Daniel Alfredsson (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #94)
Adjusted Stats
1995-1996 Ott 82 GP 25 goals 34 assists 60 points 0.73 PPG
1996-1997 Ott 76 GP 25 goals 50 assists 75 points 0.99 PPG
1997-1998 Ott 55 GP 20 goals 33 assists 52 points 0.95 PPG
1998-1999 Ott 58 GP 13 goals 26 assists 39 points 0.66 PPG
1999-2000 Ott 57 GP 24 goals 43 assists 66 points 1.16 PPG
2000-2001 Ott 68 GP 27 goals 51 assists 78 points 1.15 PPG
2001-2002 Ott 78 GP 43 goals 40 assists 83 points 1.07 PPG
2002-2003 Ott 78 GP 31 goals 59 assists 90 points 1.16 PPG
2003-2004 Ott 77 GP 38 goals 57 assists 96 points 1.24 PPG
2005-2006 Ott 77 GP 44 goals 61 assists 105 points 1.36 PPG
2006-2007 Ott 77 GP 31 goals 62 assists 93 points 1.21 PPG
2007-2008 Ott 70 GP 45 goals 55 assists 101 points 1.44 PPG
2008-2009 Ott 79 GP 26 goals 54 assists 80 points 1.01 PPG
2009-2010 Ott 70 GP 22 goals 56 assists 78 points 1.11 PPG
2010-2011 Ott 54 GP 16 goals 19 assists 35 points 0.65 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1996-1997 Ott 7 GP 5 goals 2 assists 7 points 1.05 PPG
1997-1998 Ott 11 GP 8 goals 2 assists 10 points 0.91 PPG
1998-1999 Ott 4 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.82 PPG
1999-2000 Ott 6 GP 1 goal 4 assists 5 points 0.80 PPG
2000-2001 Ott 4 GP 1 goal 0 assists 1 point 0.29 PPG
2001-2002 Ott 12 GP 8 goals 7 assists 15 points 1.29 PPG
2002-2003 Ott 18 GP 5 goals 5 assists 10 points 0.53 PPG
2003-2004 Ott 7 GP 1 goal 3 assists 4 points 0.55 PPG
2005-2006 Ott 10 GP 2 goals 8 assists 10 points 0.99 PPG
2006-2007 Ott 20 GP 16 goals 9 assists 25 points 1.25 PPG
2007-2008 Ott 2 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
2009-2010 Ott 6 GP 2 goals 6 assists 8 points 1.25 PPG
Career - 1056 GP, 430 goals, 700 assists, 1131 points, 1.07 PPG
Career-Highs - 45 goals (07-08); 62 assists (06-07); 105 points (05-06); 1.44 PPG (07-08)
Avg. (15 seasons) - 70 GP, 29 goals, 47 assists, 75 points, 1.07 PPG
Peak Avg. (00-09) - 76 GP, 36 goals, 55 assists, 91 points, 1.20 PPG, 0 Cups
Playoff Career - 107 GP, 50 goals, 48 assists, 98 points, 0.92 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 16 goals (06-07); 9 assists (06-07); 25 points (06-07); 1.29 PPG (01-02)
Accolades - Calder
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
Has Not Won Stanley Cup
An eerily similar, right-wing version of Mats Sundin's career at center: both Swedish, both the good soldiers for teams in Ontario, both universally respected in the NHL (except in Toronto where Alfredsson is booed over a perceived cheapshot against Darcy Tucker), both gold medalists with Team Sweden in 2006 and perennially excellent international players, both with two-way games that steadily improved over time, both criticized early in their career for playoff shortcomings before coming up with excellent efforts in their mid-30s. And oh yeah, neither of them won a Stanley Cup.
I wrote "has not won Stanley Cup" for Daniel Alfredsson because his career isn't over yet. But I might as well go ahead and say it: he's not going to win one. The Senators as of this writing are an absolute mess, and Alfredsson, after a run of about twelve straight excellent seasons, has finally hit a wall, with age starting to catch up to him. Still, Alfredsson's been one of the most consistent players of the 2000s, never considered at the absolute top of the list of right-wingers (he was overshadowed by Jagr and Iginla), but consistently getting 80-100 points and playing good two-way hockey for a Senators team that was almost always one of the league's best regular-season teams.
Sadly, that's the big albatross for the Senators: they may be one of the greatest teams to never win a Stanley Cup. From 2000 to 2008, the Senators were always one of the favourites to emerge from the Eastern Conference. Instead, they made the finals only once, and were soundly defeated by the Anaheim Ducks. If Alfredsson had been able to win the Cup in that season, he'd be a good fifteen or so spots higher on the Pyramid. But the Senators, along with the Sharks, were the all-choking team of the decade.
As I mentioned, Alfredsson seemed to get better with age (before finally hitting the wall this season). From the ages of 30 to 36 he averaged 97 points and had a stellar +/- (Alfredsson evolved into an excellent penalty-killer and shorthanded threat, an underrated part of his game). In the early part of the decade, Alfredsson and the Senators were consistently shut down by the Toronto Maple Leafs, often scoring at a ridiculously low pace. The pattern was the same: in the regular season, the Sens would sweep the Leafs and score four or five goals a game...come playoff time, they'd be the ones getting swept, and they'd be lucky if they scored four goals in the entire series! Alfredsson rightly shouldered some of the blame for this, but he shouldn't be held solely responsible for the team's collapse.
If it weren't for the Sens run to the Cup in 2007, Alfredsson might be remembered as a Joe Thornton-like playoff choker. But he put up 25 adjusted points in 20 games after putting up 10 in 10 the previous postseason. Add to that his excellent international play and it seems as if Alfredsson has been more a victim of bad luck in the postseason than that there's something inherently within him that wilts under pressure. Granted, his legacy is tarnished by the fact that he was the captain of a perenially underachieving team, but as his career has gone on, Alfredsson has at least been able to say that he brought it when the games mattered, and that wasn't always the case.
So Alfredsson makes the Pyramid for his consistency, all-around game and steady offensive production at right-wing, as well as being a good captain for a team that was very good but never great, and should perhaps have won more. There is the aura of failure around Alfredsson as there is with Sundin, but that's because they spent their careers with teams that didn't have it within them to push through. How much of that was due to the shortcomings of their franchise players is up for debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment