Kevin Lowe to the Hall. Is Charlie Huddy next?

[30ranfordfan]

Before you clicked on the link, you're already thinking how dumb this thread is going to be.... and you might be right... but bear with me.

Guy Carbonneau getting into the HHOF last year has (most likely) opened the door for more and more defensive minded players to get in. Stay at home dmen, Selke trophy forwards. That type.

Think about modern players for a moment: Jonathan Towes & Patrice Bergeron have been considered top players in the league for a long time. Personally, I've always felt that one (JT) was a tad overrated, and the other (PB) was underrated.... though I think Bergeron gets his due now. Points aren't the only thing that makes a career.... but breaking the 1000 point mark is almost always necessary for a forward. Bergeron probably won't do that (though he might). Towes almost certainly will not. Are they going to be HOFers? I say "probably".

Anyway, let's get back to the topic at hand. Mr. 6 Cups himself, Kevin Lowe, is in the Hall of Fame now. I realize that most people don't exactly equate him as being one of the all-time greats. He was a stay at home defender. Tough to play against, great character guy in the locker room. Whatever those intangibles are that people seem to want hockey players to have: Kevin Lowe had them!

How good was his career? Here's his regular season stat line:

1254 GP, 84 G, 348 A, 432 pts. Career +252

And his playoff line:
214 GP, 10 G, 48 A, 58 pts. I can't get the plus mins off hockeydb, so I don't have it.

Career Highlights: 6 Stanley Cups (5 EDM, 1 NYR). 1984 Canada Cup. 7x All Star. King Clancy Trophy.

Now, I don't think anyone is going to suggest that this career is going to make him an all-time great, at least not in the sense where he's talked about like Paul Coffey. He was a very good player on some of the greatest teams to ever play... and as a result he won a ton.

I suspect that if he'd won a single Stanley Cup, instead of six... but otherwise had an identical career, we're not having this conversatoin.


So, if Kevin Lowe gets in - how far off is Charlie Huddy?

He's another member of the Oilers "5 Cup Club" (Messier, Kurri, Fuhr, Lowe, Huddy, and Randy Gregg are the only players to have won all five of the Oilers' Stanley Cups). He was also a stay-at-home dman, known more for his defensive game than his offensive abilities. How does he stack up against Lowe?

Right off the bat, he only won 5 Cups, vs Lowe's 6. They both played in 7 finals though.

He played in fewer RS games, only 1017.... but despite that disadvantage (200ish less games), he actually has more goals (99) and assists (354) than Lowe did.
His career plus minus is +242, same ball park as Lowe.

He played 183 playoff games, vs Lowe's 214. He had 19 goals & 66 assists... just like in the regular season: He played about 85% as many games as Lowe, for his career, but he bested him in both goals & assists. Playoff goals it's actually by quite a wide margin.

He won the NHL's Plus / MInus award (led the league) in 82-83. I'd argue that is a more significant achievement than the King Clancy Award. Like Lowe, he played on the 1984 Canada Cup team.

The big gaping hole is the All Star game. Huddy never played in one, Lowe played in 7.



If you ignore everything else, and just compare the all star games - I think anyone would agree that a 7x All Star should be in the HOF, over a guy who was never an All Star.... why are we even having this conversatoin? The thing with All Star picks is, they're such arbitrary selections. Fans vote. Coaches vote. the Commish gets a couple of picks (that's how Lowe got his last one, I'm pretty sure). Do they mean THAT much.

I'm not arguing that Charlie Huddy is one of the best 200 players to ever skate in the NHL. I'm simply pointing out that if you look at the entire body of work from both Huddy & Lowe: Their careers aren't a whole lot different... and virtually every argument one could make in favor of Lowe, also applies to Huddy.

[doniceage]

Not a dumb post at all. Problem is as you pointed out once you lower the bar you start lowering so far that you can make compelling cases for other members who should get in but never will.

As you say how can a guy that puts up better numbers not ever get the nod into the All Star game when his teammate does year after year. I wonder if there is a way to find out who voted for who in the past?


DON

[Devlin]

sound DMan, but not HOF. Just my opinion. Good post.

[jcesar77]

Not sure about Huddy but kudos to Lowe -- apart from transcendent greatness of Gretzky and Messier, Kevin was the most important leader in the Oilers vintage years and still remains an important force in the organization today -- An outstanding hockey player -- he deserves the recognition.

[cjb]

In a completely unrelated story, last night i decided to take a look at the Edmonton oilers Stanley cup roster just to reflect back at how good that team really was. 6 HOF and now 7 with Lowe compared to just 2 HOF the Kings had in Gretzky's first year. Some of those 3rd line players could have been first liners anywhere else. Even without WG they were still able to win one more SC. Imagine how many more cups they could have won in Edmonton wasn't such a low budget city.