GMRwings1983

There's nothing unusual about a top 4 D-man fighting. There are plenty of guys who were top defensemen in the past, and fought quite a bit. Still happens nowadays. Better players than Ericsson too.

There's nothing wrong with suggesting that Ericsson should fight a little more. He's the biggest guy on our team, and he's shown that he can handle himself alright. If it adds more of a mean streak to his game, then I'm all for it.

Apparently, a person who realizes that power forwards have been historically equated with fighting by those around the NHL, is an enforcer slappy.

I'm sure there's a reason why Mats Naslund and Hakan Loob never won the Hart Trophy or the Art Ross. That reason played in Edmonton in the 80's, and I hear that he was quite good.

First off, this list was a lot harder to put together than the Swedish players list. I still feel like I could flip flop many choices, but that's what I came up with. I think this will spark more debate than that topic did. Also, I'm only talking about NHL careers, so that's why I left many legendary Russian players off the list. Here goes: 1. Sergei Fedorov 2. Alexander Ovechkin 3. Pavel Bure 4. Alexander Mogilny 5. Sergei Zubov 6. Pavel Datsyuk 7. Alexei Kovalev 8. Nikolai Khabibulin 9. Ilya Kovalchuk 10. Evgeni Malkin

So you wouldn't call Lindros a power forward? I guess the definition is indeed very subjective, as evidenced by all the different posts already in this thread.

Amazing what a joke that franchise has been since entering the NHL. Aside from Bettman, does anyone think hockey has succeeded in Atlanta? Isn't Draper a 4th liner?

Does this mean his name will be taken off the Stanley Cup?

If this could have happened to any Russian NHL player, I would have preferred that it was Malkin. Oh well.

He needs to put on some weight more than anything. He's way too skinny for his frame. Almost Kopecky-like.

Eva, do you really think that Kozlov has had a better career than Kovalev and Kovalchuk? He's never even been remotely close to a star player, and has been fortunate to play his career in Detroit where he had opportunities to play with great players. No coincidence that he's only played a handful of playoff games since leaving Detroit. As for Vladdy, he hasn't played enough seasons to make my list. I know Malkin hasn't played many seasons either, but he's obviously accomplished a lot already in terms of indidual awards and a Cup.

I agree. That was always the definition in the past, and I think the lack of many players like that nowadays has prompted many to include guys who don't fit the definition (like say Fraznen). So what we have now is a variation of the power forward, but definitely not the same thing as what there was in the late 80's and early 90's.

Kronwall and Rafalski on the same pairing? Those two guys have a tendency to pinch in at the wrong time and to occasionally turn pucks over. Playing them together is not a great idea.

I agree, but like I said earlier, how can I compare him to someone like Roy or Hasek, when I have no idea how his NHL career would have went had he played his prime here in America? It's especially hard to compare player stats, when a guy never had any NHL stats. Same thing for someone like Kharlamov, Mikhailov, Maltsev, Bobrov, Yakushev, etc.

None of the pairings will work as long as Rafalksi continues to pinch in at the wrong time, give pucks away, and look like a total buffoon out there in his own zone.

Fetisov and Larionov were never really stars in the NHL. Their star days came in Russia. Kovalev is a little overrated and lazy, but he's scored almost 1,000 points in his career. Gonchar has scored around 700 or so if I'm not mistaken. How can you put Fetisov and Larionov ahead of those guys, when their NHL careers clearly weren't better, and they were not really expected to be top stars on their teams? Those two guys were complementary players for pretty much their whole NHL career.

I guess I should have mentioned in my original post that I wasn't taking potential into account. Otherwise, I would have ranked Ovechkin first and Malkin way higher. I was looking at their careers so far.

Malkin has a had a good career already, like I said, but you ranked him ahead of some players who were better for a much longer period of time. I don't think he's had a better career than Mogilny or Zubov. He's only played for four years. Actually, for me Kovalchuk is the hardest to rank, because he hasn't really had much of a chance to play in the playoffs. Haven't seen him in too many big games, or in many games period, since he played for a team all those years that was never televised.

Gonchar has been around longer than Malkin, but Malkin has already accomplished so much in his NHL career, that I decided to put him ahead of Goncher. Admittedly, I've never felt that Gonchar was all that good. Just a top offensive defenseman who looks terrible in his own zone.

No, his name was mentioned by several posters in one of those "who do I want on the team" type threads. I know many such names were thrown around, but he was in there a lot.

That kind of list would be too hard to put together, considering how you'd be comparing Olympic competitions to NHL competitions. Also, not too many people have seen all of the older Soviet players from the 60's and 70's in order to put together a list like that. I couldn't do it, so that's why I never even went that route. If you can do it, then you're more than welcome to start an all time top 10 Russian hockey players list.

Another player many people here wanted, who wound up signing for a lot cheaper than expected.

Not statistically he isn't. Last year was a great stats season for him, but he isn't even close to being a PPG career player. Also, he's kind of a lackluster playoff performer. Other than last season, I see those players as being more dominant offensively than him. He's a better defensive forward than people give him credit for, but that's because he plays center and not wing, and that's more of a product of this era.

Sutton is not a good fighter. For his size, he's a terrible fighter.

Boy, I'd sure hate to see Georges Laraque get gored by a bull.