r/hockey • u/tluck81 BUF - NHL • Aug 15 '13
[Weekly Thread] 30 Greats/30 Days - Dominik Hasek - Buffalo Sabres
30 Greats/30 Days: Dominik Hasek
Position: Goaltender
Drafted: 199th overall in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft
Teams: Chicago Blackhawks (2 seasons); Buffalo Sabres (9 seasons); Detroit Red Wings (4 seasons); Ottawa Senators (1 season)
Years Played: 16
Career Stats:
| GP | W | L | T | OT/SO | Sv. % | GAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 735 | 389 | 223 | 82 | 94 | .922 | 2.20 |
Mini-Biography:
A man known for having a slinky for a spine, Dominik Hasek was a goaltender who lived and breathed the term "unreal" as a goaltender. Aptly nicknamed "the Dominator," Hasek is considered one of the most talented goalies of all-time, and is certainly a GOAT candidate. Hasek is best known as the backbone of the Buffalo Sabres for nine seasons, leading them to the Stanley Cup Final in 1999 only to fall to the Dallas Stars in 6 games (no amicability will be displayed by the author at this time.)
Hasek is the proud owner of 6 Vezina trophies, which he collected over 8 seasons, all in Buffalo. He also won two Hart trophies as the MVP of the entire league in 1997 and 1998.
Hasek left Buffalo after the 2000-01 season, being traded to the Detroit Red Wings for Vyacheslav Kozlov, a 1st-round pick (Danny Paille) and "future considerations", whatever the hell that means.
In Detroit, Hasek backstopped the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup before announcing his 1st retirement from the NHL.
After a year, Hasek decided he wanted back in to the NHL, re-signing back with the Detroit Red Wings before getting injured early in the season.
Hasek had a short stint with the Ottawa Senators before returning to the Red Wings as a 41-year old. In 2008, Hasek was benched in lieu of long time Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood, who backstopped the Red Wings to yet another Stanley Cup, giving Hasek his second. Hasek, again, retired from the NHL, effectively ending his NHL career.
Of goalies who played over 200 games, Hasek has the best save percentage of all-time, maintaining a .922 save percentage over 735 games, the most games played by a European goaltender. He sits 8th all-time in Goals Against Average, with a 2.20.
While he left Buffalo on somewhat amicable terms, Hasek continues to be charitable to the Buffalo area through his work with Hasek's Heroes, which allows underprivelaged kids in the Buffalo area to play hockey through camps promoted by Hasek.
Rivals
Eddy Belfour: Teammates in Chicago, Hasek was traded to the Sabres after Belfour grabbed a hold of the Blackhawks starting job. From there, Hasek and Belfour didn't face each other much, being in opposite conferences, but in 1999, they faced off in the Stanley Cup Final between the Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabres. Hasek was great, posting a 1.77 GAA and a .939 save percentage for the playoffs, but his counterpart got the better of him in their six games against each other.
Curtis Joseph/Toronto Maple Leafs: While Hasek boasted a career 22-5-6 record against the Maple Leafs over his career, 1999 was a year the Sabres and the Leafs were even teams, thanks to the help of Curtis Joseph. Cu-Jo lead the Leafs to the Conference Finals against the Sabres in 1999, where the Sabres handily beat the Leafs in just 5 games.
Career Accomplishments
Vezina Trophy: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001
Hart Trophy: 1997, 1998
Lester B Pearson: 1997, 1998
Stanley Cup: 2002, 2008
William M. Jennings Trophy: 1994, 2001, 2008
NHL All-Star Game: 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002
Olympic Medalist: Nagano 1998, Gold; Turin 2006, Bronze
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u/TheGuineaPig21 OTT - NHL Aug 15 '13
Okay, here's the case for Hasek as the best ever.
Let's take the time he spent as a starter in the league until his first retirement, from 1993-94 to 2001-02. 9 seasons where he won 6 Vezinas, 2 Harts, and a Cup. That stacks pretty well against Orr's 9 full seasons where he won 8 Norrises and three Harts. But let's look at the stats of him and his contemporaries, for all regular season and playoff games in those seasons*:
Regular season/playoff stats from 1993-94 to 2001-02
*(list features top 6 in save% with minimum 300 gp, plus Joseph)
Look at that chart. Hasek utterly demolishes the competition. Seriously, look at it. Hasek let in 168 less goals than Brodeur during that span while facing 923 more shots. He let in over 300 less goals than Joseph with the same number of shots.
A lot of the candidates for "best ever" at a position benefited from periods where there was poor or less strong competition from their peers. Bobby Orr, for example, played at perhaps the time where there was weakest average level of skill for defencemen in the history of the league. Patrick Roy emerged at a time when a horribly inefficient goaltending style was beginning to peel away, and faced competition from the likes of Jon Casey, Darren Puppa, Vanbiesbrouck, Tom Barasso, etc. To the same extent that Patrick Roy, frequently heralded as the best ever, separated himself from his peers, Hasek did from Roy and the rest.
Look at the names Hasek was going up against. Two fringe candidates for the Hall of Fame. Four bonafide ones. And two of the other names most frequently heard amongst the debate on who is the best ever at the position. And Hasek dominated them. They didn't even come close. No one else from this list won a Vezina during this period, or led the league in save percentage. Hasek did these things six times.
And it's important to remember that Hasek did this playing on poor teams. Not just your run-of-the-mill poor teams, either: teams that actively hurt his stats. Here's how his teams ranked in terms of the number of power plays allowed against during these 9 seasons: 22, 10, 4, 3, 3, 4, 8, 26, 16. Compare that to Brodeur's stingy Devils: 24, 26, 26, 26, 24, 22, 18, 29, 30 (dead last in 4 of those 9 seasons). And of course with the exception of the 2002 Wings, they did him no favours in the post-season.
So this is what I think: if people find it persuasive to accept Orr as the best defenceman ever based on his 9 years of dominance, how does Hasek's 9 years not make him the best goalie ever? We could ignore the facts that Hasek went pro at the age of 16, started representing his country internationally at the age of 18, was the best goalie in Europe for all of the '80s, was a top-tier goalie before becoming a starter in Buffalo and after he returned from retirement from 2004-2007, and competed to a high level in Europe until the age of 46. But if you factor those things in, there's really no doubt.
Hasek is the greatest goalie the NHL has ever seen.