Well I did mention Litzenberger. Another that comes to mind is Doug Barkley who was breaking out as a superstar at the time he lost an eye. I am sure there are others. Paul Meger maybe? C1958 & Killion can you think of any.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reckoning
Roger Crozier maybe? He already had a Conn Smythe and 1st All-Star Team on his resume by age 24, but suffered from pancreas-related health issues throughout most of his career.
I don't know the three players above (although I'll probably and go and delve into some research now)....Crozier I have heard about, ( I remember him from the Sabres) and heard that he was a damn good GK. I didn't know about his health problems.
BTW.....speaking of Crozier, there used to be a really good web site that was GOALIE-exclusive but seem to have gone down a few years ago, (goalie.com or something like that). Anybody know if it ever came back or if there is another site as good as that one was.
Lindros scores 800 goals? Hull, Esposito, Messier and Dionne didn't even do that.
Lindros already averages 40 goals a season. Assuming he's healthy, how difficult is it to project higher scoring totals early in his career, with a hint of longevity eventually lowering his GPG total?
Meh I dunno if he would have been, but since im a fanboy. Irbe had his dog not eaten his hand in the 94 off season. Had all that permanent nerve damage in his hand afterwords.
Still had a nice career all things considered after words.. but maybe... just MAYBE!!!!!!!!!
Meh I dunno if he would have been, but since im a fanboy. Irbe had his dog not eaten his hand in the 94 off season. Had all that permanent nerve damage in his hand afterwords.
Still had a nice career all things considered after words.. but maybe... just MAYBE!!!!!!!!!
Whenever I hear/see "maybe, just maybe..." I think "...naughty girls need love too".
Well I did mention Litzenberger. Another that comes to mind is Doug Barkley who was breaking out as a superstar at the time he lost an eye. I am sure there are others. Paul Meger maybe? C1958 & Killion can you think of any.
Without a bizarre injury/illness, it looks like Barry Pederson was pointed towards a HOF career. At the very least, he'd be remembered as much more than just the guy going the other way in the Neely deal.
Beginning with his rookie season in 1982 (age 20):
1982: 92 points in 80 GP (and 18 points in 11 playoff games)
1983: 107 points in 77 GP (and 32 points in 17 playoff games)
1984: 116 points in 80 GP
1985: Has multiple surgeries including the removal of part of his shoulder muscle to deal with some sort of tumor. He obviously loses something from his game, never scoring more than 76 points again.
So from ages 20-22, Pederson's career looked virtually identical to some of his Hall Of Fame contemporaries like Denis Savard and Dale Hawerchuk stats-wise.
He remains 3rd all-time in playoff points-per-game, after Gretzky and Lemieux. Small sample size though, obviously.
Without a bizarre injury/illness, it looks like Barry Pederson was pointed towards a HOF career. At the very least, he'd be remembered as much more than just the guy going the other way in the Neely deal.
Beginning with his rookie season in 1982 (age 20):
1982: 92 points in 80 GP (and 18 points in 11 playoff games)
1983: 107 points in 77 GP (and 32 points in 17 playoff games)
1984: 116 points in 80 GP
1985: Has multiple surgeries including the removal of part of his shoulder muscle to deal with some sort of tumor. He obviously loses something from his game, never scoring more than 76 points again.
So from ages 20-22, Pederson's career looked virtually identical to some of his Hall Of Fame contemporaries like Denis Savard and Dale Hawerchuk stats-wise.
He remains 3rd all-time in playoff points-per-game, after Gretzky and Lemieux. Small sample size though, obviously.
He's a pretty big what-if in my books.
Pederson was quite the WHL star and played huge in his 1st game against Vancouver with Boston and looked like the real deal.
Even after the 2 shoulder surgeries he looked quite good as a Canuck but didn't have any support and his career was basically over.
Dare I say it, It would be really hard to say no to Pierre Turgeon if he didn't get injured in 1994, 1998 and 2000, and maintained his PPG pace. One dimensional or not, that would give him 5 top-7 finishes in points, and you can't turn that down. This isn't even a career wrecked by injuries like some of the others mentioned in this thread - it's just 60-odd games missed at the most inopportune times in his career.
Konstantinov's 2nd place Norris finish was, in many respects, somewhat lucky (he didn't finish on either all-star team, and Ozolinsh of all people was in 3rd), and it's debatable if he would have been a big award contender going forward as the next crop of elite two-way defensemen (Lidstrom, Pronger, Blake) was coming into their own.
Wow, that is really interesting. I had always assumed that the year he was norris runner-up and the year he was on the 2nd all-star team were the same year. But they weren't! In 1997 he was 2nd in norris voting and 5th in all-star voting, which I don't think I've ever seen.
Has anyone seen such a difference between their recognition for what is essentially the same award within one season? (not interested in players who were 6th in norris voting and 10th in AS voting)
Wow, that is really interesting. I had always assumed that the year he was norris runner-up and the year he was on the 2nd all-star team were the same year. But they weren't! In 1997 he was 2nd in norris voting and 5th in all-star voting, which I don't think I've ever seen.
The Norris voting that year was odd. Leetch ran away with the trophy, and then you had four guys—Konstantinov, Chelios, Ozolinsh, and Stevens—who were all essentially tied for (distant) second, within seven points of each other.
Stevens, who finished fifth in the Norris race, actually had more first-place votes than Konstantinov, while Ozolinsh had more first- and second-place votes combined. Konstantinov pulled very slightly ahead in the Norris voting by racking up a bunch of third-, fourth-, and fifth-place votes.
So when it came time for all-star voting, where there were no fourth- and fifth-place votes, it's not surprising that Konstantinov ended up the odd man out.
Konstantinov was very good that year, but I agree with Epsilon above, he gets way more mileage out of that second-place Norris finish than he probably should.
Last edited by Dissonance: 04-10-2012 at 10:39 PM.
Several guys are in the HOF who shouldn't be. It's a joke.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawkey Town 18
Jeremy Roenick could be another...he was never the same after that knee injury fairly early in his career
Jeremy Roenick was a superstar in the making. He was just going to the next level when that injury happened. Never the same player again. Ditto with Pierre Turgeon btw. And Dino Cicarelli (disputed selection) was much the same. Folks forget that he was a goal per game that season before getting smoked and he wasn't as dominant ever again either.
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Originally Posted by tjcurrie
Already saw these guys named, but I'll back them up.
Definitely-
Time Kerr
Eric Lindros
Pavel Bure
All those guys for sure. And there's no way Neely should be in and Kerr doesn't sniff the HOF. If Neely's better, it's not by that much. Lindros could've been a top 10 player of all time if he stayed healthy. Bure is a shoe in as is Kerr.
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Originally Posted by tjcurrie
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.
I think both of those guys are locks for sure. If they'd stayed healthy I don't see how they don't get in. Wendel Clark was awesome. The way he played though it was inevitable that his career would be cut short. Great player when he was healthy, which was almost never. Tough as nails and an absolutely fantastic wrist shot.
Mickey Redmond- has a couple Cup rings as a support player in Montreal, but really took off in Detroit after being traded for Frank Mahovlich. 1st Team All-Star in '73 and 2nd in '74. Seasons of 42, 52 and 51 goals, and then nerve damage in his back makes him miss the majority of the next two seasons and he's forced to retire at 29. Of course those Wings teams were atrociously bad so maybe he wouldn't have made it anyway, but until the injury the numbers were there and at the time he was recognized as being one of the best.
Wow, that is really interesting. I had always assumed that the year he was norris runner-up and the year he was on the 2nd all-star team were the same year. But they weren't! In 1997 he was 2nd in norris voting and 5th in all-star voting, which I don't think I've ever seen.
Has anyone seen such a difference between their recognition for what is essentially the same award within one season? (not interested in players who were 6th in norris voting and 10th in AS voting)
I believe Allan Stanley was only 8th in Norris voting one of the seasons he was a 2nd Team All Star.
What about Jason Allison? He looked to be a budding superstar (2 top 10s in points, 4 top 10s in assists) until the leg injury at the age of 26 made him miss a season and a half. When he finally came back after the lockout, he couldn't skate anymore
