Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
You're the second poster to say this. Do you really believe this to be true?
IMO he's not even top 10, or close. I can buy top 25.
Orr, Harvey, Lidstrom, Bourque, Potvin, Robinson - he is nowhere these guys. Stevens, Niedermayer, Park etc. same thing.
Chopper was a great player, I'm not selling him short. But top 5 in the history of the game?
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he's not a top 5 d-man. IMO (as a fan) he's easily top 25 and probably in that 10-20 range. I'm not sure why he's not in the same conversation as Stevens, Niedermayer and Park ( for example)
Stevens and MacInnis are direct contemporaries (they were junior teammates)
Hard to compare as their styles were different but one was feared for their hitting, the other for their slapshot but both were much more than that
each won a Conn Smythe. MacInnis also won a Norris. MacInnis was a 7 time post season all star, Stevens 5 times
Stevens is 13th all time for NHL plus minus, MacInnis is 16th
(the D ahead of both of them are Robinson, Orr, Bourque, Savard, Potvin, Lidstrom, SARGE and M Howe). Brad Park is right behind them both
Stevens is under-rated as an offensive Dman but MacInnis put up >300 more points, MacInnis is under-rated as a defensive D (at least he was while in Calgary)