Hat in the ring...
But I've always thought of 'generational' as the type of player that entered the NHL as a difference maker. The type of player teams were talking about through their juniour career. Lemieux, Crosby, Ovechkin, etc. Largely, they didn't need much NHL experience to start leading their team and turning things around.
Problem is, that happens more and more now. Is Petterson generational? I don't think so. We also talk about every player who's supposed to go high... so Patrick, Yakupov, Nuge, etc are all not generational players.
Iginla was a leader, an elite talent and my favourite player of all time. But the Nieuwendyk trade wasn't considered a home-run steal the second it was announced as Igilna wasn't a generational player everyone was clamouring for. He was a franchise player
