The Puck Stops Here

The 2008 Hockey Hall of Fame inductions were announced this week. One of the players selected was Glenn Anderson. Just as I did with Igor Larionov, I want to write about him and explain why I find him a poor Hall of Fame selection.

Glenn Anderson was drafted out of the University of Denver in the fourth round by the Edmonton Oilers in 1979. Anderson did not stay in the NCAA. He left after one year, initially to play with the Seattle Breakers of the WHL, but soon joined the Canadian National Team and played for Canada in the 1980 Olympics.

In the beginning of the 1980/81 season, he joined the Edmonton Oilers. Anderson quickly established himself as one of their better scorers. His speed and his fearless net crashing made him a star on the Oilers right (and sometimes left) wing. Anderson scored 53 points in 58 games in his first NHL season and as a sophomore hit 105 points. This was one of three times he would clear 100 points in his NHL career. As an Oiler he was an NHL star, though not as big a star as teammates Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Grant Fuhr. Anderson played in four NHL All Star Games. He was an important part of the five Edmonton Oiler Stanley Cup victories. He played internationally for Canada in two Canada Cups. He is best remembered as a playoff star for the Oilers and was consistently one of they top playoff scorers (though never the top playoff scorer). By 1991 the Oiler dynasty was being dismantled, and Anderson was traded to Toronto along with Grant Fuhr and Craig Berube for Vincent Damphousse, Peter Ing, Scott Thornton and Luke Richardson.

In Toronto, Anderson was one of the better scorers on the team, but he never returned to the heights he once routinely reached as an Oiler. His best offensive total with the Maple Leafs was 65 points. Anderson was still a driving force for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs. Though the Maple Leafs never reached the finals, they had some relatively good playoff runs and Anderson was again one of their better scorers in them. In 1994, Anderson wanted to play for Team Canada in the Olympics. He had the option written into his contract for an Olympic release. Despite this, Anderson's Olympic release was denied by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. At the 1994 trade deadline, Anderson was traded to the New York Rangers along with Scott Malone and a fourth round draft choice (used on Alexander Korobolin) for Mike Gartner.

The New York Rangers were a strong team that was built in part around many ex-Edmonton Oilers including Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe. Anderson joined the club in time for their 1994 Stanley Cup victory (this was Anderson's sixth). Anderson did not have a stellar playoff run. He only scored 6 points in 23 playoff games and was not asked back to the Rangers club.

Anderson played in Europe instead. He played five games in German and four in Finland before joining the Canadian National Team. In mid-season he was signed by the St Louis Blues, but remained with them for only the remainder of the season. In only six playoff games that year, Anderson recorded 49 penalty minutes and led the entire playoffs with that total. Anderson was again left without a good NHL offer and again chose to play internationally.

Anderson rejoined the Canadian National Team and played again in Germany the next season. At mid-season, he signed as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks, but new rules forced anybody who had played in Europe to clear waivers before playing in the NHL. The Edmonton Oilers claimed Anderson on waivers. Although Anderson scored ten points in 17 games, he was a defensive liability. Edmonton eventually waived him and he was claimed by St Louis. Anderson added four more points in 15 games with the Blues and five more in 11 playoff games. Again without a legitimate NHL offer, Anderson returned to Europe. He played in Switzerland the next season before retiring from hockey.

Glenn Anderson was a star upon arrival in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. His speed and willingness to crash the net made him a valuable scorer for the deep powerhouse team. He was a very good scorer, retiring with 498 goals and 1099 points in 1129 NHL games played. In the playoffs he recorded 93 career goals (good for fifth all time) and 214 points (fourth all time) in 225 career playoff games. Due in a large part to those playoff numbers and his six Stanley Cup victories, he is remembered as a clutch playoff performer. He was never defensively strong and when his speed (and thus his offence) began to fade he bounced in and out of the NHL. I feel he is a poor Hall of Fame choice and once wrote this article explaining why I feel this way. To better address this question, I will answer Bill James' Hall of Fame questions on Anderson (as I did with Larionov - who is a good choice).

1. Was he ever regarded as the best player in baseball? Did anybody, while he was active, ever suggest that he was the best player in baseball?

No. Nobody would have ever been able to make a realistic argument that Glenn Anderson was the best player in hockey at any point of his career.

2. Was he the best player on his team?

No. Anderson was not the best player on his team, although his team with Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey and Fuhr was arguably the best team ever assembled in the NHL and thus this question is a bit unfair to Anderson. There were many teams in the NHL in the 1980's were Anderson would have been their best player had he played on them.

3. Was he the best player in baseball at his position? Was he the best player in the league at his position?

No. Anderson never made the first or second all star teams in his career, thus arguing he was the best at his position is not reasonable.

4. Did he have an impact on a number of pennant races?

Anderson had a significant impact in the Stanley Cup playoffs on many occasions. He won six Stanley Cups. He is the four highest point scorer in Stanley Cup playoff history and the fifth highest goal scorer. At the time of his retirement, only Maurice Richard had more career playoff overtime goals. Anderson's five playoff overtime goals has since also been passed by Joe Sakic. Anderson scored at point per game or better rate in seven playoff runs. Three of those playoff runs won Stanley Cups. Even when his regular season offensive numbers began to fade, he had some good playoff runs (for example he had 18 points in 21 games with the 1993 Toronto Maple Leafs). Despite that playoff success, Anderson was never seriously considered for the Conn Smythe Trophy. There were always players around who were more valuable during the playoffs. Anderson's career playoff numbers are probably somewhat a consequence of the circumstance in which he played. The Edmonton Oilers were the highest scoring most dominant playoff team in history since the playoffs have expanded to four rounds. Thus Anderson had more opportunity to play in high scoring playoff games than almost everybody in history. Though he is the fourth highest scorer in playoff history, he has a lower playoff points per game than many players below him in the all time playoff scoring race. The top five players in all time playoff scoring (Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Anderson and Coffey) are all Oilers, due to the extreme number of high scoring playoff games played by that team. Anderson has the lowest playoff points per game of the five Oilers, although that is largely due to his Stanley Cup run with the New York Rangers where he only managed six points.

5. Was he a good enough player that he could continue to play regularly after passing his prime?

No. Anderson was 33 in his last full NHL season. From that point on, he spent at least half of each season in Europe because of a lack of legitimate NHL offers. Anderson's last near point per game season was in 1989/90 with the Edmonton Oilers where he scored 72 points in 73 games. He was 29 at the time. Anderson was never a good defensive player and when his scoring slowed down he was not a good role player to keep around. He bounced around the NHL and Europe late in his career far more than a traditional Hall of Fame player.

6. Is he the very best player in baseball history who is not in the Hall of Fame?

An argument could possibly be made that he is based upon his playoff success, but I would disagree with it. I would argue that Doug Gilmour, Adam Oates, Sergei Makarov, Dino Ciccarelli and Mark Howe are all clear examples of players who are Hall of Fame eligible and are better than Anderson.

7. Are most players who have comparable career statistics in the Hall of Fame?

Yes. Anderson nearly scored 500 career goals (498) and had well over 1000 career points (1099). Most players with that level of career totals do make the Hall of Fame. However, the exceptions to that rule all played during the same era that Anderson played. It was the highest scoring period in the modern NHL. There are several Hall of Fame eligible players with similar totals including Dino Ciccarelli, Vincent Damphousse, Bernie Nicholls, Pat Verbeek and Dave Taylor who are Hall of Fame eligible and are not inducted. Adam Oates and Doug Gilmour have hundreds more career points, are Hall of Fame eligible, but are not inducted. If we look at Anderson's playoff career totals, all players with close to his totals are in the Hall of Fame. The best counter-example to that claim is Doug Gilmour, who has 188 career playoff points (26 less than Anderson) and is not in the Hall of Fame. However, on a point per game scoring rate in the playoffs, Anderson's numbers are not so spectacular. They are similar to Brian Propp, Craig Janney and Steve Larmer (all of whom did not have the opportunity to play as many playoff games as Anderson - but still managed 100 or more games). They fail in comparison to Doug Gilmour, Adam Oates or Kevin Stevens and none of them are in the Hall of Fame and all are eligible.

8. Do the player's numbers meet Hall of Fame standards?

Probably his numbers do make Hall of Fame standards, but they come with two big caveats. He played in the highest scoring era ever and he played on a team that allowed him many playoff games. Thus his numbers are probably higher than they otherwise would be due to the circumstances of his career.

9. Is there any evidence to suggest that the player was significantly better or worse than is suggested by his statistics?

The biggest piece of evidence that Anderson was worse than his numbers is the way he bounced around and eventually out of the NHL after he stopped scoring. There wasn't enough in his game to keep him a valuable NHL player if he wasn't a top scorer. His lack of defensive value made him a liability when he wasn't scoring. His offensive totals themselves are inflated due to the period in which he played and in the case of his playoff totals due to the team for whom he played.

On the flip side, one might argue that Anderson was a clutch player whose playoff success proved he was a better player than his numbers showed. I do not give much credence to this argument because he was never the MVP of his team in the playoffs and thus his playoff totals are largely due to the circumstances of his career. He was lucky to be on teams good enough to play as many playoff games as he did.

10. Is he the best player at his position who is eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in?

No. I would argue that Dino Ciccarelli and Sergei Makarov are two wingers who were better players than Anderson who are not in the Hall of Fame, although it would not be entirely ridiculous to disagree with me.

11. How many MVP-type seasons did he have? Did he ever win an MVP award? If not, how many times was he close?

Anderson never had an MVP-type season. He never had a season where he made the first or second all star team. During his best season, he might have been approximately a tenth place choice for an MVP award. As such, he was not ever seriously considered as an MVP nominee.

12. How many All-Star-type seasons did he have? How many All-Star games did he play in? Did most of the other players who played in this many go into the Hall of Fame?

Anderson appeared in four All Star Games and was selected the Rendez-Vous 1987 team which was the equivalent of an All Star Team. He was selected to two Canada Cup teams. Playing on the deep Oiler team, he may have missed out on a couple more All Star Teams due to the need to have a player from each team on the All Star Team (and the fact many other Oilers were already there). At told, he had about seven All Star-type seasons. This number is on the low end for a Hall of Famer, but many players in the Hall of Fame have similar totals. In most cases, these are players (who if they played in modern times) had injury shortened careers. Anderson is a borderline Hall of Famer at best case on his All Star seasons.

13. If this man were the best player on his team, would it be likely that the team could win the pennant?

It is very hard to conclusively answer this question because in his prime Anderson was definitely not the best player on his team. This was due to his playing on an outstanding team. There were teams that won their division who had best players who were roughly Anderson's calibre, although more often than not they were not serious contenders. It is possible that a team with Anderson in his prime as their best player could have been a division winner, but I don't see them as a serious Stanley Cup contender.

14. What impact did the player have on baseball history? Did he introduce any new equipment? Did he change the game in any way?

The run and gun style of the Edmonton Oilers defined hockey in the 1980's. Anderson was a part of that team. However, it is not correct to credit Anderson with the introduction of that style. The player most responsible would be Wayne Gretzky. The next most responsible player would likely be the puck-moving defence of Paul Coffey. Anderson was a strong supporting cast member on this team. He was a star, but he did not define the way they played. As a result, Anderson had little personal impact on hockey history. He was, however, part of one of the seminal teams in hockey history.

15. Did the player uphold the standards of sportsmanship and character that the Hall of Fame, in its written guidelines, instructs us to consider?

This has been a problem for Anderson. During his career he was seen as a bit of a flake. His Oiler teammates called him Mork (after the TV show Mork and Mindy) - a nickname he disliked. Since retiring, he has run into legal problems for non-payment of child support as he is an absentee father. He averaged about a penalty minute per game in his regular season career and could not exactly be called a sportsmanlike player, though he was definitely not a goon. In playoff time, Anderson tended to be a little less disciplined. He had 442 career playoff penalty minutes in 225 playoff games. This puts him well into the top ten in career playoff penalty minutes. He once led the playoffs in penalty minutes (despite only playing six games). Sportsmanship and character are not the strong points of Anderson's Hall of Fame case.

Glenn Anderson was a very good member of a great team, the Edmonton Oilers. When the playoffs were underway, he was usually one of the better players on his team. He scored many memorable goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He is one of the highest scorers in Stanley Cup playoff history (due in a large part to the number of playoff games he played). This is the strongest point in Glenn Anderson's Hall of Fame case. He was never the best player in the NHL or on his team. He did not have the longevity that most Hall of Famers of his era enjoyed. He never won any individual awards. The question to be answered is how important to his cup wins was he? Is it truer that Anderson's teams won six Stanley Cups because of Anderson or Anderson won six Stanley Cups because of his team? I think the team argument is much stronger. As a result, I do not think Glenn Anderson should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.