The Puck Stops Here
Next entry: Top Coach This Season
Previous entry: Best Goalie So Far
I NOW Consider Sergei Fedorov A Hall Of Famer
by PuckStopsHere on 11/08/08 at 07:45 AM ET
Comments (5)
I like to try to pick the point in a player’s career where they establish themselves as a Hall of Famer. They have to have Hall of Fame credentials that will remain untarnished regardless of what happens or does not happen for the remainder of their career. Here are the standards I use to decide if a player is Hall of Fame worthy. Today I am ready to declare that Sergei Fedorov has reached that level.
Fedorov was the 1993/94 Hart Trophy winner and the 1993/94 and 1995/96 Selke Trophy winner. He was a big part of three Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup winning teams. However, the problem had been that he has only two seasons where he exceeded 90 points in his career. Therefore, he needed to have good career numbers to cement his Hall of Fame case. However, Fedorov has not been the top level player he once was for many years. In Columbus, at times he looked like he was hanging on in the downward spiral of his career and no longer a key contributor to his team. In Columbus he was scoring at slightly over 40 points per season, which made him a bit of a disappointment. In fact his value dropped to the point that he was traded straight up for US college defenceman Ted Ruth. In Washington, Fedorov’s career has been reborn. So far this season, he is second among Washington Capital forwards in ice time per game and is second in points on the team (although he has more games played than Alexander Ovechkin allowing him more points). It is entirely possible that Fedorov will not keep up his success, but it has lasted from the end of last season into the beginning of this season, which is significant. Most of all, it has allowed Fedorov to increase his career scoring totals. Fedorov now has 476 goals and 1155 points in his career. When coupled with a Hart Trophy that should be enough for Hall of Fame induction.
Along with Fedorov, these are the currently active players I believe are Hall of Famers:
Ed Belfour
Rob Blake
Martin Brodeur
Chris Chelios
Sergei Fedorov
Peter Forsberg
Jaromir Jagr
Nicklas Lidstrom
Mike Modano
Scott Niedermayer
Chris Pronger
Mark Recchi
Joe Sakic
Teemu Selanne
Brendan Shanahan
Mats Sundin
Several of these players are not active yet in this season. Mats Sundin, Brendan Shanahan and Peter Forsberg are likely to sign contracts and play eventually this season. Chris Chelios has not played yet due to injury. Ed Belfour is probably very close to retirement. He played in Sweden last year and has not gone back. He has not yet officially announced retirement, but I would not be surprised if it is coming soon. Thus some of these players are likely very near retirement. As the season carries on, there will likely be further players added to this list.
Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
Tags: Hall+of+Fame, Sergei+Fedorov,
Comments
I agree with you that Fedorov is a future Hall of Famer but I think he reached that level long before some of the players you mentioned in that list. Fedorov during a point in his carrer was the best player of the world and arguably was the top two-way forward during a ten years span. If you take a look at his numbers in the post season you will see that his excelence was one step above all his peers and the numbers are more near to Gretzky and Lemieux than anyone else of the rest of the players.
In the list that you wrote I only consider more HHOF worthy than him Brodeur, Jagr, Sakic and Lidstrom, as equals Selanne, Chelios and Forsberg and all the rest a step lower than Fedorov.
Shanahan, Sundin, Rechi and Modano never won any individual awards and they weren´t top-3 in their position at any point of their career. The were very good but never something special as the russian center was.
Cheers
Posted by Miquel B.G. from Palma de Mallorca, Spain on 11/08/08 at 09:15 AM ET
Fedorov did not have a long sustained period of greatness. If you took the five best seasons of any player on my Hall of Fame list, Fedorov would likely be the worst. He only cleared 90 points twice.
Although he won a Hart Trophy, I would argue that he wasn’t seriously considered the best player in the game at any point. When he won, there was Yzerman, Bourque, Gretzky, Lemieux, Roy, Lidros, Jagr and possibly a couple others who were considered better players. It was just that in that season he had been MVP. It is not uncommon for a single season’s MVP to not be the best player in the league (see for example Martin St Louis and Jose Theodore recently). Fedorov had more playoff success and is thus remembered in a better light than some.
The Hart Trophy is clearly an argument that he was the best player in the game at some point, but I don’t buy it. I wouldn’t have picked him as one of the top five players in the game at any particular point in time - not even during his Hart trophy season.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/08/08 at 09:25 AM ET
Even I disagree I respect your opinion that Fedorov maybe was not the best player in the world at some point, but he was top 5 during more than 5 years. You have to admit that. Scotty Bowman recently said that he was the second best player he ever coached. (First being Lemieux).
By the way, I am a Red Wings fan and I love Stevie Y (he is my favourite player ever) but when Fedorov was playing at his highest level Yzeman was clearly one step behind, even if 90% of Detroit fans bought 19´s jersey the russian was the best player on that team.
Don´t be blinded by point totals, Sergei Fedorov worth couldn´t be mesured by points, first of all, his prime was during one of the lowest scoring eras of the game. He was capable to shut down oposing top lines, he was the main reason that Lindros was a non factor in the 97 finals, I recomend you to watch those series.
How many elite forwards are capable to play defence and even to look as good as Lidstrom, Konstantinov and Murphy (keep in mind that when Konstantinov suffer the car crash, he was considered as good as Lidstrom) ? For me Fedorov , talent-wise, is in the same class of Jagr. different skills but same amount of talent.
Of your sixteen list I consider Fedorov to be somewhere between 5-8. Please don´t compare him to StLouis, Theodore, Blake or Rechi. They don´t belong to the Hall of Fame.
Posted by Miquel B.G. from Palma de Mallorca, Spain on 11/08/08 at 10:05 AM ET
This is a sad story for Detroit fans. He was on his way to first-ballot HOF career here, and would have had his number retired. He’ll probably be in the HOF but not for a while, which is a damn shame.
Posted by Osrt on 11/08/08 at 11:13 AM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Missing Other League All Star Games
Top Defenceman So Far This Season
About The Puck Stops Here
The Puck Stops Here was founded during the 2004/05 lockout as a place to rant about hockey. The original site contains over 1000 posts, some of which were also published on FoxSports.com.
Who am I?
A diehard hockey fan.
Why am I blogging?
I want to.
Why are you reading it?
???
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
When learning from experts it’s best to learn personally from them, or from their blog. We can provide that with poker lessons blog, your home to learn poker personally.
Do you get shocked from the luck in the game of poker? Stop getting shocked and start being a Poker Shoker
Donate to Kukla’s Korner
here’s a player who was faster than 95% of the nhler’s had more raw ability and flair than most nhler’s a player who lived under stevie’s shadow while a wing but still scored at a point per game on the biggest stage…the playoffs. i attended a game where he scored all the wings 5 goals…the last in ot, it was amazing. he could drop back and play ‘d’ and if left there all season would have been one of the 10 best at the position for the season. a magnificent player who had you on the edge of your seat each time he touched the puck. HOF yes.
Posted by rocketman from detroit on 11/08/08 at 09:07 AM ET