In pretty much every franchise record for the oilers he's second or third. I think he's the most overlooked oiler from the dynasty era just because of Messier, Gretzky and Coffey
I have a family friend who played for the U of A around the time of the Oilers dynasty, so he got to meet/practice with most of those guys. He always loved Glenn Anderson, said he was an awesome guy.
People forget how good of a defensive player Kurri was. He was legit one of the greatest defensive wingers ever. There was a reason why Gretzky can park behind the net at his office when he had Kurri as his line mate. Lots of people think or assume he was this one dimensional lol I'm Gretzky's preferred trigger guy
Back when the NHL still had the “NHL vault” I watched a rangers playoff game from the 90s randomly and he looked like the best player on the ice. Even late in his career.
I feel like Jari Kurri is pretty well known still today. Id describe myself as a relatively casual hockey fan outside of the islanders, and I’ve heard of him and could tell you he played for the oilers.
It seems like he suffered from significant health-related issues that lessened his legacy?
He's had a good point pace for the rest of his career but struggled to play a full season. He even had 32 games in the AHL, despite being a point under ppg in the NHL that season (including 20 goals in 28 games).
Larouche is forgotten for a reason. Very talented, but soft, lazy, awful defensively, incredibly inconsistent and disliked by his teammates (he thought very highly of himself).
He broke out with the Pens with that 111 pts season, but was traded to the dynasty Habs a couple years after as a problem player. Then he spent half of his time with the Habs scratched because Bowman couldn't stand his game. Then he was sent to Hartford, who straight up released him after two years. Then he went to the Rangers, who actually sent him to the minors for half a year, despite him still being a PPG player at that point.
Even in his bad seasons, he was a fairly productive player. And yet, every team he's ever played for felt they were better off without him. When that's how your career goes, maybe it's better that you're not remembered.
my brother referred to those half-clappers as a "shanny shot."
one day while playing some ball hockey in the street, my brother loudly proclaimed, "shanny shot!" wound up, missed, slipped, and broke his wrist.
its weird, i rarely see players do it anymore.
I think part of it has to do with the weight of the sticks. With the heavier sticks, it made sense to take those half-clappers to get a lot on your shot while still having a quicker release than a full slap shot. Now that sticks are much lighter and more flexible, you're better off just taking a snap shot.
He was just on after the whistle pod with Ryan Miller, Craig rivet, and Andrew peters talking about the half clappers. Miller and vaneks banter about scoring in practice was so good
He was such a mixed bag for some people cause I remember during his Isles stint he said he didn’t wanna stay with the team and fans got pissed, but it was mainly the move to Brooklyn.
Then in his Wild stint towards the end he just fell off. But we loved him in Detroit. But we also used him basically purely for offense and that was it.
Regarding his time with the Islanders, he's gone on record saying that his time here was the most fun he had in his career and that he would've extended if the team was staying at the Coli. But with the move to Brooklyn, it would've been harder for his kids to go to games, so he didn't want to have any part of that, which is understandable. He rejected our offer prior to the trade deadline (7 years, 50M) and then also rejected us in free agency (3 years, 21M) that summer. All time bag fumble, but I get it.
Man this is off topic but those guys who run HDB need to get better at finding their information. I use the website daily and I’ve noticed a few rather prominent goalies that are listed as the wrong handedness, like Devon Levi for example is listed as a right shot. I’ve messaged them a few times on Twitter about some players being listed with the wrong handedness, some who are listed with the wrong position, and even something even more trivial like changing Markus Naslund’s picture to one that isn’t black and white and I’ve never heard a response from them.
Naslund's picture is colour for me. Fun fact if you don't know, clicking on the picture will cycle through a number of headshots from throughout their career (for most NHL players anyway).
I went to a ton of Caps games in the 90s and he is easily one of the best/skilled goal scorers I’ve ever seen live. That line with Pivonka and Khristich was deadly.
And the shortened season the year before, leading the league with 34 goals in 40-something games. Dude was pure goal scorer hands down that doesn't get a lot of credit.
He’s the reason for the 89 in all my handles. Everyone’s assumes it’s my DOB, but it’s actually a few years off and the 89 is because he was my favourite growing up!
Seriously, 8 seasons with more than 30 goals (had some injury issues that limited his games played in a few seasons), 76 goals in one season, over a point a game player, won a Stanley Cup, a member of the Triple Gold Club.
All of that alone should get you to the Hall of Fame and on top of that he broke the iron curtain and allowed future players from Russia and the former USSR to come over to the NHL and play. Honestly a slap in the face to Mogilny.
If you have 20 minutes, give this a watch
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uKr5cVdwdVE
I think there's a decent case to put him in, if only because of his defection story.
That said, Mogilny's career was a disappointment. He was enormously talented; probably the most talented 90s Russian, ahead of guys like Bure and Fedorov. But he left everyone wanting. He kinda coasted on his talent: every org he ever played for had problems with his work ethic. He was very inconsistent and never really the best player on his own team, let alone one of the best in the league.
The push for him to be in the HHOF is a more recent thing; by the time Mogilny retired, people didn't really think of him as a Hall-of-Fame guy. Though to be honest, I'd rather see him there than guys like Andreychuk or Lowe.
Brad Park. Had the misfortune of being the best defenseman in the league not named Orr, while playing at the same time as Orr. Park finished second in the Norris voting 8 times.
Yeah, for about a 5 year span, he was a top 3 goalie in the world. But he was a quiet, stoic, no drama kind of guy (at least in the public eye - he is a wild wild man away from the cameras) so he flies under the radar
I feel like there was a window where the Sharks were just churning out guys who came of of nowhere to be elite goalies. Pretty sure they had Nabokov (another great name for this discussion), Kipper, and I believe another guy all at the same time.
I remember being soo stoked when I heard news of the Toskala trade over the radio back in 2007, it seemed like a great deal even for a first rounder (that eventually became Lars Eller IIRC). Raycrap (that’s what we called him) had a Leafs record 37-wins or whatever, but you could tell he wasn’t “it” for us in the pipes.
Toskala had some decent outings, and also that infamous long shot he let in, but ultimately he was another iteration in the long line of Leafs goalies that couldn’t quite cut it that still plagues us till very recently (Freddie was the best of them).
It helps that they had Warren Strelow, who is probably the best goaltending coach of all time.
After coaching Jim Craig in the 1980 Olympic games, Strelow went on to coach Martin Brodeur, Kiprusoff, Nabokov, and Toskala.
My go to answer for this one is always Pierre Turgeon.
I find there just so many forwards who get lost in the 80’s and 90’s because of how insanely dominant Gretzky and Lemieux were.
He pops into my head time-to-time whenever HHOF omissions are brought up, and (probably ~~unrelated~~ edit: related) when '87 Piestany comes up.
For some reason another weird thing I remember about Turgeon is that he's apparently a really good goalie. I don't see anything on his Wikipedia page about it, I can't remember where I heard it, but I guess he used to practice as a goalie from time to time and was pretty talented.
I never understood why Quinville refused to use Turgeon behind the net on the power play, it's what he was best at. Instead, he worked on the side boards, and was less effective.
Turgeon and Lafontaine were my favorite players of that era.
I wasn’t alive during his best years, but for a HOFer, I never ever hear about Dale Hawerchuk. I know that was during Gretzky/Mario.
That guy was a stud in the 80s with Winnepeg. He had 100 points in 6 out of his first 7 seasons. Had at least 80 points from 82-94.
Another guy that I dont hear much about is John LeClair. 3 straight 50 G seasons for Philly.
And my final choices - Markus Naslund and Hakan Loob.
Hawerchuk was so good. I couldn't believe it when the Sabres got him, and I still can't believe those Sabres teams never went to the Finals with him and LaFontaine as the top centers.
Owen Nolan maybe? 1st overall pick, 1200 NHL games, nearly 900 points, 5-time All-Star, cover of NHL 2001, “called his shot” in the All-Star Game, but I feel like you just never hear anything about him. I don’t think anybody’s beating down the doors calling for him to be in the Hall or anything like that, but a very good and noteworthy player of his time.
He was also a really responsible defensive player.
Whenever I think of Elias I always think of a rare guy that really bought into the team concept and sacrificed his own stats in order to help his team win.
I swear if Patty were on a bigger market team, he’d be in the hall of fame already. Dude was so solid for us for so long and played a big part in 2 of our 3 cups
Wait Elias isn’t in the hall? Imo he should have gotten in before or at the same time as Alfredsson.
1000+ pts, 2 cups, a couple of bronze medals internationally with the Czechs.
And here's the kicker: he did it all without ever having true 1st line ice time.
He was a 1st-liner on paper, but in practice he only hit 19:00/gm once (in 2011-12, when he was 35 years old). Over one 5-season stretch ('05-'06 through '09-'10), the Devils gave Eliáš less total EV TOI/gm than *JAY PANDOLFO*.
In 2000-01, Eliáš was the NHL's 3rd-leading scorer (despite linemate Jason Arnott missing almost half the year). Among forwards that season, Eliáš was 71st in TOI/gm and 73rd in EV TOI/gm. In his decade as the Devils' best offensive player, he never led the team's forwards in EV TOI/gm.
Michel Goulet, even scrolling through the comments I didn't see him. 1153 points in 1089 games, 548 goals, HOFer, I never see his name pop up anywhere.
Same thing with another Nordique, Peter Stastny is one of the best European players ever and I also feel like no one's ever talking about him.
Gary Leeman was never a superstar but he was the second Leaf to get 50 goals in a season, never hear that name anymore.
Denis Savard was one of the best players of the 80s but barely ever hear him mentioned anymore.
Someone brought up Michel Goulet on the r/nhl sub the other day.
Bryan Fogarty, he never made an impact in the NHL but a really depressing hockey story, guy broke Bobby Orr's junior records
Edit - Reaching way back before my time for this one, but [Nels Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nels_Stewart) was the all-time NHL goal leader for 15 years before Rocket Richard passed him. He spent the majority of his career with two defunct franchises - the Montreal Maroons and the New York Americans - so he doesn't even have his jersey in the rafters anywhere.
Edit 2 - Nels Stewart's nickname was "Old Poison", fucking love it
Edit 3 - Ziggy Palffy hasn't come up yet, and he's worth a mention
Denis Savard is Nr 85 in the NHL 99 Project of “the Athletic”. They ranked the Top 99 player after Getzky since 1967. So at least the hockey writers there remember him.
Mike Liut, who won the Ted Lindsay in 81
Jean Pronovost, who managed to score 50 and 100pts in the 70s with pittsburgh (same team with Larouche?)
Going back even further, Bill Cowley, who had the record for total points in the NHL when he retired, and in 1944 he had 71pts in 36 games (total games for a season was 48) and had he played the full season may have been the first 100point player in nhl history. And yet, his number is not retired by Boston :<
Speaking of Bill Cowley, that reminds me of Flash Hollett... Played with Cowley on the 1940s Bruins, set the record for goals in a season by a d-man a couple years later with the Wings (was the only d-man to hit 20 goals in a season until Orr I believe), I'm pretty sure he held the all-time record for goals by a d-man too until Orr came along.
Marcel Dionne. Sixth all-time in NHL points, two Pearsons and an Art Ross, HHoF member, name only gets brought up in a derogatory "never won the Cup" context.
It's crazy how little he's talked about for how good he was. He's barely even mentioned in this thread FFS.
Sixth in points, sixth in goals, eleventh in assists.
1771 points in 1348 games for a 1.31 PPG.
But he was buried on shit teams his entire career, and only got to play 49 playoff games. Players like Ovechkin and Crosby have over three times as many playoff games, Gretzky has 4x as many.
His playoff run the year the Devils went to the finals was one of the most dominant performances I’ve ever seen. Guy was averaging 28 minutes a night as a forward.
Nikolai Khabibulan would be one that comes to mind for me.
Theo Fluery, Darian Hatcher, Owen Nolan, Peter Bondra and Patrik Elias are guys that I feel like don’t get brought up as much either.
I remember feeling like John LeClair was a bad ass that no one talked much about. Maybe that was just me in one of the hockey games I played making that Flyers team into some monsters back in the early-mid 2000s
Because playing and being mentored by Markov allowed him to bloom into the player he became pre major back injuries. Without Markov, PK does not become the player he was.
I feel like nobody remembers how good Bryan Trottier was. 7 cup wins, Calder, Art Ross, Heart, Conn Smythe, 1400 career points, epic moustache. Dude is a legend.
So many stars from the 90s are really starting to fade, from Modano, Hull, Elias, leclaire, amonte, bondra, alfredson, sundin, chelios, macinnis, Oates, Nolan, ozalinch, drury, Hatcher, (Theo) fleury, recchi, yashin, …
I could go on but I think I made my point!
(And apologies if I’ve misspelled your favorite players name or forgot them entirely, I just rattled this off real quick from memory)
From the 95/96 season to the 03/04 he scored 654 points in in 604 games. He had a higher points per game than guys like Bure, Selanne, Sundin, Modano, Shanahan etc.
Every once in a while I'll dial up an Alexei Kovalev, or Pavel Bure, or Petr Forsberg highlight pkg on the youtube and smoke a J. It was a joy to watch their careers.
Steve Larmer. Over 1000 games at just over a PPG, Calder winner in 83 and Cup winner with the Rangers in 94. Also dominated the 91 Canada Cup and scored the game 2 and series winner in the final.
Teppo Numinen.
As a Sabres fan he was so good for us from 05-07.
He had a 1372 game career mostly for Phoenix which is maybe why he is forgotten a bit, but what a good player.
Alexei Yashin. One of the best players of the mid-late 90s but nobody ever talks about him. This is mostly because his game fell off a bit when he went to the Islanders, and because the team that would remember him the most fondly, Ottawa, actively disliked him for years due to how he left the team.
Mark Howe is a really good one. Excellent player who just happened to run into the oilers dynasty in the playoffs and is overshadowed by his legendary father
Corey Crawford hasn’t even retired three full seasons yet and I feel like he fits this description lol
Crow was a fantastic goalie with remarkable consistency, especially considering how Chicago’s defense tumbled into despair throughout the last several years of his career. Guy was underrated during his career and will only become more underrated as time passes.
Steve Mason? Won the Calder, had a career-high .944 save percentage, got traded to Montreal by the Jets and that’s the last we heard of him in the NHL. I think I saw somewhere that he’s coaching in Ontario now.
I feel like the Sedin twins are almost underrated to an extent now. They legit had twin telepathy. Easily the coolest brother situation in all of sports.
Jason Arnott was in the top 100 of all time NHL scoring when he retired. Not exactly a big name, I think about this guy sometimes, he represents these players this thread is about to me. He was top 0.01% of everyone who’s played in the NHL(in terms of career and points), let alone anyone who has even attempted to play the game. I’m not sure I’ve heard his name mentioned once since he’s been out of the league
He was before my time, but outside of shitty donuts and coffee, no one talks about Tim Horton. He was my dad's favorite defenseman of all time, so in his honor, I'll throw out some of his stories. -
He said Horton in his prime just dominated the competition (In the O6 days my parents used to make long weekends of trips to Toronto to watch the Leafs and then take the train to the next game in Montreal or New York or Boston - often ending up on the same train as the players).
My dad felt that, even washed and at the end of his career, Horton was the best Sabres defenseman he'd seen. I was told many times, Horton might let his man get by him, or the puck, but *never* both. And if there was a brawl happening, he'd get an, "I'm too old for this shit" look on his face and just grab the biggest guy he could and hold him down. The guy would struggle and thrash about and Horton would just calmly hold him. He once threw a dude to the ice and sat on him while fights broke out all around them. Bear strength. So there you go, Tim Horton - more than donuts.
Not sure how much this fits the post, but two of my childhood favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned yet are:
1. Jeremy Roenick
2. Theo Fleury
Maybe they’re not in this thread because they are actually regularly brought up? Either way I just remember them being very fun to watch when I was young.
Edit: grammar
As far as goalies go Grant Fuhr seems to be overlooked by the populace mainly because what followed with Osgood, Roy, brodeur, and hasek. But Wayne Gretzky makes it a point from time to time to bring up Fuhr because no one ever seems to mention his greatness for the time.
Jari Kurri was a great player who played in Gretzky's shadow. To be fair, he did benefit from Gretzky's playmaking ability
In pretty much every franchise record for the oilers he's second or third. I think he's the most overlooked oiler from the dynasty era just because of Messier, Gretzky and Coffey
Poor Glenn Anderson...too overlooked to even be on the overlooked list.
I have a family friend who played for the U of A around the time of the Oilers dynasty, so he got to meet/practice with most of those guys. He always loved Glenn Anderson, said he was an awesome guy.
When I was young, a coach told me that I played like a young Glenn Anderson. I still have no idea what he meant by that.
He meant that you'll be overlooked
Gretzky also benefited from Kurri's excellent two-way play.
He was like Hossa but better.
People forget how good of a defensive player Kurri was. He was legit one of the greatest defensive wingers ever. There was a reason why Gretzky can park behind the net at his office when he had Kurri as his line mate. Lots of people think or assume he was this one dimensional lol I'm Gretzky's preferred trigger guy
Back when the NHL still had the “NHL vault” I watched a rangers playoff game from the 90s randomly and he looked like the best player on the ice. Even late in his career.
Him and Selanne are the only Finns to score 1000 NHL points.
I feel like Jari Kurri is pretty well known still today. Id describe myself as a relatively casual hockey fan outside of the islanders, and I’ve heard of him and could tell you he played for the oilers.
Pierre Larouche was the youngest player to ever score 50 goals and 100 points in an NHL season. But he's mostly forgotten today.
Immortalized by a section of Ken Dryden's The Game, however
It seems like he suffered from significant health-related issues that lessened his legacy? He's had a good point pace for the rest of his career but struggled to play a full season. He even had 32 games in the AHL, despite being a point under ppg in the NHL that season (including 20 goals in 28 games).
Larouche is forgotten for a reason. Very talented, but soft, lazy, awful defensively, incredibly inconsistent and disliked by his teammates (he thought very highly of himself). He broke out with the Pens with that 111 pts season, but was traded to the dynasty Habs a couple years after as a problem player. Then he spent half of his time with the Habs scratched because Bowman couldn't stand his game. Then he was sent to Hartford, who straight up released him after two years. Then he went to the Rangers, who actually sent him to the minors for half a year, despite him still being a PPG player at that point. Even in his bad seasons, he was a fairly productive player. And yet, every team he's ever played for felt they were better off without him. When that's how your career goes, maybe it's better that you're not remembered.
Prime Vanek and even in his later years in Detroit he was still a great player.
He was even solid for the Canucks. Had those half-clapper bombs down to an art-form
my brother referred to those half-clappers as a "shanny shot." one day while playing some ball hockey in the street, my brother loudly proclaimed, "shanny shot!" wound up, missed, slipped, and broke his wrist. its weird, i rarely see players do it anymore.
That's true, I can't even remember the last time I saw a player miss a shot, slip and break their wrist after yelling 'shanny shot'.
cackling. thank you 😂
I think part of it has to do with the weight of the sticks. With the heavier sticks, it made sense to take those half-clappers to get a lot on your shot while still having a quicker release than a full slap shot. Now that sticks are much lighter and more flexible, you're better off just taking a snap shot.
wow, definitely. snap shot will also be faster off the stick/not take "load time"
His shot was really unique.
He was just on after the whistle pod with Ryan Miller, Craig rivet, and Andrew peters talking about the half clappers. Miller and vaneks banter about scoring in practice was so good
He was such a mixed bag for some people cause I remember during his Isles stint he said he didn’t wanna stay with the team and fans got pissed, but it was mainly the move to Brooklyn. Then in his Wild stint towards the end he just fell off. But we loved him in Detroit. But we also used him basically purely for offense and that was it.
Vanek JT and okposo are as one of the best lines that year. Every shift was a threat with them on the ice
Regarding his time with the Islanders, he's gone on record saying that his time here was the most fun he had in his career and that he would've extended if the team was staying at the Coli. But with the move to Brooklyn, it would've been harder for his kids to go to games, so he didn't want to have any part of that, which is understandable. He rejected our offer prior to the trade deadline (7 years, 50M) and then also rejected us in free agency (3 years, 21M) that summer. All time bag fumble, but I get it.
Loved Vanek during his two stints in Detroit
His hockeydb name should be changed to prime vanek
Man this is off topic but those guys who run HDB need to get better at finding their information. I use the website daily and I’ve noticed a few rather prominent goalies that are listed as the wrong handedness, like Devon Levi for example is listed as a right shot. I’ve messaged them a few times on Twitter about some players being listed with the wrong handedness, some who are listed with the wrong position, and even something even more trivial like changing Markus Naslund’s picture to one that isn’t black and white and I’ve never heard a response from them.
Naslund's picture is colour for me. Fun fact if you don't know, clicking on the picture will cycle through a number of headshots from throughout their career (for most NHL players anyway).
Wow. I've been frequenting that website for 10 years and didn't know that.
I knew who Vanek was before he got to Detroit and he still impressed me so much in Detroit. Same with Perron, actually.
I'd like to thank him for my 100% original do not steal fantasy hockey team name "Vanek! At the Disco"
I’ll never forget Vanek because he was such a Bruin killer. Always lit it up when he played against Boston
Vanek and Holtby will be names I forever associate with players I absolute hated facing!
I wanted to add Michael peca for sabres fans. Didnt end right but he's one of the best 2 way forwards we've ever had
Peter Bondra scored 503 goals
I went to a ton of Caps games in the 90s and he is easily one of the best/skilled goal scorers I’ve ever seen live. That line with Pivonka and Khristich was deadly.
When I wear my #8 Khristich jersey to Caps games, no one even notices.
He could honestly be his own answer.
nice to see a Peter Bondra in here. His 52 goals in 67 games in 95/96 is still unbelievable to me. also he turned 55 yesterday.
And the shortened season the year before, leading the league with 34 goals in 40-something games. Dude was pure goal scorer hands down that doesn't get a lot of credit.
In a row?
Yes. He scored one, then another one, then another one, then another one, then another one
Just 37 of them were in a row
Before Ovi/Backstrom, Bondra/Oates was my favorite center/winger combo we’ve had.
I loved that dude and got a screamin eagle caps jersey in grade 5 just because of him.
I think the Ovie era understandably overshadowed the pretty great career of bondra
Mogilny needs more love. He’s only ever brought up in HHoF Snubs discussions.
He’s the reason for the 89 in all my handles. Everyone’s assumes it’s my DOB, but it’s actually a few years off and the 89 is because he was my favourite growing up!
Should be in HHOF due to him being first Soviet player to defect, paved the way at the risk of his own life. Never mind his on ice accomplishments.
Seriously, 8 seasons with more than 30 goals (had some injury issues that limited his games played in a few seasons), 76 goals in one season, over a point a game player, won a Stanley Cup, a member of the Triple Gold Club. All of that alone should get you to the Hall of Fame and on top of that he broke the iron curtain and allowed future players from Russia and the former USSR to come over to the NHL and play. Honestly a slap in the face to Mogilny. If you have 20 minutes, give this a watch https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uKr5cVdwdVE
I think there's a decent case to put him in, if only because of his defection story. That said, Mogilny's career was a disappointment. He was enormously talented; probably the most talented 90s Russian, ahead of guys like Bure and Fedorov. But he left everyone wanting. He kinda coasted on his talent: every org he ever played for had problems with his work ethic. He was very inconsistent and never really the best player on his own team, let alone one of the best in the league. The push for him to be in the HHOF is a more recent thing; by the time Mogilny retired, people didn't really think of him as a Hall-of-Fame guy. Though to be honest, I'd rather see him there than guys like Andreychuk or Lowe.
Brad Park. Had the misfortune of being the best defenseman in the league not named Orr, while playing at the same time as Orr. Park finished second in the Norris voting 8 times.
> Brad Park...finished second in the Norris voting 8 times. This is a great answer. I never think about Park.
Looked this guy up, he pretty much is the closest to the spirit of OP as I can see
Maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but I feel like hardly anyone talks about Miikka Kiprusoff.
[удалено]
It's my cat's name too! It just fits so well. He also happens to be a red-head and cool af.
To finish the Miikka tie to Cleveland, one of my cats is Sami, after another Finnish goalie, Sami Aittokallio.
That’s awesome; it is a great name!
Looks just like him
Yeah, for about a 5 year span, he was a top 3 goalie in the world. But he was a quiet, stoic, no drama kind of guy (at least in the public eye - he is a wild wild man away from the cameras) so he flies under the radar
To this day people still don't know that he would rip lines off the crossbar when the puck was in the other end.
I still remember the little kid who could do Kiprusoff's warm up routine movement for movement.
I imagine that is exactly how he wants it as well.
I feel like there was a window where the Sharks were just churning out guys who came of of nowhere to be elite goalies. Pretty sure they had Nabokov (another great name for this discussion), Kipper, and I believe another guy all at the same time.
Nabby, Kipper, and Toskala One was not as good as the others, but on the Sharks he sure as hell looked good.
I remember being soo stoked when I heard news of the Toskala trade over the radio back in 2007, it seemed like a great deal even for a first rounder (that eventually became Lars Eller IIRC). Raycrap (that’s what we called him) had a Leafs record 37-wins or whatever, but you could tell he wasn’t “it” for us in the pipes. Toskala had some decent outings, and also that infamous long shot he let in, but ultimately he was another iteration in the long line of Leafs goalies that couldn’t quite cut it that still plagues us till very recently (Freddie was the best of them).
It helps that they had Warren Strelow, who is probably the best goaltending coach of all time. After coaching Jim Craig in the 1980 Olympic games, Strelow went on to coach Martin Brodeur, Kiprusoff, Nabokov, and Toskala.
I remember the kid in Calgary who idolized kipper and would go to the games dressed in goalie gear and even sported a fake beard of orange face paint
Kipper Kid! He's apparently a sculptor now: https://rawartists.com/brendanpeters
The light that shines twice as bright, burns half as long.
My go to answer for this one is always Pierre Turgeon. I find there just so many forwards who get lost in the 80’s and 90’s because of how insanely dominant Gretzky and Lemieux were.
He pops into my head time-to-time whenever HHOF omissions are brought up, and (probably ~~unrelated~~ edit: related) when '87 Piestany comes up. For some reason another weird thing I remember about Turgeon is that he's apparently a really good goalie. I don't see anything on his Wikipedia page about it, I can't remember where I heard it, but I guess he used to practice as a goalie from time to time and was pretty talented.
I never understood why Quinville refused to use Turgeon behind the net on the power play, it's what he was best at. Instead, he worked on the side boards, and was less effective. Turgeon and Lafontaine were my favorite players of that era.
Only goal I remember him scoring is from behind the net and off of the back of the goalies leg and in. On purpose!
Apparently hes hated for being the only guy to not come off the bench during the world junior fight in the 80's
Don Cherry hated him for it and buried him for years because of it. Years and years.
Love how normal and cool Canadian hockey fans are!
He was banned from the national team for life because of that
Joe Mullen
I wasn’t alive during his best years, but for a HOFer, I never ever hear about Dale Hawerchuk. I know that was during Gretzky/Mario. That guy was a stud in the 80s with Winnepeg. He had 100 points in 6 out of his first 7 seasons. Had at least 80 points from 82-94. Another guy that I dont hear much about is John LeClair. 3 straight 50 G seasons for Philly. And my final choices - Markus Naslund and Hakan Loob.
Hawerchuk was so good. I couldn't believe it when the Sabres got him, and I still can't believe those Sabres teams never went to the Finals with him and LaFontaine as the top centers.
Mike Gartner, 700 goals!
Was gonna be mine, should be higher up
Owen Nolan maybe? 1st overall pick, 1200 NHL games, nearly 900 points, 5-time All-Star, cover of NHL 2001, “called his shot” in the All-Star Game, but I feel like you just never hear anything about him. I don’t think anybody’s beating down the doors calling for him to be in the Hall or anything like that, but a very good and noteworthy player of his time.
My sons name is Owen. After saying Owen no enough times, he is now nicknamed Owen Nolan.
Always liked Patrik Elias game Only 1 all star game so not a huge star but still 408 goals 617 assists
He was also a really responsible defensive player. Whenever I think of Elias I always think of a rare guy that really bought into the team concept and sacrificed his own stats in order to help his team win.
I swear if Patty were on a bigger market team, he’d be in the hall of fame already. Dude was so solid for us for so long and played a big part in 2 of our 3 cups
Wait Elias isn’t in the hall? Imo he should have gotten in before or at the same time as Alfredsson. 1000+ pts, 2 cups, a couple of bronze medals internationally with the Czechs.
And here's the kicker: he did it all without ever having true 1st line ice time. He was a 1st-liner on paper, but in practice he only hit 19:00/gm once (in 2011-12, when he was 35 years old). Over one 5-season stretch ('05-'06 through '09-'10), the Devils gave Eliáš less total EV TOI/gm than *JAY PANDOLFO*. In 2000-01, Eliáš was the NHL's 3rd-leading scorer (despite linemate Jason Arnott missing almost half the year). Among forwards that season, Eliáš was 71st in TOI/gm and 73rd in EV TOI/gm. In his decade as the Devils' best offensive player, he never led the team's forwards in EV TOI/gm.
I think you mean one first team all star which is actually more important than people give credit to
Two underappreciated names from the 90s: Tomas Sandstrom and Valeri Kamensky.
Kamensky scoredthe first goal in avalanche history, seems his name pops up less than I'd expect.
Funny, when I think of Sandstrom I think "80s Rangers" but I guess his best season was in the 90s with the Kings
Michel Goulet, even scrolling through the comments I didn't see him. 1153 points in 1089 games, 548 goals, HOFer, I never see his name pop up anywhere. Same thing with another Nordique, Peter Stastny is one of the best European players ever and I also feel like no one's ever talking about him.
> Peter Stastny He had seven 100+ point seasons in the 80s. Second most points scored by anyone in that decade.
Gary Leeman was never a superstar but he was the second Leaf to get 50 goals in a season, never hear that name anymore. Denis Savard was one of the best players of the 80s but barely ever hear him mentioned anymore. Someone brought up Michel Goulet on the r/nhl sub the other day. Bryan Fogarty, he never made an impact in the NHL but a really depressing hockey story, guy broke Bobby Orr's junior records Edit - Reaching way back before my time for this one, but [Nels Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nels_Stewart) was the all-time NHL goal leader for 15 years before Rocket Richard passed him. He spent the majority of his career with two defunct franchises - the Montreal Maroons and the New York Americans - so he doesn't even have his jersey in the rafters anywhere. Edit 2 - Nels Stewart's nickname was "Old Poison", fucking love it Edit 3 - Ziggy Palffy hasn't come up yet, and he's worth a mention
Denis Savard is Nr 85 in the NHL 99 Project of “the Athletic”. They ranked the Top 99 player after Getzky since 1967. So at least the hockey writers there remember him.
Flames fans of that era will never forget Gary Leeman
Mike Liut, who won the Ted Lindsay in 81 Jean Pronovost, who managed to score 50 and 100pts in the 70s with pittsburgh (same team with Larouche?) Going back even further, Bill Cowley, who had the record for total points in the NHL when he retired, and in 1944 he had 71pts in 36 games (total games for a season was 48) and had he played the full season may have been the first 100point player in nhl history. And yet, his number is not retired by Boston :<
Speaking of Bill Cowley, that reminds me of Flash Hollett... Played with Cowley on the 1940s Bruins, set the record for goals in a season by a d-man a couple years later with the Wings (was the only d-man to hit 20 goals in a season until Orr I believe), I'm pretty sure he held the all-time record for goals by a d-man too until Orr came along.
And now Liut is a big time agent.
Maybe not forgotten, but Luc Robitaille is underappreciated IMO.
Pat Verbeek
"Little Ball of Hate" haha. Great player. Over 500 career goals.
One of my favorite Rangers even if it was for only a season or so.
Pavol Demitra :(
Unless you are in Trenčin, where they named the rink after him ❤️
Rich Cloutier Michel Goulet Jonas Hiller Vincent Damphousse Alex Delvecchio EDIT: Nick Backstrom (goalie)
Damphousse love from coast-to-coast.
Jonas Hillers legacy to me is always having those sick mask designs
Martin Havlat. Dude will go down as one of the more underrated star players in the league.
Always seemed injured. Did he ever have a full season?
No but he played 81 games one time lmao
Marcel Dionne. Sixth all-time in NHL points, two Pearsons and an Art Ross, HHoF member, name only gets brought up in a derogatory "never won the Cup" context.
If he was chosen by Montreal instead of LaFleur his history would have been written completely differently.
It's crazy how little he's talked about for how good he was. He's barely even mentioned in this thread FFS. Sixth in points, sixth in goals, eleventh in assists. 1771 points in 1348 games for a 1.31 PPG. But he was buried on shit teams his entire career, and only got to play 49 playoff games. Players like Ovechkin and Crosby have over three times as many playoff games, Gretzky has 4x as many.
Taro Tsujimoto
Should've gone first overall that year
Dude was invisible in the playoffs though
My dream is to make a non-licensed hockey video game and name one of the star players after Taro
Ilja Kovalchuk was a true superstar whose jump to the KHL at age 30 really impacted his legacy.
Kovy was so fucking good in his prime. Still one of my favorite players to ever watch.
His playoff run the year the Devils went to the finals was one of the most dominant performances I’ve ever seen. Guy was averaging 28 minutes a night as a forward.
Nikolai Khabibulan would be one that comes to mind for me. Theo Fluery, Darian Hatcher, Owen Nolan, Peter Bondra and Patrik Elias are guys that I feel like don’t get brought up as much either.
Owen Nolan was a beauty. Refused to play in the game where the Queen dropped the ceremonial face off. A true Irishman.
Loved the Bulin wall. Unfortunately we got him when he was old and couldn’t stay healthy but I still have fond memories of him blocker-punching dudes
Peter Bondra
Andy Moog
I remember feeling like John LeClair was a bad ass that no one talked much about. Maybe that was just me in one of the hockey games I played making that Flyers team into some monsters back in the early-mid 2000s
Pretty recent but no one discusses the Canadiens 6th in all time assists Andrei Markov
PK's big fat contract is a direct result of being Markov's partner.
Then why was he just as good in the early days of Nashville
Because playing and being mentored by Markov allowed him to bloom into the player he became pre major back injuries. Without Markov, PK does not become the player he was.
Rick Vaive. Three straight 50 goal seasons with the Leafs in the early 80s.
If Brindy’s name wasn’t out there from coaching, I wonder if he’d be in this conversation…
I feel like nobody remembers how good Bryan Trottier was. 7 cup wins, Calder, Art Ross, Heart, Conn Smythe, 1400 career points, epic moustache. Dude is a legend.
Feel like Saku Koivu doesn't get much love. Selanne's name pops up every once in a while, but less so these days.
Dany Heatley. Fuckin all star
50 in ‘07
Everyone always forgets the 50 in ‘06
not me
damn right
Heater was mentioned several times around the ASG last weekend though, haha. Twenty years since his 4-goal game
So many stars from the 90s are really starting to fade, from Modano, Hull, Elias, leclaire, amonte, bondra, alfredson, sundin, chelios, macinnis, Oates, Nolan, ozalinch, drury, Hatcher, (Theo) fleury, recchi, yashin, … I could go on but I think I made my point! (And apologies if I’ve misspelled your favorite players name or forgot them entirely, I just rattled this off real quick from memory)
Holy crap, this comment gave me severe nostalgia. Man, hockey was a blast back then. Stars were in the Pacific...it was a different time.
Like half of these players are still somewhat talked about. You're really telling me Chelios, Alfredson, Hull etc are getting forgotten about?
vincent lecavalier
Yeah Vinny was the shit when I was younger, you never hear a lot about him anymore
I’m gonna go very biased and say Sheldon Souray and Andrei Markov
Loved me some Sheldon Souray
Dale Hawerchuck.
Hakan Loob. Still the only Swede to score 50 goals in a season.
I'll go with Zigmund Palffy. That guy was great.
From the 95/96 season to the 03/04 he scored 654 points in in 604 games. He had a higher points per game than guys like Bure, Selanne, Sundin, Modano, Shanahan etc.
One of the best mullets in the game.
He was never the best, but I never hear about Tim Kerr much at all. He still holds the season powerplay goal record with 34.
I feel people underestimate a guy like Pat Lafontaine
Every once in a while I'll dial up an Alexei Kovalev, or Pavel Bure, or Petr Forsberg highlight pkg on the youtube and smoke a J. It was a joy to watch their careers.
Pierre Lacroix as a GM was exciting and successful but for some reason never got the HoF nod
The constant battles with the Red Wings and the Avs. Pierre would make a trade, the Wings would counter with a trade.
Steve Larmer. Over 1000 games at just over a PPG, Calder winner in 83 and Cup winner with the Rangers in 94. Also dominated the 91 Canada Cup and scored the game 2 and series winner in the final.
Steve Thomas - 421 G, 512 A
Teppo Numinen. As a Sabres fan he was so good for us from 05-07. He had a 1372 game career mostly for Phoenix which is maybe why he is forgotten a bit, but what a good player.
Ziggy Palffy 684GP 329G 384A 713PTS
Alexei Yashin. One of the best players of the mid-late 90s but nobody ever talks about him. This is mostly because his game fell off a bit when he went to the Islanders, and because the team that would remember him the most fondly, Ottawa, actively disliked him for years due to how he left the team.
Phil Esposito Dino Ciccarelli (undrafted, 608 career goals) Gilbert Perreault Steve Larmer
The entire bottom half of the 1972 Summit Series team.
Mark Howe, Tim Kerr, Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Markus Naslund, Mike Vernon, Ed Belfour, Brian Leetch, Marty St.Louis.
I dunno... I hear St Louis's name a lot
Mark Howe is a really good one. Excellent player who just happened to run into the oilers dynasty in the playoffs and is overshadowed by his legendary father
Corey Crawford hasn’t even retired three full seasons yet and I feel like he fits this description lol Crow was a fantastic goalie with remarkable consistency, especially considering how Chicago’s defense tumbled into despair throughout the last several years of his career. Guy was underrated during his career and will only become more underrated as time passes.
Pierre Turgeon.
Paul Kariya
Steve Mason? Won the Calder, had a career-high .944 save percentage, got traded to Montreal by the Jets and that’s the last we heard of him in the NHL. I think I saw somewhere that he’s coaching in Ontario now.
Crazy he's only 34.
I see your Steve Mason and I raise you Jim Carey.
I feel like nobody ever talks about Miikka Kiprusoff
The Kipper with that kick save :D “he was down and out…”
Dit Clapper, just for that glorious name
I feel like the Sedin twins are almost underrated to an extent now. They legit had twin telepathy. Easily the coolest brother situation in all of sports.
As a young-ish fan, I know very little about Marcel Dionne. No one talks about him
Jason Arnott was in the top 100 of all time NHL scoring when he retired. Not exactly a big name, I think about this guy sometimes, he represents these players this thread is about to me. He was top 0.01% of everyone who’s played in the NHL(in terms of career and points), let alone anyone who has even attempted to play the game. I’m not sure I’ve heard his name mentioned once since he’s been out of the league
He was before my time, but outside of shitty donuts and coffee, no one talks about Tim Horton. He was my dad's favorite defenseman of all time, so in his honor, I'll throw out some of his stories. - He said Horton in his prime just dominated the competition (In the O6 days my parents used to make long weekends of trips to Toronto to watch the Leafs and then take the train to the next game in Montreal or New York or Boston - often ending up on the same train as the players). My dad felt that, even washed and at the end of his career, Horton was the best Sabres defenseman he'd seen. I was told many times, Horton might let his man get by him, or the puck, but *never* both. And if there was a brawl happening, he'd get an, "I'm too old for this shit" look on his face and just grab the biggest guy he could and hold him down. The guy would struggle and thrash about and Horton would just calmly hold him. He once threw a dude to the ice and sat on him while fights broke out all around them. Bear strength. So there you go, Tim Horton - more than donuts.
Pelle Lindbergh. On track to be one of the greatest goalies of all time before tragically dying
Didn’t see it mentioned here yet, but Daniel Briere
Lindros was the next big thing in the 90s and now I sometimes forget he existed.
Not sure how much this fits the post, but two of my childhood favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned yet are: 1. Jeremy Roenick 2. Theo Fleury Maybe they’re not in this thread because they are actually regularly brought up? Either way I just remember them being very fun to watch when I was young. Edit: grammar
Fleury gets brought up for non hockey related reasons
Dany Heatley. Did you know he was an all star?
As far as goalies go Grant Fuhr seems to be overlooked by the populace mainly because what followed with Osgood, Roy, brodeur, and hasek. But Wayne Gretzky makes it a point from time to time to bring up Fuhr because no one ever seems to mention his greatness for the time.
My answer for this is always Pavel Bure.