Hobnobs
Pinko
- Nov 29, 2011
- 8,946
- 2,295
I have mixed feelings on Zubov.
On the one hand, I agree that his Norris trophy record isn't impressive. (He finished higher than 8th, twice in a long career). Is it possible that he was shortchanged when it came to the Norris? Maybe, but I don't think so. The voters often gravitate towards defensemen with big point totals, and Zubov was one of the highest scoring defensemen of his era. He also played for some high profile teams (the 1994 Rangers, the 1996 Pens, and the 1999/00 Stars).
He was excellent in 2006 - perhaps the best defenseman in the regular season (after Lidstrom, of course). It's not difficult to imagine that some people incorrectly project backwards, and assume that he always played at that level. (The same thing happened with Scott Niedermayer or "playoff warrior" Keith Primeau).
On the other hand - there's more to player evaluation than how someone ranked in Norris voting. Zubov played a lot of minutes on some very good teams. From 1998 to 2007, Zubov was 2nd in the entire league in ES TOI, 1st in PP TOI, and 24th in PK TOI. (Obviously he was stronger offensively than defensively, but he wasn't getting anywhere close to Phil Housley, or even Sergei Gonchar, deployment). And he wasn't racking up crazy ice time playing on bad teams (I keep picking on Alexei Zhitnik when making this point). Dallas was the #2 team in the NHL during this period.
The counter-argument to that counter-argument is Zubov wasn't the key driver of Dallas's success. The Stars were much strong defensively than offensively (they had the lowest GAA during that period vs only T-10th highest goals per game). Therefore one could argue that Belfour, Hatcher, Lehtinen and Modano really drove the team's success. I know that plus/minus is only a vague approximation, but it's telling that Hatcher had better plus/minus than Zubov during their years in Dallas (despite playing fewer games, being way less talented offensively, and taking the tougher matchups).
A question - if Zubov is in the Hall, why isn't Gonchar? It's not a perfect comparison (Gonchar was a better goal-scorer, Zubov a better passer - and he put up his numbers in a defensive system). But they were two of the top offensive defensemen of their era. Both were the #1/2 defenseman on three Stanley Cup finalists. Zubov was better defensively, but not by a huge margin. Gonchar did significantly better in terms of Norris voting (six years in 7th place or better).
The reason I've softened on Zubov is because earning that many minutes, year after year, on such a consistently strong team, is very impressive. I wouldn't have voted for him, but I don't find Zubov's induction offensive (the way that I do with Lowe, Housley or Boivin).
I'd say Zubov was extremely important to the Stars as without him they are a team that has trouble getting the puck up the ice and generating any offense at all. In raw totals over the span of 97-04 he was the second best offensive player on that team and both in raw numbers and PPG he was by far the best offensive defenseman on that team.
Gonchar might very well get in. We'll see.