of which he played in for at least 39 games.
Do players like Foyston, who only excelled in one of the early pro leagues, truly belong in the Hall of Fame?
Listen to us talk about Frank Foyston here:
Continue reading “Does Frank Foyston Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”As with all our old timers, the question for us is, “How good was Jack Darragh?” Was he really a great player or was he merely someone who the voters fondly remembered?
In this episode, we examine his case. Listen here:
Continue reading “Does Jack Darragh Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?”