Players who are Hall of Famers if they never got injured
Title seems fairly self-explanatory. What players, whose careers were cut short by injuries/personal issues, could have been or likely would have been Hall of Famers?
Got the idea for the thread after looking at Paul Reinharts stats and remembering how good they were. Is he one of those that would fall into this category?
Lindros and Bure...although they could still get in
Of guys who don't have a good chance of getting in...How about Paul Kariya? He didn't miss a ton of games, but I have memories of him playing through injuries a lot.
Some unique names so far. Richard Martin and possibly Tim Kerr are the best bets. Martin for sure in my mind, he never stopped scoring goals. With Kerr its hard to say but he was also scoring at a very high rate when things went south for him. Both Martin and Kerr would have had some sexy career numbers at the very least, but both suffered big injuries at 29 years old.
Reinhart I doubt either way.
Palffy is a slight possibility but he left the game when he was 33. I'm not sure how much more he would have done at that stage to change our minds. But he did have some years of missed time so you never know. He still would have had a no better than a Dionne-like postseason career so I'm not sure he'd overcome it. But if Bondra with a fairly full career doesn't get in I don't see how Palffy does either.
My vote goes to Lindros. He'd be in by now for sure. Or he'd still be playing by now and he would belong to that class in the NHL (we all know who they are) that everyone and their mother knows is a future HHOFer.
Paul Kariya is likely to have a lot more supporters if he doesn't get injured. While he was dumb for holding out early in 1997-'98 he came back with a bang and would have given Canada an offensive shot in the arm in the Olympics if Suter doesn't nail him. After that he was a perimeter player and never quite the same even with a couple good seasons.
Pavel Bure is in the HHOF by now if he doesn't have so much missed time in between his elite years
Tom Barrasso? Still had a lengthy career but had a couple of untimely years where he missed a ton of hockey. If anything he exceeds 400 wins and with that, a Vezina, three all-star selections and a pair of Cups I would have a hard time seeing them keep him out even if he refused to sign an autograph or two.
How about Rick MacLeish? Leading scorer on Philly on both Cup winning playoff runs. Not Bobby Clarke. Not Bill Barber. Had some good years too but missed too much darn time.
Reggie Leach. Not injuries so much but had he not been an alcoholic he is in there by now. He scored 5 goals drunk in a playoff game. Scored 61 in an NHL season. Won the Conn Smythe. Even just being a consistent sniper in the NHL would have been enough to get him in. It is something I know he regrets to this day. He is now sober and speaks to kids and encourages them never to drink - ever. True story.
Lindros and Bure...although they could still get in
Of guys who don't have a good chance of getting in...How about Paul Kariya? He didn't miss a ton of games, but I have memories of him playing through injuries a lot.
Definitely 3 of the guys with the highest peak and prime seasons not in the hall.
I'd be surprised is Lindros and Bure don't make it in and Kariya really should if we include international play as well.
All 3 sure have a case over quite a few HHOF guys IMO.
Some unique names so far. Richard Martin and possibly Tim Kerr are the best bets. Martin for sure in my mind, he never stopped scoring goals. With Kerr its hard to say but he was also scoring at a very high rate when things went south for him. Both Martin and Kerr would have had some sexy career numbers at the very least, but both suffered big injuries at 29 years old.
Reinhart I doubt either way.
Palffy is a slight possibility but he left the game when he was 33. I'm not sure how much more he would have done at that stage to change our minds. But he did have some years of missed time so you never know. He still would have had a no better than a Dionne-like postseason career so I'm not sure he'd overcome it. But if Bondra with a fairly full career doesn't get in I don't see how Palffy does either.
My vote goes to Lindros. He'd be in by now for sure. Or he'd still be playing by now and he would belong to that class in the NHL (we all know who they are) that everyone and their mother knows is a future HHOFer.
Paul Kariya is likely to have a lot more supporters if he doesn't get injured. While he was dumb for holding out early in 1997-'98 he came back with a bang and would have given Canada an offensive shot in the arm in the Olympics if Suter doesn't nail him. After that he was a perimeter player and never quite the same even with a couple good seasons.
Pavel Bure is in the HHOF by now if he doesn't have so much missed time in between his elite years
Tom Barrasso? Still had a lengthy career but had a couple of untimely years where he missed a ton of hockey. If anything he exceeds 400 wins and with that, a Vezina, three all-star selections and a pair of Cups I would have a hard time seeing them keep him out even if he refused to sign an autograph or two.
How about Rick MacLeish? Leading scorer on Philly on both Cup winning playoff runs. Not Bobby Clarke. Not Bill Barber. Had some good years too but missed too much darn time.
Reggie Leach. Not injuries so much but had he not been an alcoholic he is in there by now. He scored 5 goals drunk in a playoff game. Scored 61 in an NHL season. Won the Conn Smythe. Even just being a consistent sniper in the NHL would have been enough to get him in. It is something I know he regrets to this day. He is now sober and speaks to kids and encourages them never to drink - ever. True story.
Leach could have been for sure.
He reminded me of Fluery who played with different demons and while not technically an injury, /I think most would agree that it affected his career in negative fashion.
Same could be said of Mike Walton who apparently had to deal with mental illness through out his career (undiagnosed until after his playing days a s i recall).
Lots of guys have HHOF talent but injuries and other stuff can derail a career as well.
Kevin Stevens - face injury start of his downfall
John Leclair - the bad back really slowed him down
Gary Roberts - could have been a Shanny
Charlie Simmer - was never the same after the leg injury. At the time only Bossy was a better goal scorer.
Gaborik is an interesting choice, but I'm not sure about it. Most of you don't want Bondra in HOF and healthy Gaborik would have do a lot to match his career accomplishments. Or Hossa has just outside chance and his way to play game is so much better.
Already saw these guys named, but I'll back them up.
Definitely-
Time Kerr
Eric Lindros
Pavel Bure
Decent chance-
Jeremy Roenick
Paul Kariya
Not a lot to go off of since he didnt really have many healthy seasons, but Wendel Clark should be mentioned as a guy who's career could have been completely different.
Rick Martin....Absolutely
Pavel Bure Hate his game, but also absolutely makes it and will probably make it anyway.
Jeremy Roenick 50 plus goal scorer and electric before his knee injury while a garden variety 35 goal scorer after it.
Btw I know he has some numbers but I absolutely cannot believe the respect Tim Kerr gets around here. He was completely one dimensional and basically a liability to those Flyer teams. Let's just say as a Bruin fan I was happy to see him.
Pat Lafontaine...concussions killed what could have been some of his most dominant years and forced him to retire at age 33.
Keith Primeau maybe? I guess he'd be borderline but who knows what kind of player he would have developed into, he was only 34 and had become a great defensive forward with offence if it was needed.
Pat Lafontaine...concussions killed what could have been some of his most dominant years and forced him to retire at age 33.
Keith Primeau maybe? I guess he'd be borderline but who knows what kind of player he would have developed into, he was only 34 and had become a great defensive forward with offence if it was needed.
lafontaine is already a hall of famer, albeit a contested one.
primeau i have a hard time seeing sniff the hall under any circumstances. even if he has the kind of end of his career that you mention, this is a guy who completely pissed away his career up to age 28, and given his talent you could go as far as reasonably arguing that primeau pissed away his entire 14 year career except for the '04 playoffs.
underwhelmed every year, thought he was too good for his role on a contending team, and just plain was awful.
compare brind'amour's career ages 19-33 to primeau's. then consider that brind'amour, who was probably the best possible version of the late-career primeau that you describe, won't make the hall of fame himself.
so even if you give primeau brind'amour's career 35+ (and other than one single playoff run, there is no indication that primeau ever had this in him), the first half of primeau's career was still basically dustin penner's, and most of the second half was somewhere in the ballpark of valtteri filppula and david legwand. you'd have to add an awful lot in years 35-40 to turn that turd into a HHOF-calibre diamond.
