Is Dastyuk the best?

[daniel1 32]

I think Datsyuk is the best stickhander and deker - of all time - and I'll tell you why. When Bossy, Gretzky and Bure were in their prime most goalies just plain sucked. They hadn't uniformly adopted the butterfly style yet and hard low shots to the glove side almost always went in if the player was in close to the hash marks and hit that corner with a decent shot. Today, the goalies are huge, skilled, fast, butterfly types with massive equipment and padding that put the older generation of goalies to shame and Datsyuk still makes them look foolish. In traffic, Datsyuk also has the stickhandling edge of all time as he is playing against better defensemen as well. Players in the NHL train like madmen now (even in the offseason) and combine that with the advances in skates and you've got way faster d-men for the stars of today's NHL to have to try and deke around; yet Datsyuk's moves and escapes with the puck are still even better than those of Bure, Jagr or Lemieux.

This would be enough to convince me but there's one more thing that tells me Dats has the title and that is one single move I saw him make a couple years back. Dats was skating down the right wing in the neutral zone towars the offensive end and wanted to pass to a teammate who was skating past him on his right (along the boards) but the passing lane was blocked to Dat's forehand so (while skating full speed) he put the puck on his backhand and pulled it completely around his body and fed his teammate from behind his back with a tape to tape backhand pass ahead of his own body while not even losing a step. It was the best pass I have ever seen and the most difficult as well. I have tried to duplicate it a thousand times and even while standing still it is nearly impossible; never mind at full speed. I have told many current fancy stickhandlers, current NHL'ers, ex-NHL'ers, and ex-junior players about "the pass" in the summer leagues up here in Canada and not one of them could even come close to doing it. I've also never seen anyone on TV in the NHL ever do anything that could top it.

Edited August 7, 2008 by daniel1

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Yzerman yet as one of the best stickhandlers ever. In his prime he could do magic with that stick, and has many highlight goals to his record.

[eva unit zero 271]

In terms of a combination of strength, speed, and moves?

Kovalev and Fedorov are my top two. Sick moves, great strength, and great speed.

In terms of the ability to move at high speed while controlling the puck and not losing speed off the top end?

Russ Courtnall. Amazing speed, and very few players could control the puck at full speed like he could; one of the few players I can think of who was capable of skating very quickly AND not losing significant amounts of speed while carrying the puck. Because that's really the goal of stickhandling, right?

[egroen 384]

I've never see nanyone handle the puck tightly like Datsyuk... it is utterly amazing what he does against the boards, in the corners and behind the net with 2,3 even 4 guys right there. "Stick handling in a phone booth" is very apropo when talking about Datsyuk. He just comes away with the puck in those tight situations so often.

[Penky26 2]

i would say he is one of the best, hard to really peg anyone as THE best

[Winged Scooter 0]

Dats is great no doubt, best ever? Nope, and I don't think I could ever peg ONE player to point to as the best stick handler ever , I have seen a lot of great/really good ones. The two best in a Wings uniform in my life time (so far.......) would have to be Stevie Y, and Igor Larionov.

Edited August 7, 2008 by Winged Scooter

[DatsMyWings13 4]

One of the best ever with out a doubt!! He is pure entertainment when he hits the ice and even off the ice.

[dicksmack 33]

Found this video a while ago and thought it was pretty funny. But I know he's only mucking around.\

"I don't have nothin" Yeah right Pav...

[BeeRYCE 2]

Crosby is the best.

Not very far off. Crosby's stickhandling is dazzling too, but nobody would dare to mention him in this thread. He's a top 10 stickhandler, IMO.

[Guest LivingtheDream]

Certainly not the end all on passing accuracy, but in the all star game they had this little skills contest where you had to lift the puck over a little barrier and hit a little net on the other side of the rink (sideways across the rink). Datsyuk was the ONLY one who made all ten shots and it looked like nothing to him, nothing at all. Bam, bam, bam... ten times in a row. Meanwhile, all the other stars stuggled with it. Nobody came close. It was kind of a wake up call to how certain things, fundamentals, are just built in to this guy.

Since this can only be subjective, what I think make's Datsyuk unique is how he improvises on the spot. He is like the Charlie Parker of hockey. He pulls out new things or combines various other things he did and blows your mind. Then out of nowhere he does something new that just blows you away. For example, that game last season where he pulled a Road Runner move and the 2 Sharks collide head on while he skates away with the puck. Or that sick sick sick sick deke in the SCF where fakes a little drop pass back to Kronvall then uses his own dragging skate blade to kick it back up to his stick. On his best dekes you see the other player or goalie looking/moving out in the completely wrong direction. Somehow Pavel is able to short circuit the opposing players brain and completely fool him. Wizardry. Best? I don't know. Unique? Absolutely.

God, could you have imagined him on the Russian Five?

[Doc Holiday 0]

Not very far off. Crosby's stickhandling is dazzling too, but nobody would dare to mention him in this thread. He's a top 10 stickhandler, IMO.

I think Crosby has better vision and speed which makes him seem like he can stickhandle better. Personally I don't see it, considering most of Crosby's dekes are simple feign one way and go the other dekes.

I think Malkin has much better hands than Crosby.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

I actually think Thornton has impressive stickhandling for a big man. He's made Datsyukian-like moves through guys around the net.

[eva unit zero 271]

I actually think Thornton has impressive stickhandling for a big man. He's made Datsyukian-like moves through guys around the net.

The scary thing that most people don't realize? Sergei Fedorov is not that much smaller than Joe Thornton, and Mats Sundin (another top stickhandler) is actually LARGER than Joe Thornton. Kind of puts the 'for a big man' tag on Thornton into perspective, when those other guys don't need it to get into this discussion.

[Doggy 130]

The scary thing that most people don't realize? Sergei Fedorov is not that much smaller than Joe Thornton, and Mats Sundin (another top stickhandler) is actually LARGER than Joe Thornton. Kind of puts the 'for a big man' tag on Thornton into perspective, when those other guys don't need it to get into this discussion.

Thornton is 30lbs heavier than Fedorov and 5lbs heavier than Sundin.

The 'big man' doesn't refer to height as much as weight and they they play. Joe Thornton plays like a big man. Sundin does not.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Doggy

[Datzooky 0]

He is the best ever to me.

Best off-season Dats thread ever as well. You guys are so mellow when the cup is home

[Guest LivingtheDream]

You know instead of all these highlight reels with the same shoot out moves and well known goals over and over and over (and over and over and over), it would be nice to see a video of Dats concentrating mostly on moves, passes and stick handling. There is one out there that comes close.

P.S. Highlight film makers. I you want people to watch your video repeatedly, here is a hint. Don't repeat the same play over and over and over, it makes the most amazing thing boring. Show it once, and people will want to come back.

[dicksmack 33]

You know instead of all these highlight reels with the same shoot out moves and well known goals over and over and over (and over and over and over), it would be nice to see a video of Dats concentrating mostly on moves, passes and stick handling. There is one out there that comes close.

P.S. Highlight film makers. I you want people to watch your video repeatedly, here is a hint. Don't repeat the same play over and over and over, it makes the most amazing thing boring. Show it once, and people will want to come back.

There is? As if... but Is it Crosby?

Crosby Crosby Crosby. Pavel says: Here's your lunch, son...

[Kira 451]

Even a virtuoso musician will tell you that there is always room for improvement, and that is why he practices his craft every day.

"I don't got nothin'"...Pasha, you don't realize that's a double negative, and you're actually saying you do have something. And oh boy, do you have something!

Daniel1, it might be nice if you could post a video of that pass so that everyone could see what you were referring to.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Kira

[theman19 47]

Bure,

no one could do what he did at the speed he did. i think Dats has more moves than bure did, but the thing about bure is he could do most of what pavel does, twice as fast.

[eva unit zero 271]

Bure,

no one could do what he did at the speed he did. i think Dats has more moves than bure did, but the thing about bure is he could do most of what pavel does, twice as fast.

Honestly, I've always felt Bure was overrated in the stickhandling department. he had good moves...but most of his goals came from a combination of the use of his skating skills and his shot, not from puckhandling. He was a very good stickhandler, but as I have said before; I think his former teammate Russ Courtnall was actually better at controlling the puck at top speed. Bure was a better skater, but you see a lot of Bure crashing into the boards or net with the puck because he couldn't do everything at once and when it came down to it, there were a lot of times he couldn't get the shot off and still manage to stop because he had to put everything into trying to shoot and wasn't able to ALSO stop while doing it.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Thornton is 30lbs heavier than Fedorov and 5lbs heavier than Sundin.

The 'big man' doesn't refer to height as much as weight and they they play. Joe Thornton plays like a big man. Sundin does not.

Exactly.

Thornton is much bigger than Feds (2 inches and 30 lbs), and is a better stickhandler than Sundin. At least, I've never seen Mats pull off some of the crazy sh*t that Thornton manages.

But as you said, it's more that even though they're close in size, Thornton plays more like a big man and is someone you generally wouldn't expect to have such moves.