NEWSLETTER
Back in October, I wrote about Steve Larmer‘s postseason production while he was with the Blackhawks. Chicago didn’t miss the playoffs in the 11 years that Larmer was a roster regular for the Blackhawks; he appeared in 107 postseason games while a member of the Hawks.
In those 107 games, Larmer scored 45 goals and added 66 assists in those games, good for 111 points — better than a point-per-game in the playoffs.
Only five players in Blackhawks history have more postseason points than Larmer: Stan Mikita (150 in 155 games), Denis Savard (145 in 131 games), Patrick Kane (132 in 136 games), Bobby Hull (129 in 116 games) and Jonathan Toews (119 in 137 games).
Two of those players — Savard and Hull — were also point-per-game players in the postseason with the Blackhawks. And I humbly submit that all five of the other Blackhawks skaters with more postseason points than Larmer will be Hall of Famers eventually; Kane and Toews are locks.
But let’s take a step away from the Blackhawks for a moment and consider how well Larmer performed in the postseason in his era.
Between his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season in 1982-83 and his final season in Chicago in 1992-93, Larmer’s 111 points rank 11th in the NHL. Two of the ten players ahead of him — Brian Propp and Bobby Smith — aren’t already inducted member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. And they needed 125 games and 146 games to produce 117 and 115 points, respectively.
If we look at players who skated in at least 75 playoff games during that window, only 11 players averaged a point-per-game in the postseason. A group that includes Larmer. The only other skater on that list that hasn’t been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame: Craig Janney, who appeared in 21 fewer games than Larmer.
Here are the 11 players who averaged a full point-per-game in the playoffs (min. 75 games played) between the 1982-83 and 1992-93 seasons (while Larmer was in Chicago):
- Wayne Gretzky — 1.90 ppg (310 points in 163 games)
- Mark Messier — 1.35 ppg (216 points in 160 games)
- Jari Kurri — 1.27 ppg (203 points in 160 games)
- Adam Oates — 1.23 ppg (101 points in 82 games)
- Paul Coffey — 1.19 ppg (138 points in 116 games)
- Denis Savard — 1.13 ppg (134 points in 119 games)
- Doug Gilmour — 1.12 ppg (118 points in 105 games)
- Al MacInnis — 1.07 ppg (94 points in 88 games)
- Glenn Anderson — 1.06 ppg (182 points in 172 games)
- Craig Janney — 1.05 ppg (90 points in 86 games)
- Steve Larmer — 1.04 ppg (111 points in 107 games)
Three of the ten players ahead of Larmer on the list appeared in fewer than 100 playoff games during the window, but I didn’t want to limit the list to 100 playoff games. And two of the skaters ahead of him — Coffey and MacInnis — were defensemen. Which means there are only nine forwards who averaged a point-per-game during the window.
And raise your hand if you were on the Edmonton Oilers during that 11 years… That would tag half of the list. Because those Oilers teams were an all-time wagon.
Because of one significant, glaring omission from our point-per-game list, I’ll also note that three more Hall of Famers slip in front of Larmer if we back the games played requirement back to 60 games — the number of playoff games in which Mario Lemieux appeared during the window.
If we make 60 playoff games played the number to include Super Mario (a ridiculous, better-than-Gretzky 1.92 ppg in 60 games), we also include Hall of Famers Brett Hull (1.22 ppg in 68 games) and Peter Stastny (1.07 ppg in 72 games). A second non-Hall of Famer, Bernie Nicholls (1.18 ppg in 60 games), also moved into the list ahead of Larmer, pushing Gramps to 16th on the list. But Larmer ranked ahead of Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille (1.03 ppg in 73 games).
The point here: in almost every statistical category we can employ, the company Larmer kept during his time with the Blackhawks was almost all Hall of Famers. At some point, hopefully those who vote on induction will take note and put Larmer where he belongs — because it’s where his numbers show him to be worthy.
