The raw career totals are obviously not overwhelming for a variety of reasons -- late bloomer, lower scoring era, injury problems later in his career.
On the other hand, for a period of about 5 years he was widely considered to be one of the 5 or so best players in the league. At his absolute offensive peak he finished fourth in league scoring twice. At the same time he has been nominated for the Selke for best defensive forward six times, winning thrice. And he has remained at around a point per game into his mid-late 30s.
Slam dunk for the Hall? No, but he's definitely got a case.
- Sven22
agreed.
If Neely is in, Datsyuk is in.
Datsyuk, at the very least has a cup and some individual awards, unlike Neely. Neely did one thing, which was 50goals in 50 games -- and although true, Neely dominated for a period of time, you can argue that same logic for Tkachuk, Kariya, even Pierre Turgeon to a point.... but im sure you get my drift.
The day they let Neely into the hall, they had lowered the standard, so now many more players have a higher probability because of that.
