Clarke was probably the best flyer ever, great leader, great scorer, great defense, and probably the most competitive player ever.
however, If you could have somehow put clarke's heart into lindros's body, and keep his head up, you'd have the most physically dominate scorer of all time.
Clarke's best season he registered 1.57 PPG, and his 2nd and 3rd are 1.45, and 1.33 respectively. Excellent seasons, but not on par with what we saw from early Lindros... especially when accounting for the respective time periods.
Flyers had 348 goals for that year, and 4 other teams registered 300+ out of 18 teams.
In Lindros' best season, the Flyers scored 282 goals as a team, with only 3 teams breaking 300 goals out of 26 teams.
There's little question that Clarke had a significantly better career than Lindros, but he also wasn't the physical force of nature that Lindros was either. What really separates Lindros was that he was quite capable of being the team's enforcer when he felt like it on top of scoring all of those points... dangerous combo when the best player on the ice can also physically destroy the other team at the same time (also why he had such durability problems).
This is where you can take stats and roll them up and throw them in the trash. Anyone who has a clue about team sports would know what intangibles Clarke brought to the game. If 88 had half of 16's heart he could have been at the top of the list. 88 is #3 on my list after 16 and 1.
There are so many ways to interpret this question:
The best players to ever play for the Flyers from a career standpoint:
Pronger
Clarke
Parent
Coffey
Lindros
The most talented players to ever play for the Flyers:
Lindros
Parent
Clarke
Pronger
Lindbergh
The players with the best careers as a Flyer:
Clarke
Parent
Lindros
Howe
Hextall
Yeah looking at it from a total career standpoint changes the equation big time. You have to add guys like Hawerchuk, Forsberg, Oates and company. To look at it that way though is just depressing. A lot of those greats were washed up when they got here.
This is where you can take stats and roll them up and throw them in the trash. Anyone who has a clue about team sports would know what intangibles Clarke brought to the game. If 88 had half of 16's heart he could have been at the top of the list. 88 is #3 on my list after 16 and 1.
If 88 had a HoF goalie and the supporting cast Clarke had, he would have won multiple Cups here, too.
Lindros had plenty of intangibles. He was a whiny little ***** at times off the ice, but the man friggin brought it on the ice, particularly early on in his career.
