After last night's Bruins game, I thought to myself "Is Patrice Bergeron a surefire 1st ballot Hall of Fame player?" So I dug into the question a little bit. I came away wondering "Is there an argument that Patrice Bergeron is the best forward of his era?"
Bergeron is currently 101st all time in regular season points (960) and 50th all time in +/- (+241), which is admittedly a raw stat. Consider that Bergeron lost 100+ games to Randy Jones. Active players ahead of Bergeron in points are:
Joe Thornton (1535, 12th all time)
Alexander Ovechkin (1390, 24th)
Sidney Crosby (1381, 25th)
Patrick Marleau (1197, 50th)
Patrick Kane (1153, 56th)
Evgeni Malkin (1128, 60th)
Anze Kopitar (1051, 74th)
Eric Staal (1034, 78th)
Ryan Getzlaf (1013, 89th)
Nicklas Backstrom (1000, 93rd)
Jason Spezza (990, 94th)
Bergeron's +241 is the 3rd best among active players; only Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand are better among active players. His +/- is better than Crosby (+196) and well ahead of Ovechkin (+83).
Who, of his era, is a better player than Bergeron?
I think it's clear that Crosby is ahead of Bergeron. Begrudgingly, I'd take Ovechkin as well - he is going to be the all time leading goal scorer. That being said, can an argument be made that Bergeron is a better player than Ovechkin? The other player that may be ahead of Bergeron for me is Kopitar - more points, 2 cups, and a similarly great defensive player. Kopitar's greatness is diminished by playing his career in LA. As to the rest of the list, I would take Bergeron. Marleau and Thornton are outliers in that it feels like they are from the era ahead of Bergeron.
The answer to my initial question is that It is safe to say, imo, that Bergeron is a first ballot Hall of Famer. I'm interested to see how others on this board feel about where Bergeron's greatness ranks among his peers.
Bergeron is currently 101st all time in regular season points (960) and 50th all time in +/- (+241), which is admittedly a raw stat. Consider that Bergeron lost 100+ games to Randy Jones. Active players ahead of Bergeron in points are:
Joe Thornton (1535, 12th all time)
Alexander Ovechkin (1390, 24th)
Sidney Crosby (1381, 25th)
Patrick Marleau (1197, 50th)
Patrick Kane (1153, 56th)
Evgeni Malkin (1128, 60th)
Anze Kopitar (1051, 74th)
Eric Staal (1034, 78th)
Ryan Getzlaf (1013, 89th)
Nicklas Backstrom (1000, 93rd)
Jason Spezza (990, 94th)
Bergeron's +241 is the 3rd best among active players; only Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand are better among active players. His +/- is better than Crosby (+196) and well ahead of Ovechkin (+83).
Who, of his era, is a better player than Bergeron?
I think it's clear that Crosby is ahead of Bergeron. Begrudgingly, I'd take Ovechkin as well - he is going to be the all time leading goal scorer. That being said, can an argument be made that Bergeron is a better player than Ovechkin? The other player that may be ahead of Bergeron for me is Kopitar - more points, 2 cups, and a similarly great defensive player. Kopitar's greatness is diminished by playing his career in LA. As to the rest of the list, I would take Bergeron. Marleau and Thornton are outliers in that it feels like they are from the era ahead of Bergeron.
The answer to my initial question is that It is safe to say, imo, that Bergeron is a first ballot Hall of Famer. I'm interested to see how others on this board feel about where Bergeron's greatness ranks among his peers.
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