Andreychuk, Recchi were exceptional players, but Hall of Famers? ... Creating offence key for Marner ... Cobb would be great addition to Jays rotation ... Andersen might not be good enough for Leafs
When watching Dave
Andreychuk — and I covered him the year he scored 53 goals for the Leafs — never once did I think, “there’s a Hall of Fame hockey player.” I watched an awful lot of Mark Recchi’s excellent career: And I thought the very same thing.
He was a good player — as Mike Babcock would say, an effective player. But a Hall of Famer?
That’s the highest standard.
With Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya, it was easy. You couldn’t take your eyes off either of them. They jumped off the page. They announced their arrival. They played an instrument and conducted the orchestra all at the same time.
You watched them and said “wow.” They did things other players couldn’t do and, like most of the all-time greats, they invented and created new ways to play.
The voting committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame, which has changed over the years and toughened over time, has an uneven class of 2017. The obvious player picks were Selanne and Kariya — and wouldn’t their agent, the late Don Baizley, have been so proud of that.
The challenge with Andreychuk and Recchi are their numbers, which are off the charts. Andreychuk scored 640 NHL goals. The 15 scorers who follow him on the all-time list, save for active players, are all in the Hall. Andreychuk and Recchi are hockey version of Don Sutton — never top-of-the-rotation pitchers — accumulators, in Recchi’s case he scored 1,533 points, 12th most in history. The next 18 scorers after him are all enshrined.
The committee voted all four, Selanne, Kariya, Andreychuk and Recchi to this year’s class, where one of these things, or in this case two, are not necessary like the other.
THIS AND THAT
I say this every year so I’ll say it again: Fran
Rider should be in Builder category of the Hall. There would be no women’s world hockey championship, no women’s hockey in the Olympic Games without her work. Tangibly, she has played a huge role in growing the game the past 50 years ... Boston Bruins’ owner Jeremy Jacobs will be inducted tomorrow in the Builder category, and if building animosity between players and owners is a strength, he should have been in years ago ... It doesn’t matter if Mitch
Marner scores goals. What matters is whether he creates offence for the Leafs. He has just four goals in his past 41 regular-season games,
The longer Auston Matthews is out, the more apparent it is just how much he does for the Leafs.
but 22 assists in that time. That’s 52-point pace. That’s not where he should be, but it’s a start ... The longer
Auston Matthews is out, the more apparent it is just how much he does for the Leafs. As the quarter-season approaches, Matthews is an early Hart Trophy candidate along with and in Tampa, in Los Angeles and maybe
in St. Louis ... The combination of Matthews and at centre gives NHL teams fits: They lead all pairings of centres with 19 goals. By comparison, the first overalls, and have scored 12 times ... Because they’re McDavid and expect them to work their way into the Hart conversation. They’re not there just yet.
HEAR AND THERE
The Roy Halladay story I can’t get out of my head. He was first taught to pitch by a local Denver coach,
Bus Campbell, who later went on to scout for the Jays After Halladay was drafted, Campbell came home one day to see a satellite dish on his roof. It wasn’t something he ordered or could afford. Halladay had put it there. H also paid for his major leagu
television package. What happens next year, Campbell wondered? Halladay assured him: Christmas comes before baseball season. And every season he watched Halladay pitch paid for by his student ... The problem with any statistical comparison regarding Halladay’s Hall of Fame candidacy is this: Context is missing based on level of competition faced. He pitched in the American League East, for average, underfunded Blue Jays teams, against great Yankees and Red Sox teams, partly in the steroid era, and, miraculously, he rarely lost. To me, he passes the eye test and the statistical test as a Hall of Famer, and had he pitched his entire career in the National League or say in the AL Central division, his numbers would be off the charts better than they already are ... The top five Blue Jays of all time are
Roberto Alomar, Halladay, Dave Stieb, Carlos Delgado,
Jose Bautista. You pick the order. I have Alomar at one and keep moving the other four around.
SCENE AND HEARD
If I’m Ross Atkins, first on my free-agent list of possibilities is starting pitcher Alex Cobb. He may be expensive and impossible to sign — word around is he wants to play for his old manager
Joe Maddon in Chicago — but he’s a young 30, having started just 115 big-league games and he’s probably worth it. What a nice rotation the Blue Jays would have with Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Cobb, J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada and Cobb buys loads of insurance if Sanchez’s blister problems persist ... There is almost nothing young or athletic in this rather unimpressive free agent class that could fill the Jays many needs. Lorenzo
Cain, he of scoring from first base on a playoff single against the Jays two years ago, is 32 and seemingly slowing down. Jay Bruce is 31, with power but no real speed ... One intriguing free agent no one is talking much about is right-hander
Tyler Chatwood, formerly of Colorado. At home, he has been horrible. But on the road, away from Denver’s altitude, his earned run averages have been 3.49, 1.69 and 2.72 in his past three seasons. He may be worth kicking tires on ... Sports Illustrated has ranked the Top 50 free agents in baseball. Not on the list: Bautista. On the list at No. 42, former Jays shortstop, Jose Reyes.
AND ANOTHER THING
Most of us cringed at the sight of snow on Friday. Not Patrick Marleau’s kids, who have lived most of their life in California. They went outside and celebrated by making snow angels ... Up for assistant coach of the year in college football.: Former Argo and Ticat, Orlondo
Steinauer. He’s nominated for the Broyles Award in his first season at Fresno State ... What a terrific balance, having Mike Reilly and Ricky
Ray up for most outstanding player in the CFL. Reilly is the modern-day Matt
Dunigan, a swashbuckler at quarterback in Edmonton; Ray is quiet and thoughtful and a precision passer for the Argos the likes of which we have rarely known. Reilly should win. Both deserve the recognition ... This tweet came from NFL insider Adam Schefter. He listed players out for the season: Richard Sherman, Deshaun Watson, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall, Zach Miller, Jason Peters, Joe Thomas, Marshall Yanda, J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus, Eric Berry, Dalvin Cook, David Johnson, Darren Sproles, Ryan Tannehill, Julian
Edelman, Allen Robinson. Followed by three words: “Way too many.” ... No doubt, Frederik Andersen is a decent NHL goalie. Question is: How decent? Better than Carey Price? Jonathan Quick? Tuukka Rask? Braden Holtby? Corey Crawford? Pekka Rinne? Sergei Bobrovsky? Matt Murray? Cory Schneider? Andrei Vasilevskiy? Jake Allen? Probably not. That puts him somewhere around top 15. Is that good enough for a Leafs team that struggles in its own end? ... Raptors win in Portland, lose in Denver. Should be the opposite. They lose at home to injured Washington and beat the inappropriately named Pelicans. Should probably be the opposite. Interesting and unpredictable this team is in the early season ... At $7.1 million a year, Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco is the second highest-paid player in Major League Soccer. TFC pays him to be on the pitch. Getting an undisciplined playoff suspension for two yellow cards ranks somewhere between selfish and foolish ... I worry about the appeal in the unfair red-card suspension of Jozy Altidore for one basic reason: There are three independent judges here. The judgment must be unanimous. When was the last time three people agreed on where to go for lunch? .... Happy birthday to Mark Hunter (55), Al Michaels (73), Russell Westbrook (29), Charlie Morton (33), Tonya Harding (47), Neil Young (72) and Sammy Sosa (49) ... And hey, whatever became of Bob Goodenow?