Gretzky did ok, and in an era where body checks were far more prevalent
OT: 2022-23 NHL thread….Devils & Rangers & Islanders
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True, but Gretzky had protection like Marty Mcsorely, among others. Jack Hughes doesn't have anything close. He is also not great at avoiding the big hit.
Different game though, and culture was just different re hitting talented players. Plus Gretzky was smarter than everyone else - always knew where everyone was
The brilliance of Gretzky was that not only did he know where everyone was, he appeared to know where everyone on the ice was going to be in a few seconds, and even before they did.
Yeah true. So many of those "little" plays where guys were blanketed but their motion created a sliver of a window, and he'd thread it basically surprising everyone involved.
Could be controversial or age / recency bias, but I still contend that if career timelines were the same and he was healthy, Lemieux would've gone down as best player.
Show me the “ big hits” Jack took this year!! Kids skating and hockey sense are out of this world . Rarely ever puts himself in a position to get hit
I just go back to his injury history. Just look at last year against the Islanders. When you are under a buck 90, and skate really fast, there is little margin for error. After all he has missed games to injury every year, so far sadly.
Different sport, but I think back to the injury that ended Bo Jackson's football career.
Hey just played 78 out of 82 games as a 21 year old and hasn’t missed a beat in the playoffs
Even the great one himself raved about Jack
https://www.outkick.com/wayne-gretzky-says-jack-hughes-reminds-him-of-himself/#:~:text=“He's%20been%20that%20good%20and,sees%20the%20ice%20incredibly%20well.
https://www.outkick.com/wayne-gretzky-says-jack-hughes-reminds-him-of-himself/#:~:text=“He's%20been%20that%20good%20and,sees%20the%20ice%20incredibly%20well.
I'm a fan of his, I was not knocking him, just suggesting something he needs to work on. Also something Fitzgerald needs to keep in mind, while managing this roster.
History shows, even nagging injuries shorten careers! I don't want this to occur.
That’s not even a question any more . It’s did the rangers make the right pick at #2. There’s a bunch of players taken in the next 10 picks that have developed nicely. Dach, Zegras , Boldy , Cousins , and Seider
I don’t think it’s really that controversial.
A healthy #66 was simply amazing to watch.
One of sport’s great “what if…” IMO.
As great of a goal scorer he was, Lemieux will never go down as the best player because he was a big p*ssy. For example Adam Graves deserved the slashing penalty in 1992 but Lemieux going turtle on the play was embarrassing for him. And that is not the only example of him doing that.
Yeah, never the brawler like #99.
A healthy throughout his whole career Bobby Orr would have been some lineage too.
It was only a small segment of Ranger fans who were butthurt about losing the lottery to the Devils who were ever dumb enough to claim the Rangers wouldn’t have picked Hughes at #1.
It is 20-20 hindsight to talk about players drafted after Kakko in context of the Rangers making a mistake, because there was a strong consensus at the time that their was a gap between Kakko at #2 and the rest of the field. It’s similar to the Hischier draft, where everyone would take Makar #1 now but no one was saying it at the time.
Agreed. At the time, it was Hughes and Kakko and everyone else.
Kakko is a nice and useful player for the Rangers. I don't think he has a very high ceiling, but he will be a 25-35 goal scorer for a long time even if he doesn't pop off the screen like Hughes does.
The hope at the time was that Kakko would be another Rantannen. I have no problem if he turns out to be another Landeskog (in his play, he is too quiet to be captain of anything).
Was a big fan of those Oilers teams. I don't recall #99 ever going down like Lemieux. Lemieux was a big guy. Not saying he needed to be a fighter but show some toughness. He played soft for the era.
Huh? With no attempt at being a real man and using his body to check Lemieux, Graves surprisingly swung his stick like a baseball bat and broke Lemieux’s hand with a slash. What do you think Lemieux should have done?
They picked the right player given information at the time. The kick in the face for NYR fans is that they were incredibly high on and we're planning to take Zegras before they won the lottery.
They win the second selection, the 1OA is a superstar, their pick is a good 2 way winger, and lots of stars came after. Team is forever doomed.
Baseball swing? No. Aggressive slash that deserved a penalty. Yes. Still doesn't excuse Lemieux from dropping to the ice. And Lemieux stayed in the game and played the next game.
It happens to all of the teams I root for. The Jets get the #1 pick and they miss Peyton Manning by a year and they get to draft from maybe the worst ever QB class.
I could mention the deadline deal that was on the table of Kreider For Jason Robertson AND a first round pick, but what good would that do?
That Kreider contract drove me nuts because they already had Panarin and were committing to pay over 22% of their cap on two LWs.
To Kreider’s credit, he reinvented himself with his net front game, his contract is not near the top of the list of bad deals they have, and he is so good on the PP and PK we just need a coach smart enough to reduce his 5v5 minutes.
The Lias Anderson pick is especially annoying because they made a big move up, hoping to move up again even further to get Petterson and couldn’t. The move to 7 became a waste because the prospects were all bunched up past 5 or so anyway.
I prefer to think about that draft like they successfully took Chytil first, then took a flyer on Anderson later (it doesn’t sound as bad that way).
Look right at the 0:52/0:53 time on the video. If you prefer, you can use the term the announcers described it as...a chop, not a slash. Chops bring down trees. Don't many on this board like to use the term "chop". They aren't using it as a sissy reference.
Btw, you are a blatant liar. Lemieux missed the next 5 games in those playoffs because of that injury. That included the remaining games in the series.
When was he ever touched?
He had a lot of protection. And rightly so IMO.
I thought Simmons was going to be that for Jack Hughes when the Devils got him from the Flyers.
Amen-
The emotion and energy is obvious.
But it’s the system he runs that places his players in a position to win.
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Zap-
Last night sure reminded me of the most underrated impactful screwup of the Rangers’ rebuild.
They let Fast go, even though he had great chemistry playing RW with Panarin and was he most popular player (with the other players) on the team, because they didn’t want to pay him $3 million a year for two years.
Since then, they have traded away multiple #1 picks to acquire rentals like Copp and Tarasenko to play RW with Panarin, and traded picks to get Goodrow the fill the Fast role and gave him $3.6 million and an absurdly long contract.
When you realize we had two openings at RW (and still do) and could have just kept Fast and Buch and had several more young prospects in our system from keeping the draft picks, it can drive you nuts.
