Who are the true superstars of the NHL?

Question

One of the most overused terms in sports is superstar. In the NFL, if a player has ONE good season, they are automatically anointed star status. Pretty much the same inane reasoning is put forth in the other sports as well. Hockey has somewhat taken the same boring path, but the anointed have truly become superstars. What is your definition of a superstar? Does each team possess a superstar based on your definition? Finally, who are the true superstars playing in the NHL?

Answer 1

A superstar is a player who is capable of performing high quality work year in and year out wherever he works. This could be a goaltender who is consistently in the top 10 in wins, GAA, and SPCT year in and year out. A D-man who is in the top 10 in scoring and is a plus player year in and year out, and a forward who can lead his team to victory game in and game out and year in and year out. The players everybody wants to see, the players that go in the first rounds in your hockey pools, etc. Superstars tend to collect indivual hardware as well.

Every team has a star or two (except maybe Phoenix because coaches don't count).

Superstar Goalies
1. Henrik Lundqvist
2. Roberto Luongo
3. Martin Brodeur
4. Dominik Hasek

Superstar D-Men
1. Nicklas Lidstrom
2. Sergei Gonchar
3. Scott Nidermayer
4. Chris Pronger

Superstar Forwards
1. Sidney Crosby
2. Alexander Ovechkin
3. Joe Thornton
4. Jaromir Jagr
5. Brendan Shanahan
6. Mats Sundin
7. Joe Sakic
8. Vincent Lecavalier
9. Martin St. Louis
10. Jarome Iginla
11. Steve Avery (love him or hate him, his notoriety has held everybody's attention)

Superstar Has-Beens
- Sergei Zubov
- Mike Modano
- Jeremy Roenick
- Todd Bertuzzi
- Peter Forsberg

Future Superstars
- Henrik Zetterberg
- Pavel Datsyuk
- Evgeni Malkin
- Patrick Kane
- Jonathon Toews
- Carey Price
- Anze Kopitar

Answer 2

That are a lot of way to describe a superstar a player who constanly scores, a player who fills the seats, but IMO a superstar is an athlete who has loads of talent and can back it up with SC rings, or other trophy's. There also known for there off the ice generosity.

Joe Sakic- Hart Trophy (2001), voted as an NHL allstar starter 3 times. And Also has 2 rings.

Niklas Lidstrom- The man has won the Norris 8 out of the past 9 seasons. (First European to win Norris) Has been to 9 All-Star games, and also has 3 rings.

You can throw in Crosby considering his age and winning the MVP last year. Jagr has won the cup 2 times with Pittsburgh and Jagr has also won the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Most Valuable Player as well as the Lester B. Pearson Award.

Answer 3

Superstar--someone who is great on and off the ice, and someone who their team would call a superstar

I think that each team probably has a superstar in their eyes, but i there are some teams without superstars

Superstars
1. Jarome Iginla
2. Joe Thornton (haha waiting for that one)
3. Chris Pronger
4. Sidney Crosby (blah)
5. Alexander Ovechkin

There are more but those are the ones off the top of my head

Answer 4

Every team has a few stars. If you put all the stars together, the true superstars would be one or two guys that stand out over a long period of time and prove their worthiness day after day. You may go stretches where you have none in the league but no way do you have more than a couple at any given time. Kind of like Gretzky and Lemieux. Crosby and Ovechkin might make it, but I don't think they're quite there, yet. Close though.

Answer 5

Don't focus on Stars. They're not super - Sharks beat them last game. Maybe Modano or Turco possibly. Hockey is the ultimate team sport. Just one guy doing everything means something's wrong. Gretsky would have been nothing without Messier, Fuhr, McSorely and all. Thornton has to share credit with Nabokov, good D and some secondary scoring.

Answer 6

Every team has some stars but IMO there are only a handful of superstars-guys who put mant butts in the seats, whether at home or on the road. Guys who sell the game basically.
You know the saying " I would pay to see that guy play"-those are the superstars.
When I take my hockey trips to Philly to see a game, I plan it around when an opposing superstar is coming to town (usually Crosby), I have gone to Devils games before and their lack of superstars (aside from Brodeur) can make it less appealing.

Answer 7

To the 1st commenter, HE suggested dependable followers no longer BANDWAGON that's ALL PITTSBURGH IS. this is humorous, with the aid of fact I bear in techniques some years returned, human beings could've given 2 $hit$ how the Penguins did. Now this city has the "terrific fanbase". Absolute lies. for my area, this is the Toronto Maple Leafs. it fairly is usually a packed domicile no rely what time of the 300 and sixty 5 days or what there checklist is. The Habs are a 2d to them. i'd placed Pittsburgh in final, even nevertheless i'm a Penguins fan. Noone is usual with of something approximately hockey right here, different than the names of a few gamers and the fact they are Stanley Cup champions.

Answer 8

Well to me a superstar isn't just an above average performer. He's a player fans in other cities buy tickets to see play the game specifically. For that reason I don't think there would be a long list of players who qualify. There are some very good players in the league right now but, I doubt most are true superstars. I might assign the marquee type player designation to Crosby, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Thornton and possibly Nash. There are some potentials like Parise, Toews, Kane and Zetterberg out there as well. And I don't include goalies because no one really wants to go to the arena to watch an opposing goalie shut your team down. They will go to watch their own team/goalie find a way to stop the other team's big star though. So guys like Luongo, Lundqvist probably have the most appeal in their own market for that reason which makes them stars.
And of course we can't overlook the appeal a long time player has like Sakic, Lidstrom or Brodeur. We know those guys are going to end up in the HHOF so they have the ability to draw fans in opposing arenas simply so people can say they saw so-n-so play.

Answer 9

Well, Crosby and Ovetchkin of course. Chara, Phaneuf, Pronger, Chelios. Jager, Modano, Kovalchuk, Nash, Thornton. Off the top of my head.

Answer 10

I hate it when people say automaticly crosby and ovechkin, its not all about scoring! its about all around playing! Im not saying sid and alex are but players, obviously they are not, scoring doesn't make you a superstar, and I think players like
Sergei Zubov, Jere Letinen and players like that are great and I like Cam Ward and Ryan Miller