Kin
New member
So this is more of a half-formed idea than anything but the mediocre-ness of the HOF class as well as the absence of any real OGWAC to root for in this year's finals I thought I'd look back 20 or so years to look at why there doesn't really seem to be any iconic older players in the NHL right now(absent Jagr who I think started playing in 1976).
Basically, if you look at the '94 to '02 drafts and try to work out who in those classes might be HOFers you get a pretty bleak picture. I've divided it into these categories:
Definitely: Iginla, Thornton, Datsyuk, Chara
Probably: The Sedins, Hossa, Alfredsson, Zetterberg
Maybe: Marleau, Doan, Nash, Lecavalier, Richards, Elias
Now, are any of these guys icons? Combined among those 15 guys are only 7 cup winners(winning a total of 13 cups, 8 for Hossa/Elias/Datsyuk). There are only 2 Hart trophies there and both of those were questionable choices, there are 2 Lindsays, 2 Conn Smythes, 4 Richards and 1 Norris. Combined, those 15 only had 9 NHL first team all-star selections. For the most part they were either the best players on teams that didn't win or sidekicks on teams that did.
So I guess my question with all of this is...what happened? Is there some kind of Malcolm Gladwell-esque explanation as to why this almost decade long period of hockey seems so lacking in greats? Is it concussions? The lockouts? I know there was a lot of talk around that time about how Canadian hockey needed to re-emphasize skill but it's not like other nations dominated(Sweden probably fares the best on that list but still...). I sort of have a half-baked theory on why that is but it doesn't really answer the major question.
Anyways, just something I'm thinking about.
Basically, if you look at the '94 to '02 drafts and try to work out who in those classes might be HOFers you get a pretty bleak picture. I've divided it into these categories:
Definitely: Iginla, Thornton, Datsyuk, Chara
Probably: The Sedins, Hossa, Alfredsson, Zetterberg
Maybe: Marleau, Doan, Nash, Lecavalier, Richards, Elias
Now, are any of these guys icons? Combined among those 15 guys are only 7 cup winners(winning a total of 13 cups, 8 for Hossa/Elias/Datsyuk). There are only 2 Hart trophies there and both of those were questionable choices, there are 2 Lindsays, 2 Conn Smythes, 4 Richards and 1 Norris. Combined, those 15 only had 9 NHL first team all-star selections. For the most part they were either the best players on teams that didn't win or sidekicks on teams that did.
So I guess my question with all of this is...what happened? Is there some kind of Malcolm Gladwell-esque explanation as to why this almost decade long period of hockey seems so lacking in greats? Is it concussions? The lockouts? I know there was a lot of talk around that time about how Canadian hockey needed to re-emphasize skill but it's not like other nations dominated(Sweden probably fares the best on that list but still...). I sort of have a half-baked theory on why that is but it doesn't really answer the major question.
Anyways, just something I'm thinking about.