The Steve Dangle Podcast - Who Was the Best NHL Player of the 2010s?

Episode Date: December 29, 2019

Who owned the 2010s? Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake try to determine which NHL was the best this past decade. Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S-S-D-P-P The Steve Dangle Podcast With your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake Let's go! Okay, so best player of the last decade And there's a lot of great players A lot of great players

Who do you go with? Jesse Blake Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as they always say I believe that was Barack Obama who invented that catchphrase. This man captained the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups. Mary L. of U. 2016-2017. Ron Francis.

First team to repeat as champs in 20 years. Through 2016, he had won one Hart Trophy, one Art Ross, one Lester B. Pearson, slash Ted Lindsey. Nominated for another Hart, another Pearson. It was Sidney Crosby's decade. Absolutely. It was absolutely Sidney Crosby's decade. Argue with that.

You can't. Well, here, let me argue with it. My pick is Sidney Crosby. Also, he won two Stanley Cups this decade and another one to end out the previous one. He's very good in the back half of decades. But on top of, I mean, being the best player when he was healthy, the big story with him was his health, actually. And we sort of forget that. at the beginning of the decade i want to say it was the 11 12 season where he got dinged uh 11 12

he was on pace for he was doing what mcdavid and dry saddle have been doing where we talked about oh they're gonna hit 160 points and now they've obviously cooled down uh well into this time of year like into christmas into whenever the outdoor classic was he was on pace for like 145 points just destroying everybody friggin four point games three point games five point games like all back to back uh and CTE and concussions and all that they've been such a big topic over the past decade and I think a lot of it started with Sidney Crosby you talk about a guy who can in the middle of the regular season get CBC to buy national broadcasting rights to a Pittsburgh Islanders game. Because that was his comeback game. One of his comebacks. Because he had several comebacks because of

all the misdiagnosis and sure enough he scores, I think it might have even been his first shift coming back. Now the Islanders were terrible back then. But everyone in Canada and I think the states watched that game because there aren't that many big ticket items in the nhl but one of them is was and always will be sydney crosby hard to disagree with any of that both of you make compelling arguments he's gonna say freaking but you have settled he's gonna say castle for the guy who's won back-to-back cups you've settled hard trophies because you've settled for a great generational hockey player the greatest no of the last 10 years not the greatest Of the last 10 years.

The greatest is the greatest goal scorer in the history of the league who is still currently playing. I told you he was going to go to Kessel. Alexander Ovechkin. Oh, interesting. Alexander Ovechkin is, for my money, the best goal scorer of all time. Yes. He doesn't have to beat Gretzky for me to believe that.

Based on his era, based on how much the NHL has changed, based on what the 80s were, which were goofy. Based on missing two years due to lockouts. Yeah, yeah. Alexander Ovechkin Like Crosby Generational great And also partially

I had him It was like a toss up Between since you both Took Crosby I took Ovechkin But Ovechkin Crosby is great And he's on the

Mount Rushmore Of great hockey players All time I think Right? Top four Top five Fair? Yeah

He's there Ovechkin On the goal scoring Hall of Fame Is number one And you know what's Amazing about that? I'm right there with you

His greatest individual Goal scoring season Not this decade Yeah right? Weird it's crazy especially because there was like wasn't there less goals scored back then too yep so this is a guy who has been uh and he and sometimes rightly so labeled as lazy or underperforming or can't get it done celebrates with a stick on fire yeah well that i liked

you know didn't play defense got bedged by a coach but he overcame all that and became the player that he needed to become and it was so funny i was watching an old mike milbury clip before this and he was talking about he's like he's just standing there on that on the left side of the ice waiting for a pass what's he doing move around get your ass to the boards and it's funny because that's the only place he's ever scored goals for right is that one spot and milbury hated it at the time bang and bang and bang alexander ovechkin is not one of the greatest he is the greatest goal scorer ever and he is therefore the best player this decade yeah um in terms of goals in the decade the difference between him and second place which is uh i think

stamkos is the same as stamkos in 15th place wow he has over 460 goals this decade no one else has cracked 400 what's yeah what's Stamko's at somewhere below 400 I don't have the I don't have the full knowledge honorable mentions honorable mentions Evgeny Malkin I think he's in there

Gino's in there Nathan McKinnon coming on strong at the end Connor McDavid coming on strong at the end not they have not played long enough to be considered in this decade if you think about the decade is those two guys 1A 1B

whichever you want it yeah you got to throw in a couple other positions and you know people... I couldn't think of a defenseman on that level. And there's no goalie that's done it for... There's no goalie that did it for 10 years either. Here's the problem. Not for 10 years. Yes, there is. Yes, there is. But he's

never won a cup. Lundqvist? Henrik Lundqvist. No. Bobrovsky has the two Veznas, because he's had two Veznas seasons. He's also been very mediocre at times. And Lundqvist was never that. He was always in the top five conversation. I think you've got

to win. Ovechkin got his in there. He almost did! 2014! But you can't win it alone. You got to win. Yeah, I hope he wins a cup. I was trying to think of a defenseman that maybe could work in this, but I don't think there's a defenseman this decade who would rival Rick Crosby or Ovechkin.

You could make an argument previous decade for Nick Lidstrom. And, in fact, I think you might say he was the best player that decade. Easily. The guy I would say, or the two names I threw out for the Sportsnet all-decade team, I had Carlson on the right, and underrated because he didn't score as many points, but he does have a Conn Smythe trophy as Duncan Keith. That guy plays half an hour a night every night, and it's just steady Eddie out there. Did he dip too much at the end of this decade?

Like, the last four years of it, is it of quality? Travis Yost was sort of beating this drum just last night. Stop referring to the Chicago Blackhawks in the contention picture. They're bad. They're bad. So like, I think part of the reason Duncan Keith was so good is he had a team behind him. But like he's not a… there are very few players in this league who are miracle workers. Like the Edmonton Oilers are another bad week away from potentially not being in a playoff spot. And McDavid's got a sidekick! Batman's got a Robin! And

He still, you need more than that. And when Keith was his best, he at least had a Robin. And that was Brett Seabrook. And now he doesn't even have that. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. S-T-E-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle, at Adam W-Y-L-D-E, and at Jesse Blake. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness. Connection complete. Subtitles by Subtitle Workshop