Who in your opinion is the most overrated player of all-time?

[MoneyGuy]

My top three all-time greatest: Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr but not in that order.

[WCW Nitro]

Carey Price, he had a couple of great years and everyone went along with the "best goalie on the planet"narrative. He has been pretty average in the playoffs, when he does make it, and has been just ok since he turned 30.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Yeah sorry, I did not mean that to mean I thought he was overrated. But he was kinda a forward playing defence no? Orr changed the game by having D carry the puck and contribute offensively. I meant was that he changed the way the game played albeit it was poorly worded and I don’t think he’s the greatest to ever play.

Ok I see what you're saying. I'd say he was more of a defenseman who could also play forward because of his exceptional skating. But he was very very good in his own zone.

To me he is the greatest ever because of how he played the game in a way no one before him had. And IMO no one has come close since. For me that gives him the edge over Gretzky who was equally great.

[Magnum PEI]

Originally Posted by Kovaz

I'm shocked by Lidstrom appearing in this thread. Orr is clearly the #1D all-time, but after him Lidstrom has as good an argument as anyone for #2. He didn't "get to play on a super team", they were a super team because they had players like Lidstrom.

They didn't win anything till they got Shannahan. They didn't win anything after Osgood and Chelios left. I think it's pretty telling that he was never a Hart finalist. Fedorov won it, and Yzerman was a finalist. (Edit, Datsyuk was also a finalist.) Surely the "second best defenceman of all time" would have garnered more Hart votes in his career.

Originally Posted by Kovaz

In the 5 years before his rookie year, Detroit finished in the top-10 league standings once. For Lidstrom's entire career, they never finished lower than 8th. Since he's retired, they've been outside the top-10 every season. Lidstrom's career coincides perfectly with Detroit's time as a 100+ point super team. The year before his rookie year, an Yzerman/Fedorov led team missed the playoffs. The year after he retired, a Datsyuk/Zetterberg led team squeaked into the playoffs by a single point.

This is incorrect. The 1990/91 Wings made the playoffs.

Originally Posted by Kovaz

The year after he retired, a Datsyuk/Zetterberg led team squeaked into the playoffs by a single point.

This was the lockout year, so grain of salt. They finished third in the division, the same position as the year before.

[TheScorpion]

The fact that Lidstrom even got Hart votes at all is astounding when you consider that only two defensemen in the last 75 years have won it. The Hart has historically been dominated by forwards and goalies and defensemen are disproportionally excluded from voting.

Look at last year. Giordano and Burns were as good as candidates as any for the Hart, right? Gio finished 9th in voting. Burns, 19th. And Giordano won the friggin' Norris for Christ's sake! But he finished behind Brad Marchand and Johnny Gaudreau!

Lidstrom finished top-10 in Hart voting 6 times. He also finished at least 6th in Norris voting (with 7 wins!) every year from 1995-96 until he retired in 2011-12.

[Magnum PEI]

Bourque and Pronger were Hart finalists. And they could get their teams to the finals. Lidstrom never could without a whole lot of help. He's just not generational. Really good player, but not the second best ever.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It seems like you have a very strong opinion about Lidstrom that no one else shares.

I also think you're horribly wrong, incidentally, but I imagine you must be used to people disagreeing with you vehemently about this.

[GomerPile]

Originally Posted by Magnum PEI

Bourque and Pronger were Hart finalists. And they could get their teams to the finals. Lidstrom never could without a whole lot of help. He's just not generational. Really good player, but not the second best ever.

Many excellent NHL'ers completely disagree with you, including Jarome Iginla. He didn't need to hit you, unbelievably excellent defender using body position, skating, and his stick work.

[Flash Walken]

Top 5 all time:

Orr
Lemieux
Gretzky
Howe
Jagr

[Hockey_Ninja]

"Lidstrom was just a slightly better Bouwmeester" Is definitely not a take I expected to read in this thread when I made it.

[Mattman]

I don't even know what I'm reading..


This isn't a top 10 players ranking, it's who is overrated. Is it fair to say Lindstrom is NOT an overrated player, as he clearly has the stats, hardware, and respect of players to back him up as a solid player?

Great.


+1 for Shane Doan
+1 for Jari Kurri

If you had asked my 2 years ago I would have said PK Subban, but it's clear he's fallen back down to earth.

Two players I would like to add to the overrated list would be Jeff Skinner and Alexander Semin.

[Red_Baron]

Still shocked that Rick Nash didn't appear until the second page.

I guess we are seeing some pretty out-there takes in this thread but to me, there is not another player in any sport that I associate more with the tag "overrated" than Rick Nash.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Top 5 all time:

Orr
Lemieux
Gretzky
Howe
Jagr

You crushed the first four.

Those four are in their own category IMO. The next group has many players and Jagr not at the top of my list. That’s probably the Rocket.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Every decent player in NHL history has been posted in this thread

Mark Giordano. May be considered Best Flame D-man of all time with 1 career playoff goal and 4 playoff points. 893 regular season playoff games and 13 career playoff games.

[TheScorpion]

I don't think anybody in their right mind considers Giordano a better player than MacInnis. That said, Giordano is heinously underrated around the league.

[calgaryred]

Jari Kurri and Alex Burrows

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Hockey_Ninja]

Gio is behind Al for GOAT Flames defenseman. Never seen anybody rank him ahead of him.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

Gio is behind Al for GOAT Flames defenseman. Never seen anybody rank him ahead of him.

I don't think Gio is even #2 all time for Flames defensemen. If you remove the recency bias it's really hard to put him ahead of Gary Suter who had some amazing seasons for the Flames.

[TheScorpion]

I don't think looking at Giordano's Norris trophy, the only one ever won by a Flame, counts as "recency bias."

[blender]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

I don't think looking at Giordano's Norris trophy, the only one ever won by a Flame, counts as "recency bias."

True, but still he's number 2 at best and in a dogfight with Suter for that spot.