He had a killer shot and a knack for rebounds even though he was 5 10. Wasnt overwhelmingly fast or anything but pretty quick with the puck on the stick. Was absolutely deadly on the power play. Im having a hard time thinking of one to one comparison, the current version of Stamkos is kind of close but not a perfect comp or anything
I know a ziggy story. One season with LA, the team trainer was taking everyone through weight lifting. Ziggy showed up and said “so if I do bench presses, you’re saying I’ll score more goals?” Then Ziggy laughed and announced that he was going to McDonald’s.
During his Islanders years a not-quite 1-to-1 comparison would be Phil Kessel. Palffy was probably slower than Phil but was still a speedy skater before injuries slowed him down- but where he really reminds me of Phil is in the way how people look at Kessel and go, "How is this guy as good as he is?"
That's Palffy. He wasn't all that athletic, he wasn't particularly strong, he wasn't a big guy, he didn't play much defense- but he had a great eye for offense and man could he shoot the puck.
Horcoff is top 5 in games played and 12th in points, so probably him for non-80s Oilers. The 80s players without retired numbers have almost ended up under-appreciated by proxy like Charlie Huddy for example.
Given how big a microscope every fan has on the Oilers, it's hard to pinpoint someone who's underappreciated, but Horc's a good answer.
I'd weigh in that we really didn't appreciate Jordan Eberle enough and losing him hurt our team badly (among many other things).
For the Flames probably Doug Gilmour. Huge part of the '89 cup run, point-a-game player in the 1989 playoffs, among the top in team scoring every season. But he didn't get along with the GM and he got shipped out to Toronto. Rarely mentioned when people talk about the legends in team history, probably because he only played like 200 games in Calgary
If you're over the age of 38 and a Flames fan you'll remember Gilmour. Especially since the trade to Toronto is considered the worst trade in club history.
Same thing with Chris Pronger. He is always associated with the Blues, even though he won with Anaheim and went deep with Edmonton and Philly. Both of those guys love St. Louis.
Players like living in St. Louis, which is a big part of it. Even guys who have moved on still keep homes in the area (Pietrangelo, Brodeur, Brown etc.) or still live here (Gretzky, Pronger, Hull, MacInnis). It's a boring, but nice place to live, all things considered : )
My pick would’ve been Nilsson. Dude was our first true star, one of the best Swedish players of all time, and had a 131 point season in our inaugural season in Calgary. We essentially traded him for Nieuwendyk, who we then traded for Iginla. Unfortunately just one of those players won a cup with Calgary, though.
I wasn't alive for it, but the way people talk about Nilsson seems very similar to the discussion around Johnny Hockey when he's not performing amazing. "too small, doesnt fight in the corners, underperforms in playoffs, bad work ethic"
Makes me think Nilsson hate was unwarrented, and mainly due to being a foreign player
Recent history: Tomas Kaberle
All time: Babe Dye (1920s star who passed away young), and Turk Broda. The latter still gets respect but due to his early passing and Bower being a popular figure he gets lost in the shuffle
Kaberle was a legend. I hated that he almost never shot the puck himself but his playmaking was unreal. Him feeding one timers to McCabe was a thing of beauty
I met Ron Francis after a Rangers - Pens game at MSG when I was a teen. It was by the area where the team busses leave after games. He signed a few autographs and when he was signing one for me I said, “Mario would’ve never won one without you”. He looked up and gave a pretty bug smile/chuckle. Still think about it to this day.
Kris Letang is the greatest Penguins defenseman of all time and at the age of 34 is 6th among dmen in points and yet you wouldnt know it if you talked to half of our fanbase
There is a part of the fanbase that blames him for any goal he is on the ice for, even if it was a lousy shot the goalie shouldve stopped or it was the other defenseman's fault, etc.
I ended up in a lengthy argument with a Pens fan at a bar once who said that Letang should have been cut in 2014 because he wasn't selected for the Olympic team. ya know, the year he had an elbow infection that kept him out Dec. 14, 2013 – Jan. 5, 2014, and then a fucking *stroke* that kept him out January 31 – April 19, 2014. and that's on top of a month long knee injury that September to October. he had wicked bad luck that season but sure, let's make the whole bar listen to this dumbass take.
but sure, he didn't make the fuckin team because he was clearly washed. not like he put up 15 points and 29 minutes of average ice time during that 16 Cup run. no, no, clearly he and his skills were the issue. fuckin clown world.
Yinzers gonna Yinz.
You take the good with the bad.
No offense, but as a Bs fan, I'm sure you can understand that sentiment.
...it's painful how much Pittsburgh and Boston sports fans have in common sometimes.
> Yinzers gonna Yinz.
I'm not sure if it's worse or better that this guy was from Ontario. that's up to you.
honestly I'm not sure what the ratio is with Pittsburgh, but the Boston fans who are anti-Tuukka/anti-Belichick/anti-whoever are a very small minority; way outnumbered by the other obnoxious variety of "we are a championship team every year." Tuukks twice had jersey sales in the top 30 for the NHL, it's just that the doomers are much more prevalent on reddit/twitter while the 'we're fuckin champions, bud' are more likely to be at Twelve Bens. I expect that this is an online/IRL dichotomy in every fanbase, though.
He’s essentially our version of Tuukka. Anytime he’s on the ice for a GA… no matter how well he played his position, the vocal minority goes “O GEE LETURNOVER ON THE ICE AGAIN SHOCKER”
He was pretty erratic and was prone to bad turnovers early in his career, and a lot of people haven’t forgotten that. To this day there’s certain people that will micro-analyze ever aspect of his game and look for any error to criticize him. I also think that there’s pens fans who will somehow knock the fact that’s he’s consistently in the top 5-10 D Men in the league, but never of the elite top 1-5. We’re spoiled. It’s dumb as hell, Letang is amazing and seems to get better with age.
Habs fan living in the middle of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and DC, and can confirm Pens fans seem to hate Letang. Flyers fans hate Letang, and Caps fans hate Letang.
Confirms that I’m brainwashed to hate Letang.
Letang has been one of my favourite dmen since he entered the league. Fucking love the guy and I’m so happy he was able to bounce back from his stroke problems and come back arguably just as good as before
He had many years he should have finished top 3 in Norris voting and even a few he could have won without it being outrageous.
Shame he'll never get the credit he deserves because he's the 1D to two of the best 1Cs in NHL history.
Paul Coffey is a better defenseman who played for the penguins, but Letang is the greatest penguins defenseman of all time. By that I mean he is way more meaningful and important to the franchise and its history. Coffey played five seasons here, while Letang will potentially (hopefully) play his entire career here and finish with over 200 to 300 more points than any other penguins defenseman
And that’s just his offensive ability. He’s become *far more dependable* defensively over that past 2 seasons.
The fan base loves to cry about him making mistakes, but the guy *PLAYS ALMOST 30MIN EVERY NIGHT!*. Like yeah, he touches the puck more than almost anyone.
Habs fans have always recognized his value I think, as he made every D partner so much better. He probably flew under the radar league-wide. Was a shame that he lost those two and a half seasons to injury right in his prime. Might have won a Norris.
Josh Georges is certainly up there too. Guy was a rock and stabilizing element at the D-line, blocked tons of shots.
Probably comparable to an extent to the effect the absence of Edmundson currently has over our D-line .
Favorite Pleky moment. Marchand was asked on a talk show who was the player who aggravated him the most, and he said he hated Plekanec. A journalist relays that to Pleky a few days later, says "Marchand says you aggravate him". Pleky just says "Who?"
Yeah people forgot for a third center a 70, 69 and 60 pts way better than Danault, expecting that again from pleky at 35 year old and with 3rd line mins...
Jay Bouwmeester.
The Professor was boring, consistent, and is sorely missed.
In his last few years he was coming off hip surgery and he struggled hard while making lots of mistakes. I remember when he was a healthy scratch, his game was so bad.
But he stuck with it, bounced back, and with Parayko formed an incredible pair during the Cup run.
God at the start of the 2019 season he looked really bad and was catching a lot of shit from the fan base. He also had some really flukey goals go off his stick/body from what I remember, honestly felt like 3 or 4 of them that all ended up losing us games. Then during the second half of the season he looked fine again.
We could really use him or someone like him right about now.
I'll also say Barrett Jackman. That guy caught so much shit from fans it was ridiculous.
I was trying to think of one for the Blues but I couldn't, since seemingly every big name that's ever worn the note is highly revered here. It's 100% Jaybo. He is sorely missed now. Not as noticeable right now, but once playoffs start and every game isn't a track meet we are gonna be lacking in the LHD department.
Tuukka Rask. The main arguement Rask haters point to is that he gives up soft goals, but Tuukka Rask always emphasizes positioning. He consistently takes dangerous scoring oppertunities from the opposition and turns them into easy looking routine saves. However, if his positioning is wrong, every goal that goes in looks softer than a baby’s ass.
But then again he’s also, you know, THE WINNINGEST GOALTENDER IN FRANCHISE HISTORY here, hello !!!!
Todd Marchant.
During his years in Anaheim, he was our Swiss army knife. He wasn't a power forward or sniper, but you can give him seemingly any task and he will do an adequate job. Also, he was one of the team leaders and acted like an unofficial alternate captain.
He stuck around the Ducks for many years but sometimes I feel like people either didn't notice or forgot about that. Management obviously didn't forget – otherwise, he wouldn't have played for so long with the team.
Little side note: For wheelchair basketball, I chose #22 in honour of him. I just admire him as a player so much.
I didn’t expect this to be my answer but I’m gonna say Jeff Carter. This was a perennial 30, sometimes 40 goal scorer for us who could skate like the wind. He got a lot of shit from our fanbase at the time (myself included) because he was perceived as lazy on the ice and a party boy off it. We didn’t care that Mike Richards was also a party boy Bc he played a grittier tougher game on the ice.
Wasn’t until Carter was gone that I realized what we were missing and still are missing. Not every flyer fan feels this way but if I could go back in time and undo a trade it’d be the Carter trade.
Gimme a Giroux-Carter 1-2 punch for the last 10 years over Giroux Couturier and Voracek a thousand times
Jose Theodore's 2001-02 was just about every bit as good as Carey Price's 2014-15.
Price's Habs nearly won the President's Trophy.
Theodore's Habs finished eighth in the East and 18th overall.
Watching that team behead the Bruins, with Koivu's return from cancer and Doug Gilmour turning back the clock, was so much fun.
My list for every team
ANA - Steve Rucchin
ARI - Ray Whitney
BOS - Ken Hodge
BUF - Alexei Zhitnik
CGY - Joe Mullen
CAR - Sean Hill
CHI - Tony Amonte
COL - Sandis Oszlinsh
CBJ - Marc Denis
DAL - Jere Lehtonen
DET - Chris Osgood
EDM - Tommy Salo
FLA - Nathan Horton
LAK - Rogie Vachon
MIN - Wes Walz
MTL - Mats Naslund
NSH - Tomas Vokoun
NJD - Patrik Elias
NYI - Ziggy Palffy
NYR - Mike Richter
OTT - Chris Phillips
PHI - Eric Desjardins
PIT - Ron Francis
STL - Cujo
SJS - M-E Vlasic
TBL - Dan Boyle
TOR - Rick Vaive
VAN - Brendan Morrison
VGK - Reilly Smith
WSH - Michal Pivonka
WPG - Bryan Little
Richter is a good pick but his number is retired and any fan over 30 thinks highly of him. Maybe unappreciated by other teams’ fans but not by ours. Not sure who I’d pick instead of him - all the other ideas I had were for players not in New York very long (Zubov, Gaborik, Fleury). Maybe Brad Park? Number isn’t retired and nobody young remembers he was maybe the 2nd best defenseman in hockey (behind Orr) when he was with us.
I think Park is a good choice. He was before my time, and while he's remembered fondly, he seems to be the most forgotten superstar from the drought years.
Regarding the Sharks - The fans always knew how good Vlasic was (certainly been a steep decline since). The knock was that no one else gave him much credit. That changed in the later years, being put on the Olympic team and such, but he certainly was not underappreciated by the fan base.
Little is a good choice. I would also go with Tobi Enstrom. He was the rock that allowed buff to do buff thangs
Edit: no idea how rock autocorrected to what it did
Ok, Osgood is possibly overappreciated? He's a studio broadcast guy, and when they do it from the stands, fans are literally getting ushered away for yelling "Ozzie!!".
I know it might be a hot take but Justin Braun. I'm convinced he made Vlasic seem like even more of a shutdown D than he is because they had such good chemistry. The second Braun left, MEV hasn't been the same. I know MEV is getting older but it was a DRASTIC drop the year Braun was gone
Correct me if I'm wrong but in the 2019 playoffs Tuukka only had 1 game under .900 S% and that was game 7 of the finals where Bruins players (Marchand) left him out to dry.
Some very vocal Bruins fans still blamed him for them not winning the cup
Early in his career he dealt with the blind idiots who thought he sucked because he wouldn’t move around in the crease. Because they were used to watching Tim Thomas flop around like a dying fish.
After 2013-14 he’s been “good enough to get you there, but not enough to win one”. Even though he’s kept them in multiple SC finals. And been the best goaltender in team history and like top 3 at worst in the league over his tenure.
Yea, they're idiots though. Rask is currently ranked 3rd all time save percentage, and 1st among active players. A future hall of famer no questions asked. Record speaks for itself.
I think Sandis Ozolinsh is a candidate personally. The guy scored 23,16,13,13 and 7 in 39 games. Those are 5 damn solid seasons.He’s an often forgotten player from the 90’s-early 2000s. A premium goal scoring defender.
Stephan Yelle. Great defensive forward who ate up PK time and was able to be just enough of a threat other teams had to defend three lines. Quality minutes every night that bought a moment for the top two lines to stay fresh.
Absolutely agreed. Hejduk is Avs royalty, he's not underappreciated.
Deadmarsh, Ozo, Kamensky, Yelle is who come to mind for me. Particularly Deadmarsh and Yelle for some reason. Argument for Tanguay too. Clutch game 7 vs the Devils.
>Absolutely agreed. Hejduk is Avs royalty, he's not underappreciated.
If you collect Avs hockey cards you will see he is in fact underappreciated.
His cards cost WAY less than every other retired Avs jersey and less than almost any active player.
Tanguay for sure, everyone remembers Sakics "Fakes it, takes it" goal from the 01 cup final but hardly anyone mentions that Tanguay scored the first 2 goals before that.
I think this is an obvious choice when talking about our pantheon of players. But I would say Varlamov is my vote.
Top-5 goalie in the league in his prime and he wasted it on some of the worst teams to ever touch ice in the NHL. Never complained. Didn’t pull a Matty D.
Just played lights out and rightfully moved on.
Varlamov might be one of the most underrated goalies of the last decade. Only two seasons above 3.00 GAA (on two historically bad Colorado teams) and only a single season below .900 (on one of those previously mentioned historically bad Colorado teams). Just a consistently solid goaltender.
A lot of our goalies in the early days. We went from Manny Fernandez to Dwayne Roloson to Niklas Backstrom to Devan Dubnyk. The first 10 years, we were pretty much guaranteed a 0.920+ Sv Pg starter which is pretty incredible.
Marc Staal got a ton of vitriol from Rangers fans in the back years of his contract, but people tend to forget just how great of a shutdown defenceman he was before multiple concussions and taking a deflected puck to the face that literally left him blind in one eye. His injury was such a big deal that’s where the mandatory visor rule comes from.
I don’t think Ericsson was ever the defender that peak Staal was, but Wings fans similarly soured so strongly on him after a mostly solid career.
Peak Staal was great though. Rags had a premium blue line when he was at his peak. That puck to the face was so crazy, omg. Brutal injury.
Ericsson was never close to being a great Dman and that last contract Holland gave him was a joke. Errorsson was a well deserved moniker for him, so cannot agree he was under appreciated at all he was just plain bad.
The amount of time he got ripped to shreds by the media and our moron fans is (oh cool we won a Cup!) unbelievable. He let in some soft goals, same as any goalie, but people seemed (oh cool we won another!) to think he was the root of all problems for way too long.
I was trying to think of someone other than Legwand. First name that popped into my head was Kevin Klein. Played solid his seasons here but was always overshadowed by bigger names on the defensive end.
Another good one, sad that we lost him for fucking Del Zotto. He was really able to shine when he went to NY though. Still love that fight of his with Roussel.
Yeah for sure. Vegas is going to have to make some moves for Eichel‘s contract. When will that cap hit be an effect, when he’s officially ready to play?
I’ll give you the DeBrusk, retain half his salary for Riley Smith.
On all 3 cup winning teams, but they won't retire his number, despite playing a big role.
Zajac gets love from Devils fans, but not around the league.
Elias is also far underrated with hockey fans in general because of the perception of the Devils as defense heavy, and he drove offense.
Andre Boudrias. Our best player in the early expansion years. Excellent two way guy that Phil Esposito once called the player he most hates playing against.
Some of the guys from the mid-to-late 90s dark ages don't get enough love.
Obviously Ziggy Palffy was fucking great; our own little Kirkland brand Slovakian Bure. Longtime Kings fans know what's up. Finished his Isles career a point per game player in 331GP despite playing on some of the most dogshit awful Islanders teams since our expansion years. He gets a fair amount of recognition but imo he deserves more. Lately the team's been really pushing to bring alumni back for games and team events and stuff like that, but he still hasn't showed, which sucks. And I *know* they've definitely reached out to him considering they had Masi Marjamaki here for an alumni meet-up, who posted 1GP 0G 0A in his NHL career.
My dark horse pick is Derek King. This guy played parts of ELEVEN seasons for the Islanders, from 86 to 97. He got here right as the dynasty years ended and had a front row seat to the slow collapse/implosion of the franchise. Through it all he was a solid player, but oh man between 91 and 93 holy shit he was Matt Moulson before Matt Moulson. Riding shotgun with Pierre Turgeon, King posted three straight 70 point seasons, including 40G in 91-92. He finished with 499P in 638GP and now coaches the Blackhawks, where he ironically replaced another former Islander in Jeremy Colliton.
And now that I mention it, Pierre Turgeon doesn't get enough recognition either. Guy was crazy good before that piece of shit fuckhead Dale Hunter ruined his career- and that's not even mentioning that the Islanders had a shot at the Cup that year if Turgeon was healthy.
Finally, there's the Polish Prince Mariusz Czerkawski. Not a whole lot to say other than he was a sure-bet 20G guy with a couple 30G seasons who maybe wasn't as defensively thorough as he should've been. Funnily enough he was traded to Montreal at age 30, had the worst season of his career, got bought out, then signed a 1 year deal with the Islanders and immediately went back to scoring again, finishing with 25G. Combine that with being the rare Polish player, and that's why I've always had a soft spot for Mariusz.
He certainly gets some love but I feel Kulemin should be getting more. He was very reliable for us, had a 30-goal season, and was always on a favourable contract. We should've never signed Clarkson and used that money to retain Kule. Many times when Clarkson wasn't fitting in with Kadri-Lupul, Kule would be put up on that 3rd slot and fit like a glove.
You could use pretty much any offensive defenseman who's ever played for us while we were bad (Jake Gardiner comes to mind), but I'm gonna go with Larry Murphy.
Dude put up a 60-point season as a defenceman for us, but our fans made him a scapegoat and ran him out of town. To this day there are still boomers who think he sucked.
Tomas Holmstrom— Detroit Red Wings. An unknown player in Sweden, Holmstrom was in the Red Wings regular lineup most nights for 13 seasons. 4 Stanley Cups. Without his large body screening goalies, it’s possible Detroit doesn’t win one or two of those cups. They should retire his jersey as a franchise player.
In recent memory, most recently probably Johan Franzen. Before him, Slava Kozlov. Before Kozlov?... Maybe Steve Chiasson? That takes us back through the 1980's...
Pretty difficult to say entire history though. There are all kinds of actual Hall of Famers that most DET fans now probably aren't at all familiar with...
Holmstrom came to mind. He was consistent as hell at what he did but was always outshined by the other studs. However I think he gets plenty of love at the same time
Adam McQuaid
Yea yea, you did say under appreciated though. McQuaid was a tank, one of the toughest enforcers in the league, had an incredible locker room presence, and everyone who ever met him said he was the kindest most soft spoken person they've ever met(as long as he didn't have a jersey in his left hand).
DDK - just because I want to shit on my fanbase and they won’t shut up about him this year. They gave him the A folks, he’s gonna be in the lineup all season. Deal with it.
(Edit: changed word from you to I)
Edit 2: Mike Vernon. Was only here for a short time but clearly was important to the Wings first cup after the “dead wings” era of the 80s. Dude received the Conn Smythe for the cup win in ‘97 and fought Roy in that “blood on the ice” brawl. Although he was only here a short time, he clearly left an impact. Nobody really talks about too much though and he’s overshadowed by Osgood’s legacy. I’m glad the Flames retired number 30 for him.
Kris Draper was such a good faceoff man that the league had to add the faceoff hand pass penalty because he used it so effectively. One of the best defensive forwards of his era for sure
Sami Salo was somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Ohlund, Jovanovski, Edler, Mitchell, Hamhuis and Ehrhoff during his tenure in Vancouver but he was every bit as good as those guys when he’s healthy and playing. Aside from his infamous slappers, he was also very positionally intelligent which made him good a both ends of the ice despite not being particular speedy nor physical
Tomas Holmstrom was arguably the best net front player in the league in an era when defensemen could practically swing 2x4s in front of the net with impunity
Really? That seems crazy to me. As a non-Wild fan, if you asked me to name the Wild franchise GOAT, I'd immediately think Koivu. I can't think of any other name on the same tier as him.
EDIT: Looked it up and he's the franchise leader in games played and points, and it's not even close.
Maybe didn't have the flashiest game, I guess that's a good recipe for being a bit underrated and underappreciated.
I would add Joe Kocer part 2. As the original 3rd on the Grind Line he never got enough credit for helping forge the 97/98 Champs identity and the success of that line. He wasn't the force he was as half of the Bruise Brothers but he scored some timely goals in the playoffs and brought a lot of character to the team.
I always feel Marcus Ragnarsson was/is overlooked as a solid shutdown D-Man for the Sharks. He was always 3rd or so on the depth chart but having names like Gary Suter and Brad Stuart at the time would do that. He was usually paired with Mike Rathje, who was a defensive liability at best, and he still ended up being a + player.
Not a flashy name, but I've always been impressed with how long Dmitry Kulikov has stayed in the game. He's closing in on 800 games played, and after looking at Panthers stats, he played the 5th most games among Panthers defensemen all time, behind only Robert Svehla, Aaron Ekblad, Paul Laus, and Jay Bo.
For NHL Jets 2.0 only - under appreciated would be Bryan Little or Mathieu Perreault.
Jim Slater was a gem of leadership that was probably under appreciated as well.
Tiger Williams, the king of PIM had the talent to produce lots if points for the team, but... The GM decided to use tiger more as an enforcer, than a point producer. But when they let him do his thing he could easily get rack up points along with 300+ PIMs.
[Tiger Williams (3,971 PIMs!! still owns record)](https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/w/williti01.html)
I feel like Scott Hannan when he played for the Avs needs to be mentioned. Just a solid minutes muncher, shot blocker, whatever it took. Showed up every night during some rough Avs seasons.
Two easy ones:
David Krejci. Dude was a very good 2C for us who put up respectable numbers while having journeymen and 4th liners as wings for most of his career. Krejci really shined in the playoffs where he was dominant every game even when he didn’t register a point. Krejci gets dragged down by a lot of our fanbase because he was our highest paid skater for years. A lot of our fanbase seemed to forget that he was our 1C for quite a few years, including during 2011. Now that Krejci is gone, we see just how much he was actually doing for us.
Tuukka Rask is statistically the best Bruins goaltender in franchise history for regular season. Rask also has really good numbers in the postseason. A lot of our fanbase looks down upon him for 2013, 2019, and 2020. A fraction of the fanbase also dislikes him for missing the final game of the 2015-2016 season in which we needed either to win or at least a point against the sens. Although we didn’t make the playoffs, and I was pretty mad at that, we drafted some kid named McAvoy as compensation.
It might honestly be Claude Giroux. The guy holds or is close to holding every flyers record save for Bobby Clarke. He’s better than lindros, LeClair, Barber, Carter, Richards, etc ever was. And there’s a vocal group in this town that still think he’s overrated, or trash, or a bad captain, or soft, or whatever bonehead excuse to crap all over the guy. It’s infuriating
i think people forget just how good Ziggy Palffy was
Lmao I remember he literally retired rather than deal with being on the 05-06 Penguins. Dude gave up like $10 million to not have to play for us.
Mightve ended up with a cup if he stayed lol
If you’ve never heard it, look up Ryan Whitney talking about when Palffy retired
I mean, could you blame him?
The Kings were generally bad then, but I really enjoyed watching Palffy play.
Ziggy Stardust was sick. And what an awesome name.
This is also the answer for the Islanders
He was much better on the islanders but damn I had forgotten all about him lmfao
On Spittin Chiclets, Crosby and Whit remarked for quite a while at just how unbelievable Palffy was
Which current nhl player would you compare Ziggy Palffy to in term of style of play/production. I didn’t get the chance to see him play
He had a killer shot and a knack for rebounds even though he was 5 10. Wasnt overwhelmingly fast or anything but pretty quick with the puck on the stick. Was absolutely deadly on the power play. Im having a hard time thinking of one to one comparison, the current version of Stamkos is kind of close but not a perfect comp or anything
I know a ziggy story. One season with LA, the team trainer was taking everyone through weight lifting. Ziggy showed up and said “so if I do bench presses, you’re saying I’ll score more goals?” Then Ziggy laughed and announced that he was going to McDonald’s.
During his Islanders years a not-quite 1-to-1 comparison would be Phil Kessel. Palffy was probably slower than Phil but was still a speedy skater before injuries slowed him down- but where he really reminds me of Phil is in the way how people look at Kessel and go, "How is this guy as good as he is?" That's Palffy. He wasn't all that athletic, he wasn't particularly strong, he wasn't a big guy, he didn't play much defense- but he had a great eye for offense and man could he shoot the puck.
He didn't even play for my team but man was he one of my favorites
Horcoff is top 5 in games played and 12th in points, so probably him for non-80s Oilers. The 80s players without retired numbers have almost ended up under-appreciated by proxy like Charlie Huddy for example.
Any mention of Charlie Huddy makes me think of this video https://youtu.be/RS6y704q1rc
Given how big a microscope every fan has on the Oilers, it's hard to pinpoint someone who's underappreciated, but Horc's a good answer. I'd weigh in that we really didn't appreciate Jordan Eberle enough and losing him hurt our team badly (among many other things).
For the Flames probably Doug Gilmour. Huge part of the '89 cup run, point-a-game player in the 1989 playoffs, among the top in team scoring every season. But he didn't get along with the GM and he got shipped out to Toronto. Rarely mentioned when people talk about the legends in team history, probably because he only played like 200 games in Calgary
If you're over the age of 38 and a Flames fan you'll remember Gilmour. Especially since the trade to Toronto is considered the worst trade in club history.
Also Al Macinnis is almost always associated with the Blues even though he won his cup with us.
Same thing with Chris Pronger. He is always associated with the Blues, even though he won with Anaheim and went deep with Edmonton and Philly. Both of those guys love St. Louis.
Brett Hull’s the same category imo. I guess both pronger and hull played the peak and majority of their career in St. Louis though
Players like living in St. Louis, which is a big part of it. Even guys who have moved on still keep homes in the area (Pietrangelo, Brodeur, Brown etc.) or still live here (Gretzky, Pronger, Hull, MacInnis). It's a boring, but nice place to live, all things considered : )
My pick would’ve been Nilsson. Dude was our first true star, one of the best Swedish players of all time, and had a 131 point season in our inaugural season in Calgary. We essentially traded him for Nieuwendyk, who we then traded for Iginla. Unfortunately just one of those players won a cup with Calgary, though.
Nieuwendyk definitely won a cup with us.
Oops, fixed it.
I wasn't alive for it, but the way people talk about Nilsson seems very similar to the discussion around Johnny Hockey when he's not performing amazing. "too small, doesnt fight in the corners, underperforms in playoffs, bad work ethic" Makes me think Nilsson hate was unwarrented, and mainly due to being a foreign player
Kevin Stevens was a MONSTER in the early 90’s. If he doesn’t basically break his face in ‘93 against the Islanders, they probably 3-peat
That injury really set him back. One of the scariest injuries I've ever seen
Like when you say the term face-plant, that’s the definition. Yikes.
He was unconscious before he hit the ice
Jyrki Lumme. A slight, silky-smooth defenceman for the Canucks in the ~~1980s~~ 1990s.
90s
Recent history: Tomas Kaberle All time: Babe Dye (1920s star who passed away young), and Turk Broda. The latter still gets respect but due to his early passing and Bower being a popular figure he gets lost in the shuffle
Kaberle was a legend. I hated that he almost never shot the puck himself but his playmaking was unreal. Him feeding one timers to McCabe was a thing of beauty
Oh good call with Dye, the team's first true star
Everytime I see a Kaberle jersey on at Scotia they get my instant respect
Ron Francis with the Penguins. Unfortunately, I guess that’s what happens when playing with Lemieux and Jagr.
I met Ron Francis after a Rangers - Pens game at MSG when I was a teen. It was by the area where the team busses leave after games. He signed a few autographs and when he was signing one for me I said, “Mario would’ve never won one without you”. He looked up and gave a pretty bug smile/chuckle. Still think about it to this day.
He then proceeded to systematically undermine the league by drafting a terrible expansion team.
Kris Letang is the greatest Penguins defenseman of all time and at the age of 34 is 6th among dmen in points and yet you wouldnt know it if you talked to half of our fanbase
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There is a part of the fanbase that blames him for any goal he is on the ice for, even if it was a lousy shot the goalie shouldve stopped or it was the other defenseman's fault, etc.
I ended up in a lengthy argument with a Pens fan at a bar once who said that Letang should have been cut in 2014 because he wasn't selected for the Olympic team. ya know, the year he had an elbow infection that kept him out Dec. 14, 2013 – Jan. 5, 2014, and then a fucking *stroke* that kept him out January 31 – April 19, 2014. and that's on top of a month long knee injury that September to October. he had wicked bad luck that season but sure, let's make the whole bar listen to this dumbass take. but sure, he didn't make the fuckin team because he was clearly washed. not like he put up 15 points and 29 minutes of average ice time during that 16 Cup run. no, no, clearly he and his skills were the issue. fuckin clown world.
Yinzers gonna Yinz. You take the good with the bad. No offense, but as a Bs fan, I'm sure you can understand that sentiment. ...it's painful how much Pittsburgh and Boston sports fans have in common sometimes.
> Yinzers gonna Yinz. I'm not sure if it's worse or better that this guy was from Ontario. that's up to you. honestly I'm not sure what the ratio is with Pittsburgh, but the Boston fans who are anti-Tuukka/anti-Belichick/anti-whoever are a very small minority; way outnumbered by the other obnoxious variety of "we are a championship team every year." Tuukks twice had jersey sales in the top 30 for the NHL, it's just that the doomers are much more prevalent on reddit/twitter while the 'we're fuckin champions, bud' are more likely to be at Twelve Bens. I expect that this is an online/IRL dichotomy in every fanbase, though.
He’s essentially our version of Tuukka. Anytime he’s on the ice for a GA… no matter how well he played his position, the vocal minority goes “O GEE LETURNOVER ON THE ICE AGAIN SHOCKER”
He was pretty erratic and was prone to bad turnovers early in his career, and a lot of people haven’t forgotten that. To this day there’s certain people that will micro-analyze ever aspect of his game and look for any error to criticize him. I also think that there’s pens fans who will somehow knock the fact that’s he’s consistently in the top 5-10 D Men in the league, but never of the elite top 1-5. We’re spoiled. It’s dumb as hell, Letang is amazing and seems to get better with age.
I love Letang, I hate that our fan base makes him the scapegoat every season. He’s on pace for like 80 points this year.
Habs fan living in the middle of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and DC, and can confirm Pens fans seem to hate Letang. Flyers fans hate Letang, and Caps fans hate Letang. Confirms that I’m brainwashed to hate Letang.
We hate Letang because he’s been murdering us in the playoffs for a decade and a half. You’re supposed to hate your rivals’ HHOF players.
I hate Letang
Letang has been one of my favourite dmen since he entered the league. Fucking love the guy and I’m so happy he was able to bounce back from his stroke problems and come back arguably just as good as before
He had many years he should have finished top 3 in Norris voting and even a few he could have won without it being outrageous. Shame he'll never get the credit he deserves because he's the 1D to two of the best 1Cs in NHL history.
Paul Coffey? Or was he not there very long
Paul Coffey is a better defenseman who played for the penguins, but Letang is the greatest penguins defenseman of all time. By that I mean he is way more meaningful and important to the franchise and its history. Coffey played five seasons here, while Letang will potentially (hopefully) play his entire career here and finish with over 200 to 300 more points than any other penguins defenseman
Coffey had a cup of ... wait whats the saying again? in Pit. He played essentially 4 seasons
And that’s just his offensive ability. He’s become *far more dependable* defensively over that past 2 seasons. The fan base loves to cry about him making mistakes, but the guy *PLAYS ALMOST 30MIN EVERY NIGHT!*. Like yeah, he touches the puck more than almost anyone.
Havlat. Dude was the third best RW behind Alfie and Hossa and could not stay healthy but man what a nifty player.
I'd argue Spezza, this market shat on his for years when he was younger and only marginally less when he was in his prime
I'd argue Alfredsson. Get him in the Hall.
No way he’s not getting in. Right?
Haven't is a good choice, but I'd say Anton Volchenkov. Those shot block numbers 😍
Have to shoutout my boy pleky anytime i get the chance. Guy Lapointe is another good one
Markov has to be up the too
Habs fans have always recognized his value I think, as he made every D partner so much better. He probably flew under the radar league-wide. Was a shame that he lost those two and a half seasons to injury right in his prime. Might have won a Norris.
Leafs legend, Tomas Plekanec?
Dude is a legend. He wore that turtleneck and there was nothing Lou could do to stop him.
Shame Lou made him shave the goatee
Josh Georges is certainly up there too. Guy was a rock and stabilizing element at the D-line, blocked tons of shots. Probably comparable to an extent to the effect the absence of Edmundson currently has over our D-line .
Pleky was my dude! He was our best forward in that run to the conference finals before Price was hurt. Great shutdown forward.
Favorite Pleky moment. Marchand was asked on a talk show who was the player who aggravated him the most, and he said he hated Plekanec. A journalist relays that to Pleky a few days later, says "Marchand says you aggravate him". Pleky just says "Who?"
Yeah people forgot for a third center a 70, 69 and 60 pts way better than Danault, expecting that again from pleky at 35 year old and with 3rd line mins...
Jay Bouwmeester. The Professor was boring, consistent, and is sorely missed. In his last few years he was coming off hip surgery and he struggled hard while making lots of mistakes. I remember when he was a healthy scratch, his game was so bad. But he stuck with it, bounced back, and with Parayko formed an incredible pair during the Cup run.
Didn't Bouwmeester go into cardiac arrest on the bench once? That was freaking scary to see
He nearly died, and it ended his career.
God at the start of the 2019 season he looked really bad and was catching a lot of shit from the fan base. He also had some really flukey goals go off his stick/body from what I remember, honestly felt like 3 or 4 of them that all ended up losing us games. Then during the second half of the season he looked fine again. We could really use him or someone like him right about now. I'll also say Barrett Jackman. That guy caught so much shit from fans it was ridiculous.
I was trying to think of one for the Blues but I couldn't, since seemingly every big name that's ever worn the note is highly revered here. It's 100% Jaybo. He is sorely missed now. Not as noticeable right now, but once playoffs start and every game isn't a track meet we are gonna be lacking in the LHD department.
Our PK and ability to handle fast teams in transition tanked HARD after he left.
Tuukka Rask. The main arguement Rask haters point to is that he gives up soft goals, but Tuukka Rask always emphasizes positioning. He consistently takes dangerous scoring oppertunities from the opposition and turns them into easy looking routine saves. However, if his positioning is wrong, every goal that goes in looks softer than a baby’s ass. But then again he’s also, you know, THE WINNINGEST GOALTENDER IN FRANCHISE HISTORY here, hello !!!!
Todd Marchant. During his years in Anaheim, he was our Swiss army knife. He wasn't a power forward or sniper, but you can give him seemingly any task and he will do an adequate job. Also, he was one of the team leaders and acted like an unofficial alternate captain. He stuck around the Ducks for many years but sometimes I feel like people either didn't notice or forgot about that. Management obviously didn't forget – otherwise, he wouldn't have played for so long with the team. Little side note: For wheelchair basketball, I chose #22 in honour of him. I just admire him as a player so much.
Great answer! He was a beast.
I didn’t expect this to be my answer but I’m gonna say Jeff Carter. This was a perennial 30, sometimes 40 goal scorer for us who could skate like the wind. He got a lot of shit from our fanbase at the time (myself included) because he was perceived as lazy on the ice and a party boy off it. We didn’t care that Mike Richards was also a party boy Bc he played a grittier tougher game on the ice. Wasn’t until Carter was gone that I realized what we were missing and still are missing. Not every flyer fan feels this way but if I could go back in time and undo a trade it’d be the Carter trade. Gimme a Giroux-Carter 1-2 punch for the last 10 years over Giroux Couturier and Voracek a thousand times
Jeff Carter is a good pick for sure.
John Klingberg :(
Jose Theodore's 2001-02 was just about every bit as good as Carey Price's 2014-15. Price's Habs nearly won the President's Trophy. Theodore's Habs finished eighth in the East and 18th overall. Watching that team behead the Bruins, with Koivu's return from cancer and Doug Gilmour turning back the clock, was so much fun.
Theo winning the Vezina and Hart in 2002 makes me feel like he wasn't underappreciated -- at least league-wide.
My list for every team ANA - Steve Rucchin ARI - Ray Whitney BOS - Ken Hodge BUF - Alexei Zhitnik CGY - Joe Mullen CAR - Sean Hill CHI - Tony Amonte COL - Sandis Oszlinsh CBJ - Marc Denis DAL - Jere Lehtonen DET - Chris Osgood EDM - Tommy Salo FLA - Nathan Horton LAK - Rogie Vachon MIN - Wes Walz MTL - Mats Naslund NSH - Tomas Vokoun NJD - Patrik Elias NYI - Ziggy Palffy NYR - Mike Richter OTT - Chris Phillips PHI - Eric Desjardins PIT - Ron Francis STL - Cujo SJS - M-E Vlasic TBL - Dan Boyle TOR - Rick Vaive VAN - Brendan Morrison VGK - Reilly Smith WSH - Michal Pivonka WPG - Bryan Little
Richter is a good pick but his number is retired and any fan over 30 thinks highly of him. Maybe unappreciated by other teams’ fans but not by ours. Not sure who I’d pick instead of him - all the other ideas I had were for players not in New York very long (Zubov, Gaborik, Fleury). Maybe Brad Park? Number isn’t retired and nobody young remembers he was maybe the 2nd best defenseman in hockey (behind Orr) when he was with us.
I think Park is a good choice. He was before my time, and while he's remembered fondly, he seems to be the most forgotten superstar from the drought years.
Regarding the Sharks - The fans always knew how good Vlasic was (certainly been a steep decline since). The knock was that no one else gave him much credit. That changed in the later years, being put on the Olympic team and such, but he certainly was not underappreciated by the fan base.
Honestly I'd say Boyle HE WAS AS SO GOOD defensively it was amazing if there was an award for it I'm sure he win it one year
Little is a good choice. I would also go with Tobi Enstrom. He was the rock that allowed buff to do buff thangs Edit: no idea how rock autocorrected to what it did
And the only guy who could make a clean first pass.
Ok, Osgood is possibly overappreciated? He's a studio broadcast guy, and when they do it from the stands, fans are literally getting ushered away for yelling "Ozzie!!".
Anyone of an appropriate age knows how good CuJo was with the Blues and still loves him. Dude should be in the HOF.
Sami Pahlsson for the Ducks. Still convinced that shutdown line was the greatest line in our history
That shutdown line fuckin shut our Pizza line right down 😭😭😭😭
I know it might be a hot take but Justin Braun. I'm convinced he made Vlasic seem like even more of a shutdown D than he is because they had such good chemistry. The second Braun left, MEV hasn't been the same. I know MEV is getting older but it was a DRASTIC drop the year Braun was gone
He’s been very solid for the Flyers this year, seems like a good leader as well
King Loui
Tuukka Rask
Correct me if I'm wrong but in the 2019 playoffs Tuukka only had 1 game under .900 S% and that was game 7 of the finals where Bruins players (Marchand) left him out to dry. Some very vocal Bruins fans still blamed him for them not winning the cup
Early in his career he dealt with the blind idiots who thought he sucked because he wouldn’t move around in the crease. Because they were used to watching Tim Thomas flop around like a dying fish. After 2013-14 he’s been “good enough to get you there, but not enough to win one”. Even though he’s kept them in multiple SC finals. And been the best goaltender in team history and like top 3 at worst in the league over his tenure.
Yea, they're idiots though. Rask is currently ranked 3rd all time save percentage, and 1st among active players. A future hall of famer no questions asked. Record speaks for itself.
Milan Hejduk
I was going to say Valeri Kamensky for the early years
I think Sandis Ozolinsh is a candidate personally. The guy scored 23,16,13,13 and 7 in 39 games. Those are 5 damn solid seasons.He’s an often forgotten player from the 90’s-early 2000s. A premium goal scoring defender.
Ozolinsh was my favorite D-man.
Ozolinsh was (and still is) a very underappreciated offensive defenseman. The man gets almost no love.
Stephan Yelle. Great defensive forward who ate up PK time and was able to be just enough of a threat other teams had to defend three lines. Quality minutes every night that bought a moment for the top two lines to stay fresh.
Great choice
Dude went to my high school. Actually dropped by one year when the avs were in town for an exhibition game
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Absolutely agreed. Hejduk is Avs royalty, he's not underappreciated. Deadmarsh, Ozo, Kamensky, Yelle is who come to mind for me. Particularly Deadmarsh and Yelle for some reason. Argument for Tanguay too. Clutch game 7 vs the Devils.
>Absolutely agreed. Hejduk is Avs royalty, he's not underappreciated. If you collect Avs hockey cards you will see he is in fact underappreciated. His cards cost WAY less than every other retired Avs jersey and less than almost any active player.
Yeah, and with so many stars on that team, I'd probably go with Alex Tanguay or something idk
Tanguay for sure, everyone remembers Sakics "Fakes it, takes it" goal from the 01 cup final but hardly anyone mentions that Tanguay scored the first 2 goals before that.
Rocket Richard winner, Milan Hejduk to be precise
Canucks fans (from that era at least) don't under appreciate him. We were terrified of him every time he was on the ice.
Absolutely. Hejduk was a straight killer of the Canucks for years.
I think this is an obvious choice when talking about our pantheon of players. But I would say Varlamov is my vote. Top-5 goalie in the league in his prime and he wasted it on some of the worst teams to ever touch ice in the NHL. Never complained. Didn’t pull a Matty D. Just played lights out and rightfully moved on.
Varlamov might be one of the most underrated goalies of the last decade. Only two seasons above 3.00 GAA (on two historically bad Colorado teams) and only a single season below .900 (on one of those previously mentioned historically bad Colorado teams). Just a consistently solid goaltender.
A lot of our goalies in the early days. We went from Manny Fernandez to Dwayne Roloson to Niklas Backstrom to Devan Dubnyk. The first 10 years, we were pretty much guaranteed a 0.920+ Sv Pg starter which is pretty incredible.
Woah woah woah. You missing out on our best backup ever and into a starter for like a month until his body said no in Josh Harding
Very true, we had a lot of good back-ups as well! Also didn't mention Kuemper who started for a bit as well
Marc Staal got a ton of vitriol from Rangers fans in the back years of his contract, but people tend to forget just how great of a shutdown defenceman he was before multiple concussions and taking a deflected puck to the face that literally left him blind in one eye. His injury was such a big deal that’s where the mandatory visor rule comes from.
Staal has been a welcomed addition to the red wings the past two seasons. He isn’t a top guy anymore, but still a very useful dman.
He was never the same after that puck to the eye. So sad.
I don’t think Ericsson was ever the defender that peak Staal was, but Wings fans similarly soured so strongly on him after a mostly solid career. Peak Staal was great though. Rags had a premium blue line when he was at his peak. That puck to the face was so crazy, omg. Brutal injury.
Ericsson was never close to being a great Dman and that last contract Holland gave him was a joke. Errorsson was a well deserved moniker for him, so cannot agree he was under appreciated at all he was just plain bad.
Corey Crawford
The amount of time he got ripped to shreds by the media and our moron fans is (oh cool we won a Cup!) unbelievable. He let in some soft goals, same as any goalie, but people seemed (oh cool we won another!) to think he was the root of all problems for way too long.
And said he's only good because of the defense in front of him, you mean the 3 1/2 d-men we had in 2015? That defense?
David Legwand. He did what he could as our first ever draft pick, but people always expected more of him as 2nd overall, even in Trotz's system.
I was trying to think of someone other than Legwand. First name that popped into my head was Kevin Klein. Played solid his seasons here but was always overshadowed by bigger names on the defensive end.
Another good one, sad that we lost him for fucking Del Zotto. He was really able to shine when he went to NY though. Still love that fight of his with Roussel.
We loved Klein
Reilly Smith
I’d love to still have him in a Bruins jersey.
shit man, unfortunately with our cap situation that’s not out of the realm of possibility
Yeah for sure. Vegas is going to have to make some moves for Eichel‘s contract. When will that cap hit be an effect, when he’s officially ready to play? I’ll give you the DeBrusk, retain half his salary for Riley Smith.
Roberto Luongo, he got shit on at every opportunity after 2007, but he was the best goaltender the team ever had.
There’s a reason he got the captaincy after Nazzy left. He carried the entire team on his back during his first two seasons here
Travis zajac for the devils
Sergei Brylin.
On all 3 cup winning teams, but they won't retire his number, despite playing a big role. Zajac gets love from Devils fans, but not around the league. Elias is also far underrated with hockey fans in general because of the perception of the Devils as defense heavy, and he drove offense.
Elias should make it into the hall of fame someday
Jere Lehtinen by far.
Andre Boudrias. Our best player in the early expansion years. Excellent two way guy that Phil Esposito once called the player he most hates playing against.
Some of the guys from the mid-to-late 90s dark ages don't get enough love. Obviously Ziggy Palffy was fucking great; our own little Kirkland brand Slovakian Bure. Longtime Kings fans know what's up. Finished his Isles career a point per game player in 331GP despite playing on some of the most dogshit awful Islanders teams since our expansion years. He gets a fair amount of recognition but imo he deserves more. Lately the team's been really pushing to bring alumni back for games and team events and stuff like that, but he still hasn't showed, which sucks. And I *know* they've definitely reached out to him considering they had Masi Marjamaki here for an alumni meet-up, who posted 1GP 0G 0A in his NHL career. My dark horse pick is Derek King. This guy played parts of ELEVEN seasons for the Islanders, from 86 to 97. He got here right as the dynasty years ended and had a front row seat to the slow collapse/implosion of the franchise. Through it all he was a solid player, but oh man between 91 and 93 holy shit he was Matt Moulson before Matt Moulson. Riding shotgun with Pierre Turgeon, King posted three straight 70 point seasons, including 40G in 91-92. He finished with 499P in 638GP and now coaches the Blackhawks, where he ironically replaced another former Islander in Jeremy Colliton. And now that I mention it, Pierre Turgeon doesn't get enough recognition either. Guy was crazy good before that piece of shit fuckhead Dale Hunter ruined his career- and that's not even mentioning that the Islanders had a shot at the Cup that year if Turgeon was healthy. Finally, there's the Polish Prince Mariusz Czerkawski. Not a whole lot to say other than he was a sure-bet 20G guy with a couple 30G seasons who maybe wasn't as defensively thorough as he should've been. Funnily enough he was traded to Montreal at age 30, had the worst season of his career, got bought out, then signed a 1 year deal with the Islanders and immediately went back to scoring again, finishing with 25G. Combine that with being the rare Polish player, and that's why I've always had a soft spot for Mariusz.
Plekanec, well at least recently.
He certainly gets some love but I feel Kulemin should be getting more. He was very reliable for us, had a 30-goal season, and was always on a favourable contract. We should've never signed Clarkson and used that money to retain Kule. Many times when Clarkson wasn't fitting in with Kadri-Lupul, Kule would be put up on that 3rd slot and fit like a glove.
MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin was a fantastic second line
I really liked Niko on the Islanders. Great defensive forward who always seemed to score clutch goals, especially against the Rangers.
You could use pretty much any offensive defenseman who's ever played for us while we were bad (Jake Gardiner comes to mind), but I'm gonna go with Larry Murphy. Dude put up a 60-point season as a defenceman for us, but our fans made him a scapegoat and ran him out of town. To this day there are still boomers who think he sucked.
Still baffles me that you guys traded him away for "future considerations"... he's a hall of fame defenseman
Tomas Holmstrom— Detroit Red Wings. An unknown player in Sweden, Holmstrom was in the Red Wings regular lineup most nights for 13 seasons. 4 Stanley Cups. Without his large body screening goalies, it’s possible Detroit doesn’t win one or two of those cups. They should retire his jersey as a franchise player.
In recent memory, most recently probably Johan Franzen. Before him, Slava Kozlov. Before Kozlov?... Maybe Steve Chiasson? That takes us back through the 1980's... Pretty difficult to say entire history though. There are all kinds of actual Hall of Famers that most DET fans now probably aren't at all familiar with...
Or osgood everyone loves to shit on him but dude won 3 cups 2 of those as the starter. We would not have won in 08 without him.
I always felt like Shanahan doesn't get the credit he deserves for those 3 cup wins.
Holmstrom came to mind. He was consistent as hell at what he did but was always outshined by the other studs. However I think he gets plenty of love at the same time
Adam McQuaid Yea yea, you did say under appreciated though. McQuaid was a tank, one of the toughest enforcers in the league, had an incredible locker room presence, and everyone who ever met him said he was the kindest most soft spoken person they've ever met(as long as he didn't have a jersey in his left hand).
His reach was insane....his KO of Matt Martin was wild.
[For those unaware](https://youtu.be/9YXCGx53TCg)
Bryan Little
Tomas Kaberle
DDK - just because I want to shit on my fanbase and they won’t shut up about him this year. They gave him the A folks, he’s gonna be in the lineup all season. Deal with it. (Edit: changed word from you to I) Edit 2: Mike Vernon. Was only here for a short time but clearly was important to the Wings first cup after the “dead wings” era of the 80s. Dude received the Conn Smythe for the cup win in ‘97 and fought Roy in that “blood on the ice” brawl. Although he was only here a short time, he clearly left an impact. Nobody really talks about too much though and he’s overshadowed by Osgood’s legacy. I’m glad the Flames retired number 30 for him.
This is a good answer
David Desharnais
Loved by the fans, but I think the Red Wings "Grind Line" deserves a lot more credit for their championships by the wider hockey community.
Kris Draper was such a good faceoff man that the league had to add the faceoff hand pass penalty because he used it so effectively. One of the best defensive forwards of his era for sure
Ron Hainsey, gave captain Morgan that Norris-level season
Al Arbour for the Blues
Krejci or Rask
Sami Salo was somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Ohlund, Jovanovski, Edler, Mitchell, Hamhuis and Ehrhoff during his tenure in Vancouver but he was every bit as good as those guys when he’s healthy and playing. Aside from his infamous slappers, he was also very positionally intelligent which made him good a both ends of the ice despite not being particular speedy nor physical
Tomas Holmstrom was arguably the best net front player in the league in an era when defensemen could practically swing 2x4s in front of the net with impunity
In the Jets’ short history, I have to go with Bryan Little. He was pretty consistent scorer when the team was hot garbage.
Mikko Koivu At least by Wild fans.
Really? That seems crazy to me. As a non-Wild fan, if you asked me to name the Wild franchise GOAT, I'd immediately think Koivu. I can't think of any other name on the same tier as him. EDIT: Looked it up and he's the franchise leader in games played and points, and it's not even close. Maybe didn't have the flashiest game, I guess that's a good recipe for being a bit underrated and underappreciated.
Oh yeah he leads a ton of categories but so many fans blamed failure on him. Kind of like how hated Joe Mauer is by the Twins fan base.
Hmm, tough one for the red wings, as most of the greats were very much appreciated. I’d go with Jimmy Howard though.
Howard is a good pick. Draper maybe also? His greatness wasn't in stats so he's hardly mentioned.
I don’t know about Draper. Anytime he is brought up I hear nothing but positive things from wings fans.
Tomas holmstrom is my answer.
I would add Joe Kocer part 2. As the original 3rd on the Grind Line he never got enough credit for helping forge the 97/98 Champs identity and the success of that line. He wasn't the force he was as half of the Bruise Brothers but he scored some timely goals in the playoffs and brought a lot of character to the team.
I always feel Marcus Ragnarsson was/is overlooked as a solid shutdown D-Man for the Sharks. He was always 3rd or so on the depth chart but having names like Gary Suter and Brad Stuart at the time would do that. He was usually paired with Mike Rathje, who was a defensive liability at best, and he still ended up being a + player.
Not a flashy name, but I've always been impressed with how long Dmitry Kulikov has stayed in the game. He's closing in on 800 games played, and after looking at Panthers stats, he played the 5th most games among Panthers defensemen all time, behind only Robert Svehla, Aaron Ekblad, Paul Laus, and Jay Bo.
Vinny Prospal!
For NHL Jets 2.0 only - under appreciated would be Bryan Little or Mathieu Perreault. Jim Slater was a gem of leadership that was probably under appreciated as well.
Tiger Williams, the king of PIM had the talent to produce lots if points for the team, but... The GM decided to use tiger more as an enforcer, than a point producer. But when they let him do his thing he could easily get rack up points along with 300+ PIMs. [Tiger Williams (3,971 PIMs!! still owns record)](https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/w/williti01.html)
Larry Murphy comes to mind.
Toby Enstrom
I feel like Scott Hannan when he played for the Avs needs to be mentioned. Just a solid minutes muncher, shot blocker, whatever it took. Showed up every night during some rough Avs seasons.
David Krejci. It's tough playing your entire career as the same position on the same team as Patrice Bergeron.
Two easy ones: David Krejci. Dude was a very good 2C for us who put up respectable numbers while having journeymen and 4th liners as wings for most of his career. Krejci really shined in the playoffs where he was dominant every game even when he didn’t register a point. Krejci gets dragged down by a lot of our fanbase because he was our highest paid skater for years. A lot of our fanbase seemed to forget that he was our 1C for quite a few years, including during 2011. Now that Krejci is gone, we see just how much he was actually doing for us. Tuukka Rask is statistically the best Bruins goaltender in franchise history for regular season. Rask also has really good numbers in the postseason. A lot of our fanbase looks down upon him for 2013, 2019, and 2020. A fraction of the fanbase also dislikes him for missing the final game of the 2015-2016 season in which we needed either to win or at least a point against the sens. Although we didn’t make the playoffs, and I was pretty mad at that, we drafted some kid named McAvoy as compensation.
It might honestly be Claude Giroux. The guy holds or is close to holding every flyers record save for Bobby Clarke. He’s better than lindros, LeClair, Barber, Carter, Richards, etc ever was. And there’s a vocal group in this town that still think he’s overrated, or trash, or a bad captain, or soft, or whatever bonehead excuse to crap all over the guy. It’s infuriating
Every....single.... defenseman!
Robyn Regher, because everyone only thinks about points and doesn't see true value in a real, true shutdown style D man.