He has certainly earned a lot more respect the last few years thanks to his enduring longevity, but pre-lockout the guy was just seen as a pretty consistently productive 2nd liner.
Where do you get that Ray was "a pretty consistently productive 2nd liner" prior to 2005 from VanIslander's post? Whitney averaged 65 points per 82 games played, lockout to lockout. Good luck finding a bunch of players who did that.
Ray Whitney is not an NHL caliber player and will not make any meaningful contributions to teams in the future.
Sincerely,
The Edmonton Oilers
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Yep that's right folks, Ray Whitney was deemed not good enough for the 1998 Oilers who put him on waivers nine games into the season. The local kid was incredibly disappointed to be waived by a team he grew up idolizing, but 900 points and a Stanley Cup later I think it's safe to say it worked out for him.
One of my earliest hockey memories is Whitney scoring in OT to sink the Flames in Game 7. Congrats on 1000 points, Ray.
craig coxe once said pretty much the same thing to me when i asked him about falloon and whitney in the summer after falloon's rookie year. and that's a guy who had seen them both in training camp (and whitney had 3 points in 2 games in the bigs that year so he also had seen both as teammates, at least for a spell).
I wonder what whitneys adjusted stats are considering he played alarge part of his career during the dead puck era
according to hockey-reference: 405, 682, 1087 (in 1226 games)
EDIT: strikes me as interesting that whitney's adjusted numbers are strikingly similar to alfredsson's actual career numbers: 416, 665, 1081 (in 1128 games).
By the way, how did he ended up spending almost the entire 19996-1997 season in the minors. It seemed like his production with the Sharks was pretty decent before that season.
Where do you get that Ray was "a pretty consistently productive 2nd liner" prior to 2005 from VanIslander's post? Whitney averaged 65 points per 82 games played, lockout to lockout. Good luck finding a bunch of players who did that.
Thanks, but I can read numbers too. I know how he was producing, but that doesn't change what I said. The perception of him was not great. He was waived twice and traded for Kevyn Adams despite three 64+ point seasons in Florida. When Edmonton waived him his career at age 24 looked a lot like Kyle Wellwood's by the same age. Fairly or not, he wasn't perceived as a very valuable player. Good on him for proving his doubters wrong, but he was never seen as equal to his point totals.
Thanks, but I can read numbers too. I know how he was producing, but that doesn't change what I said. The perception of him was not great. He was waived twice and traded for Kevyn Adams despite three 64+ point seasons in Florida. When Edmonton waived him his career at age 24 looked a lot like Kyle Wellwood's by the same age. Fairly or not, he wasn't perceived as a very valuable player. Good on him for proving his doubters wrong, but he was never seen as equal to his point totals.
The Adams trade was offense for defense. I actually remember reading alot of confusion over Oilers waivering him.
Thanks, but I can read numbers too. I know how he was producing, but that doesn't change what I said. The perception of him was not great. He was waived twice and traded for Kevyn Adams despite three 64+ point seasons in Florida. When Edmonton waived him his career at age 24 looked a lot like Kyle Wellwood's by the same age. Fairly or not, he wasn't perceived as a very valuable player. Good on him for proving his doubters wrong, but he was never seen as equal to his point totals.
I think comparing him to wellwood is a falsehood on your part !!!
wellwood won't be in the nhl in few yrs cause of no work ethic where as whitney always worked hard to better himself as a player. He is still getting better even at age 39
I think comparing him to wellwood is a falsehood on your part !!!
wellwood won't be in the nhl in few yrs cause of no work ethic where as whitney always worked hard to better himself as a player. He is still getting better even at age 39
look at Whitney after his age 24 season and look at Wellwood after his.
more explanation marks don't make you any more correct.
Yes, up to 24 his point total weren't exactly good, and were very much alike to Wellwood's. Of course, from 25 onward he's just jumped to a whole another level.
I was hoping the Islanders or Leafs would have signed this guy the last TWO times he was a UFA. Very smart player, incredibly efficient and great vision. He reminds me of Cliff Ronning and Martin St. Louis (but not as good).
The fact that he's leading his team in scoring, at his age, by a fair margin, a playoff team (for now), and something he really hasn't done his whole career - well, that's impressive.
I always felt Whitney was a player that could play on ANY team, but more of a support player, secondary scorer, great complementary player - but a player that you can win with. He's ageless like Selanne.
A pretty good description of his career but it should be noted that much of his value lies on his team, ie. he doesn't really make players around him better and he is closer to Ronning than St. Louis IMO and I really liked Ronning as a player
wow.. I remember when he was with the Sharks. nobody thought he would play 400 games.. now he's at 1000 points and with 75 points this year, he's having one of his best season ever.
He has constantly been under the radar and probably is the most surprising player to get 1000 points. Congrats Ray for 1000 points. Simply amazing!!
If he played in the 80s he would probably be a Hall of Famer. You had the 20th best forwards in the league being inducted over the past decade. Apply that to today and Whitney looks like a Hall of Famer.
