Back Check Best Player

Reevaluating the Hart Trophy Part 1: Introduction

Welcome to our series on the NHL’s Hart Trophy, its MVP award.

The MVP trophy is the most important trophy for any league; for better or worse it is how we determine who was the “best” player and, when we look at league history, it’s one way we use to judge players against each other, and, ultimately, it’s part of how we decide whether or not someone belongs in the greatness canon (whether that is the Hall of Fame or something else).

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:

Error occurred when trying to fetch the file using wp_remote_get(). cURL error 6: Could not resolve host: the-back-check.pinecast.comedia

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.

Does Peter Forsberg Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Peter Forsberg combined elite passing with elite defensive ability and elite effort. His offensive rate statistics put him among the very best centres in the history of the NHL. Add to that his defense, and it feels as though he has a case to be considered one of the best centres to ever play the game.

Listen to us discuss Peter Forsberg:

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:

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:

Does Eric Lindros Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

How great was Eric Lindros really?

Was he all hype or did he live up to some of it? Is the only thing keeping him from the GOAT conversation his concussion history?

Listen to us talk about Lindros here:

Does Newsy Lalonde Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

The question with Newsy isn’t whether or not he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame but rather, is Newsy Lalonde one of the Greatest of All Time?

Newsy’s dominance of the early NHL is unrivaled but where does he rank all time?

Listen here:

Does Jarome Iginla Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Though he’s technically still active, we decided there was no way he was going to improve his case if he ever did manage to make an NHL comeback, so we decided to talk about Jarome Iginla’s Hall of Fame case.

You can listen to the episode here:

Does Jaromir Jagr Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

In this episode of The Back Check, we debate whether or not Jaromir Jagr is one of the greatest Right Wings in the history of the NHL.

Listen to the show here: