CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

On tuesday, the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee will be putting forward four names for induction.

This year four new superstars will be coming eligable: Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Luc Robitaille.

Matt McCallum has created an interesting process for evaluating the best nominees. 

His results show: Hull, Yzerman, Leetch, and Luc in the top five.

The other highly ranked player is Pavel Bure:

Pavel had an excellent career, but is he in the top 5?

He played in 702 games before injury forced him to retire. He was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year in 1991-92, and won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer in 1999-00 and 2000-01 (He would have won it a third time in 1993-94, but the award didn’t exist at that time.).

Although he has played relatively few games, his 34 career shorthanded goals is tied for 11th with Derek Sanderson, and one behind Theo Fleury and Dirk Graham: 

His other outstanding stats, however, are based on per game calculations.

He is 9th in goals caused per game during the regular season:

He is 6th in goals per game – during the regular season – ahead of Wayne Gretzky and the father and son Hulls:

Pavel is 22nd all time in points per game – during the regular season – once again ahead of the father and son Hulls:

Now, in considering a sniper such as Pavel – for induction – you have to look at other snipers who have not yet been elected.

Dino Ciccarelli played in 1232 games and is 16th all time in goals scored during the regular season (Pavel is 62nd overall with 437 goals scored.). He is behind Bobby Hull by 2 goals and Joe Sakic by 17, and ahead of Jari Kurri, Teemu Selanne, Mike Bossy and Mats Sundin:

Ciccarelli is again 16th overall in regular season even strength goals, ahead of Gilbert Perreault, Mats, Teemu, and Mike Modano.

Dino Ciccarelli is a remarkable 8th all time in power play goals.

He is 73rd overall with 592 points during the regular season.

Ciccarelli’s goals per games average is 26th, clustered between Guy Lafleur and Howie Morenz, but not equal Bure’s .623.

His points per game average is 69th – clustered between Bill Barber, Luc Robitaille and Glenn Anderson – but not equal to Pavel’s 1.110.

 So, during the regular season an argument for either player would depend if you were looking for productivity per game, or long term productivity. Also, Bure was excellent with short-handed goals, while Ciccarelli was a great power play specialist.

***** 

It’s during the post-season when the stats are skewered in Ciccarelli’s favour – in my opinion.

Once again, Pavel is ahead in the per game average stats. Bure is 14th all time in post-season points per game:

Dino is quite a way behind in the points per game ranking:

Pavel was 7th in goals per game – during the post-season – behind Wayne Gretzky:

But, Ciccarelli is 13th overall - just behind him – .518 to .547 – closer than during the regular season.

 Also, Dino is 13th all time in goals scored – 3 behind Mario Lemieux.

And, Ciccarelli had a remarkable 34 power play goals during the post season – tied with Wayne Gretzky – and 5 ahead of Mario.

Dino Ciccarelli is also tied for 13th – with 13 game winning goals – during the post-season. This is only one goal behind Jari Kurri, Guy Lafleur, and Peter Forsberg, and two behind Jaromir Jagr and Mike Modano:

Dino is tied with Bill Barber, and one behind Mario Lemieux and Brendan Shanahan, in even strength post-season goals.

*****

Other factors to consider between the two:

Dino Ciccarelli played in four All-star games and Pavel in six.

Bure won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, and the Maurice Richard trophy for leading the league in goals twice. He was also 3rd in goal scoring during one season, and 5th in another.

Dino Ciccarelli played for Scottie Bowman for a number of seasons and had to sacrifice much of his offense for a defense first system. Pavel, on the other hand, was always the focus of the offense, and didn’t play much D.

Ciccarelli continued to play – even though he was less effective - and Pavel had to quit dramatically – not with a whimper, but a bang.