Al MacInnis (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #42)
Adjusted Stats
1981-1982 Cgy 2 GP 0 goals 0 goals 0 points 0.00 PPG
1982-1983 Cgy 14 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.23 PPG
1983-1984 Cgy 52 GP 9 goals 27 assists 36 points 0.69 PPG
1984-1985 Cgy 69 GP 11 goals 42 assists 54 points 0.78 PPG
1985-1986 Cgy 79 GP 9 goals 45 assists 54 points 0.68 PPG
1986-1987 Cgy 81 GP 17 goals 48 assists 65 points 0.81 PPG
1987-1988 Cgy 82 GP 21 goals 49 assists 70 points 0.86 PPG
1988-1989 Cgy* 81 GP 13 goals 49 assists 62 points 0.77 PPG
1989-1990 Cgy 81 GP 24 goals 53 assists 77 points 0.95 PPG
1990-1991 Cgy 81 GP 26 goals 68 assists 94 points 1.16 PPG
1991-1992 Cgy 74 GP 18 goals 52 assists 70 points 0.94 PPG
1992-1993 Cgy 49 GP 9 goals 36 assists 45 points 0.92 PPG
1993-1994 Cgy 73 GP 26 goals 50 assists 76 points 1.04 PPG
1994-1995 Stl 55 GP 14 goals 35 assists 49 points 0.90 PPG
1995-1996 Stl 82 GP 17 goals 43 assists 60 points 0.73 PPG
1996-1997 Stl 72 GP 14 goals 32 assists 45 points 0.63 PPG
1997-1998 Stl 71 GP 22 goals 35 assists 57 points 0.80 PPG
1998-1999 Stl 82 GP 23 goals 49 assists 72 points 0.88 PPG
1999-2000 Stl 61 GP 12 goals 31 assists 44 points 0.72 PPG
2000-2001 Stl 59 GP 13 goals 47 assists 60 points 1.02 PPG
2001-2002 Stl 71 GP 13 goals 41 assists 54 points 0.76 PPG
2002-2003 Stl 80 GP 19 goals 60 assists 79 points 0.98 PPG
2003-2004 Stl 3 GP 0 goals 2 assists 2 points 0.80 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1983-1984 Cgy 11 GP 2 goals 11 assists 12 points 1.13 PPG
1984-1985 Cgy 4 GP 1 goal 2 assists 2 points 0.56 PPG
1985-1986 Cgy 21 GP 3 goals 13 assists 16 points 0.78 PPG
1986-1987 Cgy 4 GP 1 goal 0 assists 1 point 0.22 PPG
1987-1988 Cgy 7 GP 2 goals 5 assists 7 points 0.97 PPG
1988-1989 Cgy* 22 GP 6 goals 21 assists 27 points 1.21 PPG
1989-1990 Cgy 6 GP 2 goals 3 assists 4 points 0.70 PPG
1990-1991 Cgy 7 GP 2 goals 3 assists 4 points 0.61 PPG
1992-1993 Cgy 6 GP 1 goal 5 assists 6 points 0.96 PPG
1993-1994 Cgy 7 GP 2 goals 6 assists 8 points 1.12 PPG
1994-1995 Stl 7 GP 1 goal 4 assists 5 points 0.76 PPG
1995-1996 Stl 13 GP 3 goals 4 assists 7 points 0.51 PPG
1996-1997 Stl 6 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.53 PPG
1997-1998 Stl 8 GP 2 goals 7 assists 9 points 1.11 PPG
1998-1999 Stl 13 GP 4 goals 9 assists 13 points 1.01 PPG
1999-2000 Stl 7 GP 1 goal 4 assists 5 points 0.69 PPG
2000-2001 Stl 15 GP 2 goals 9 assists 12 points 0.78 PPG
2001-2002 Stl 10 GP 0 goals 8 assists 8 points 0.83 PPG
2002-2003 Stl 3 GP 0 goals 1 assist 1 point 0.40 PPG
Career - 1453 GP, 331 goals, 896 assists, 1228 points, 0.85 PPG
Career-Highs - 26 goals (90-91); 68 assists (90-91); 94 points (90-91); 1.16 PPG (90-91)
Avg. (21 seasons) - 68 GP, 16 goals, 43 assists, 58 points, 0.85 PPG
Peak Avg. (86-94) - 75 GP, 19 goals, 51 assists, 70 points, 0.93 PPG, 1 Cup
Playoff Career - 177 GP, 36 goals, 117 assists, 150 points, 0.85 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 6 goals (88-89); 21 assists (88-89); 27 points (88-89); 1.21 PPG (88-89)
Accolades - 1 Norris Trophy, 1 Conn Smythe
All-Star Teams - 4-time 1st-team, 3-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion
I actually surprised myself when building the Pyramid by how high Al MacInnis ended up. Even now, reading this, you probably briefly thought "Al MacInnis at #42, huh? Yeah...yeah, I guess I could see that". To be sure, MacInnis is more in the Ranked High Because of Longevity camp than the Ranked High Because of Dominance camp.
Rarely in a year would you say that Al MacInnis was the best defenceman in the league (although he did win one Norris Trophy). Rarer still would you say, at any point in his twenty-one year career, that Al MacInnis wasn't one of the six or seven best defencemen in the league. That has to count for something. By any measurement, he's one of the best offensive defencemen the game has seen (and certainly one of the best goal-scoring D-men). His tragedy is that he played in the shadow of Bourque and Coffey in the 1980s, and Bourque, Chelios and Leetch in the 1990s.
Everyone remembers that MacInnis had one of the hardest slapshots ever (and for the record, he had the best one-timer from the point I can remember seeing), but few acknowledge what a complete game he had. His career +/- puts him at an average of +22 for an 82-game schedule, hugely impressive considering that's almost at the level of a Nicklas Lidstrom, who without debate played for far superior teams than MacInnis. Were it not for a -1 in his final year (when he played only 3 games before having his career ended by an eye injury), MacInnis would have, Larry Robinson-style, gone his entire career without a minus season.
So MacInnis was essentially the defenceman equivalent of Steve Yzerman: a great player who was excellent for twenty years while not getting quite the individual awards his career deserved because he was unfortunate enough to come along at a time when there were two elite players ahead of him at his position. Yet MacInnis doesn't rank as highly as Yzerman. Why? Well, part of it is the unfair reality that when you think MacInnis, particularly after his epic Conn Smythe run in 1989 (27 adjusted points in 22 games as the Flames won their only Cup), you think "first or second round exit". That was no fault of MacInnis'...in addition to the Conn Smythe, the guy brought it every year come playoff time, averaging nearly a point a game. But after the Flames run, they didn't win a playoff series for the rest of MacInnis' stay with them, and the St. Louis Blues perenially were hanging around come April without ever getting over the hump.
Had he had the fortune to play with the Devils, Red Wings or Avalanche late in his career, or the Oilers early in his career, we'd be talking about MacInnis in the same breath as Coffey and possibly even Lidstrom and Bourque. I firmly believe that. As things are, he'll have to just settle for a stellar career and the legend of his slapshot. Not bad consolation.
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