Dallas Stars Legend Sergei Zubov Deserves Hall of Fame Induction

The best defenseman in the history of the Dallas Stars deserves Hockey Hall of Fame immortality. We are all rooting for him to receive such an honor today.

The Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee will reveal its final 2017 class today, Monday, June 26th, as up to four former players will hear their name called on November 13th, in Toronto, Ontario. Those four, or perhaps fewer, players will be immortalized and enshrined in the Hall forever.

Led by a definite lock in Teemu Selanne, the list of Hall of Fame hopefuls extends far and wide. There are players like Dave Andreychuk, Mark Recchi, and Curtis Joseph who in their many years on the ballot been snubbed class after class.

And then there’s one other guy. His name is Sergei Zubov, and he is the greatest offensive defenseman in the history of the awesome game of hockey we all love.

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The Dallas Stars have just one such player in the Hall, 2014 inductee Mike Modano, whose status as the highest scoring United States-born player in NHL history along with a number of other accolades gave him the bust. That really needs to change.

To get this straight, Sergei Zubov was one of the most, if not THE MOST underrated hockey player of all-time, and almost certainly the most underappreciated of his era. For instance, from his 49-game rookie season in 1992-93 with the New York Rangers to the 2008-09, 10-game campaign with the Dallas Stars, he tallied 771 points in 1068 games. That’s an average of 0.72 points per game.

If it were possible to adjust for the era in which Zubov played – the infamous “dead puck era” dominated by the now defunct two-line pass and defensive structure – Zubov would rank far above most of his Hall of Fame contemporaries. Sergei sits at 20th in all-time points per game by a defenseman (13 of the 19 ahead of him have been inducted).

Not a compiler of meaningless stats was Sergei, however, as his stats in the Stanley Cup Playoffs were essentially equal to that of his regular season prowess. He netted 117 postseason points (24 goals, 93 assists) in 164 games, which is 0.71 points per game. I’m convinced that if advanced possession metrics such as Corsi and Fenwick were around when Zubov was wheeling and dealing for 27 minutes a night, that the stats would be named after him.

Think about his hardware, too. The basis for almost every annual Hockey Hall of Fame snub is a lack of Stanley Cups or other meaningful championships. Well, Sergei Zubov led the President’s Trophy winning Rangers in scoring with 89 points in 1993-94 on the way to winning the Cup, a first for the Blueshirts in 54 years. Zubov is the ONLY DEFENSEMAN IN HISTORY TO LEAD A FIRST-OVERALL TEAM IN POINTS.

A team with Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Brian Leetch, and Alexei Kovalev were paced in scoring by a 23-year-old Russian dude that smoked two packs a day. If that doesn’t get Zubov’s talent across to the voters and fans, nothing will. He was truly as dynamic and exuberant as they come.

Prior to that, even, Zubov led the Soviet Unified Team to the 1992 Olympic Gold Medal in Albertville, France. At just 21, Zubov played over 20 minutes a night and won the gold in Albertville, France over Eric Lindros and Team Canada. Not only that, but as we know, Sergei Zubov was instrumental in Dallas’s run to the Cup, invoking fear into the opponents and connecting for 13 points in the 1999 Cup title run.

It’s believed that the June 22nd, 1996 trade of Zubov from Pittsburgh to Dallas is the single-most important and significant transaction in franchise history. Penguins captain Mario Lemieux and Zubov failed to mesh, and Lemieux sent him packing. Oh, Mario. Zubov would average 0.65 points per game (about 52 points per season) over 11 full years in green and black.

What is hurting Sergei, admittedly, is his lack of Norris Trophies or any other individual awards. Zubov was a Norris finalist just once, an All-Star four times, and was named to the 2006 All-Second team. Sadly, that’s it.

But to mention that and not bring up the factors that caused the underappreciation itself is an indictment of his great Sergei was inside and out. Having played with NHL 100 standout Mike Modano, three-time Selke winner Jere Lehtinen, and big, bulky defenseman Derian Hatcher, Zubov was an afterthought. As the era was so heavily-defensive, appreciating the best offensive-defenseman ever was a difficult task. What he brought to the table every single game failed to compare to Modano’s speed, Lehtinen’s dependability, or Hatcher’s bone-crushing hits.

"“this idea that the lack of recognition means his candidacy is not good enough in and of itself is laughable. Even if someone wasn’t exposed to him much when he played, a look at the statistics alone should tell you that.”– Erin Bolen, SBNation"

Nonetheless, the voters are also… um, let’s put this lightly and say, absolutely moronic. In review, the Professional Hockey Writers Association thought for each of the last two seasons that Erik Karlsson wasn’t the game’s most excellent defenseman. I think that’s awful, and you should too, but the writers really don’t care. The voting panel for the Norris and other individual accolades look to fit personal narratives before assessing real talent.

It’s difficult to win a Norris Trophy in the era of Nicklas Lidstrom, who is described as “The Perfect Human,” but to say Zubov was the era’s second-best defenseman is not hyperbole. How does he compare with his Hockey Hall of Fame contemporaries? I’m really glad you asked.

Scott Niedermayer played 195 more games than Zubov (1,263 to 1,068); Niedermayer finished with 740 points, THIRTY-ONE fewer than Zubov. If Zubov had played the same amount of games as Niedermayer at his 0.72 points per game pace, he would have destroyed Niedermayer: 909 points. Some people compared Niedermayer to Bobby Orr early in his career, haha, ha, haha, haha haha.

Chris Pronger ended up with fewer points than Zubov, as well, and Rob Blake had just six more than the Russian despite over 200 more games played. Rob Blake, by the way, is a horrendously overrated defenseman in every measurable quantity, so everyone from Sergei Zubov to Rob Scuderi can seemingly make it into the Hall of Fame if you play on good teams.

One more silly stat that eludes too many voters on these kinds of things: the all-time assist leaders amongst defenseman. First overall is Raymond Bourque with 1,169, because he was ridiculously good, but he also played over 1,600 games. Sergei Zubov ranks 16th with 619 career helpers; only two players higher than Zubov played fewer games than Zubov, and you might have heard of them before: Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin.

Next: Dallas Stars Draft Review: Success At All Ends

Sergei Zubov should be in the Hall of Fame, but hockey is stupid and everything sucks. Maybe the issue is that no one in North America has seen or heard from Sergei in, like, five years.

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