View Single Post
Old 05-17-2013, 05:39 PM   #10
trackercowe
Franchise Player
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Exp:
Default

You could argue Joe Sakic is a top 20 player of all-time, perhaps even top 10. In terms of players from his era (post Lemieux and Gretzky) I'd say Sakic would be 1-2-3 with Yzerman and Jagr. It's difficult to rank those three, but in terms of accomplishments Sakic would probably be first.

Jagr hasn't even been to the finals since his second year, and was never able to achieve much success without Mario. He has better statistics than the other two, but also has played more games.

Then with Yzerman his numbers sort of slid in the last ten years of his career, when he came more of a reliable defensive center. At a certain point he became more of a secondary scorer in Detroit, whereas guys like Shanahan, Hull, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Fedorov became better point producers. No one can match Yzerman's leadership and tutorship during his years in Detroit though. Sakic and Jagr were known for being quiet, calm influences in the locker-room, and weren't known for being outspoken.

Sakic has essentially won all there is in hockey. He's been the best player in the regular season, post-season, and the Olympics. The guy is just a straight up winner, who's accolades probably can't be matched by anyone in hockey. A lot of all-time greats are missing one, or two things on their resume (like Iginla with Cups), but you can't say the same thing about Burnaby Joe. Its' going to be interesting to see how successful he will be in an executive role though, as winning as a player does not often translate to success in a front office position (see Brett Hull, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gretzky, and even Yzerman). Although on the other hand former players often have great success running junior teams for some reason (Hunter, Hawerchuk, Patrick Roy, the Sutter's).

Those three stand above the rest of the players post-Lemieux imo.

Last edited by trackercowe; 05-17-2013 at 05:44 PM.
trackercowe is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to trackercowe For This Useful Post: