King Clancy Trophy

Does Lanny McDonald Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

66 goals in season. A classic Old Guy Who Won a Stanley Cup. Scored 40 goals three seasons in a row for the Leafs. That mustache.

Sounds like he should be in, right? But McDonald was not a point-a-game player and he actually only had 4 really good seasons. (Seriously.)

So does Lanny McDonald belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame? Listen to us discuss his case here:

Does Bryan Trottier Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Bryan Trottier won six Cups, a Hart, an Art Ross, a Conn Smythe (and should have won a second) and was among the all time leading scorers in NHL history when he retired.

Really the only blemish on his career is that adjustments for era hurt him a little bit.

So it’s obvious he belongs in the Hall of Fame and the question really is, where does he rank all time among NHL centres?

Listen to us talk about Trottier here:

Is Ray Bourque the Greatest D of All Time?

Ravenswing, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ray bourque is the career leader in goals, assists and points for a D, he has 5 Norris Trophies and he has more end-of-season All Star team appearances than anyone other than Gordie Howe.

So where does he rank all time among the greatest defencemen ever? Is he #2? Is he not even in the Top 5 as one of us used to believe?

Listen to us talk about Bourque here:

Does Curtis Joseph Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

ScottSternberg, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cujo is 7th All Time in Wins and was, by Goalie Point Shares, the Most Valuable Goalie in the league for three straight seasons and yet is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

So, does he belong?

Listen to us talk about him here:

Is Kevin Lowe the Worst Player to be Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Normally with our subject lines we ask “Does so and so belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame”? But, with Kevin Lowe, it’s hard to ask that question seriously even though he’s been inducted.

And that’s because, as you’ll see below, Kevin Lowe’s case for Hall of Fame induction rests on one thing and one thing alone: he won some Cups.

So listen to us rant about Kevin Lowe in this episode of our podcast:

Is Ron Francis One of the Great Centres in NHL History?

Ron Francis undoubtedly belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Skaters who played as long as he did and were as consistently good as he was always get in.

by akulawolf / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

But the real question is, how good was he? He was never really a top offensive star and his best years came as the second line centre on a team with two of the best forwards in history (and one of the two candidates for best centre ever).

Listen to us debate Francis’ career here:

Does Henrik Zetterberg Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

by JamesTeterenko assumed (based on copyright claims). [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Before we recorded this episode, one of us was pretty convince he did belong and the other was skeptical. Somehow, talking about his case, we both changed our minds!

Zetterberg was undoubtedly one of the best two-way forwards of his era; overshadowed in awards voting by his teammate, he actually performed better in the playoffs than Datsyuk.

So does he belong?

Listen to our latest episode here:

Does Dave Taylor Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Aside from Marcel Dionne and Luke Robitaille, perhaps nobody is identified is identified with the pre-Gretzky Los Angeles Kings as King lifer Dave Taylor.

Despite never playing a full season, Taylor put up impressive numbers throughout his career, much of it spent on the first line of the kings.

But are his stats enough to get him in the Hall? We discuss his case in our latest episode:

Does Doug Weight Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Until very recently, Doug Weight was one of the Top 5 American passers in the history of the NHL, and he did so while playing his prime in the Dead Puck (Clutch and Grab) era, at one point scoring over 100 points in a season.

We both fondly remember Weight from those classic Oilers-Stars series of the late ’90s and early ’00s. But does he really deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame?

Listen to our discussion 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

Weight’s stats:

Does Joe Nieuwendyk Belong in the Hockey of Fame?

Joe Nieuwendyk as an elite goal-scoring centre who transitioned into one of the great two-way forwards of his era. But did he really deserve his Conny Smythe Trophy? If he didn’t, what does that do to his Hall of Fame case?

Listen to us talk about Nieuwendyk 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

Warning! This episode contains an extremely hot take about Nieuwendyk’s Conn Smythe.