Does Daniel Alfredsson NEED A Stanley Cup To Solidify Hall Of Fame Chances? Outsiders Perspectives

I know by the title many of you are wondering if I am out of my mind.  However, most of you are in the Senators’ “bubble” and know what he means to the franchise, to the city and to the game.  But do his numbers stack with those already inducted into the hockey Hall of Fame.

Feb 23, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Ottawa Senators right wing Daniel Alfredsson (11) control the puck in the third period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Place. The Senators defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Alfredsson’s goal total of 420 ranks him tied for 75th all time.  Traditionally 500 is the benchmark for “automatic” inclusion.  Of the 42 players who scored 500 or more, 30 are in the Hall.  Of the remaining 12, 3 are active and 3 other are not yet eligible.  There are 18 players who have scored between 400 and 500 goals that are eligible and have not been inducted.

Alfie is closing in on 1,100 points (sitting at 1,092) which is 58th all time. There are 8 players ahead of him in points that have not been elected to the Hall of Fame that are eligible.

So he is in very good company there, and he also has a couple of League Awards (Calder, King Clancy) as well as an Olympic Gold Medal.

The one thing that stands in his way to traditionalists is the fact that he does not have a Stanley Cup championship. Alfie took his team to the finals in 2007, but that was as close as he got, at least so far. Obviously, the Captain of the Senators would get my vote.

However, I wanted to go outside Sens nation and get the perspective of those on the outside looking in to see just where Alfredsson sits on the radar of fans from other teams.  I proposed a 2 part question to the fellow writers of all the Fansided NHL sites.

Here is the question I asked:

Question 1.  If Daniel Alfredsson retired after this season with the Senators and without a Stanley Cup ring, would you put him in the Hall of Fame?

Question 1A. IF you answered NO to Question 1, Would you reconsider your vote if he were traded to a contender and won a Cup with another team this season?

I got 11 responses, of which 10 of them answered YES to question 1, with one responder kind of wavering on the fence.  Here are a sampling of the responses I received:

Peter Fish, Editor of our Detroit Red Wings site, Octopus Thrower wrote:

"I never saw Alfredsson as a great player, but what he was, was consistent. He averaged close to a point per game over his career and that is a very tough thing to do.I guess I would put him in the same standing as Iginla. He is guy who never took over the game, but when you needed someone to step up and get the team rolling, Alfredsson was the one to do it for Ottawa.Certainly Hall of Fame worthy."

Dolly Reynold-Dolce from Bolts By The Bay (TB Lightning site) was a little more enthusiastic:

"I would say yes to question #1. I don’t believe that you have to have a world championship under your belt to make you a great player. An amazing player can put it all out there and not have the team to back him up. (Steven Stamkos) He’s got the passion, he’s got the skill, and he’s got the numbers to back it up. I’d love to see him be able to walk away with a Stanley Cup ring on his finger, but reality is that the chances are slim. He deserves it! Team Alfie all the way."

Andrew Thompson, from Causeway Crowd, the Bruins site, couldn’t help but also mention how good Alfie would look in a Bruins jersey:

"1.) Yes. His overall career would be worthy enough to earn a place on the wall in Toronto.1A.) I know that Chiarelli is always looking for talent, and in B-town Alfredsson is usually in the top three of players being discussed. He’s got history with some of the players and the Bruins head office. Would I want to see Kelly , Peverley, or Bourque go? No. However, this is a man who has helped produce minor miracles with an injury laden team. They could have beaten us last night if Tuukka wasn’t having a great game."

Dylan Nardon of Too Many Men on the Site agreed with general opinion:

"I would put him in the hall of fame. I ran across that problem about a year ago when I did my article on the teams captains. Even though he doesn’t have a Stanley Cup, he had been a great leader an ha tried to take the team to the Cup. He just hasn’t ha the luck of pulling them through to the end, and it’s a team effort, not just the captain."

Alas, Mike Amato,the Editor of Editor in Leaf, the Toronto Maple Leaf site, was kind of sitting on the fence:

"This is a tricky one. Personally I think the HHOF is far too easy to get into compared to other sports. With that being said and based on the numbers of others that are in, he probably should get in. However, I wouldn’t put him in.In my opinion you should have to be a dominate player in your generation for at least 5-6 years. (i.e. be a top 5 player in the league for a number of years) Although a very good and consistent player, I don’t know if Alfredsson was ever in that elite level league wide. He cracked 100 points just once and never had 50 goals, and his 1,000 points are more a product of longevity I would say. My answer wouldn’t change if he went to another team this year either as there are some great players who were simply never on good enough teams to win Cups, and that shouldn’t play a factor."

So for some varying degree of reasoning, but the general consensus is that Daniel Alfredsson is in all likelihood a Hall of Famer already, even without a Stanley Cup.  So there is no need to chase one, but as I have said before and will say again, nobody would begrudge him if he decided to chase one. But it is still not likely to happen.

But we already knew that, didn’t we?