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hewasajazzman · 04-28-2023, 12:13 AM

You hear the question asked across all of sports, who is the greatest of all time? Those considered for the title have become synonymous with their respective sport or league. So that got me thinking, who is the GOAT SHLer? Who’s name should pop into our brain as soon as the league is mentioned? In this Deep Dive we will take a look at some of the best to ever do it and hopefully come up with a definitive answer.

Of course, answering a question such as this isn’t always so simple. There isn’t an absolute measure for greatness and it could mean many different things to many different people. Since there are a handful of different positions and numerous styles of play for each one, arguments can be made for a number of different players in the league. So, coming up with some criteria is a logical first step. I figured I would go kind of a traditional route here to get as close to a real life comparison as I could. First thing’s first, Points. I know this sort of alienates a lot of players, especially Goalies, but that’s pretty traditional if you ask me. I’d also like to take a look at Longevity. Since there are no injuries, Games Played will be a good way to determine Longevity. This should also go hand in hand with Points since the longer you play, the more chances you have to rack up Points. Finally, Awards. This includes personal awards as well as trophies, and is a decent measurement since the best of the best should continually overshadow their contemporaries.

Points, obviously, are the sum of a player's Goals and Assist. I wanted to take a look at the career leaders for both Goals and Assists and compare those names to the career Points leaders. Unfortunately the leaderboards that I found are only updated through s67, so these numbers may not reflect up to date records. Though it does look as if most of the top players who have played past s67 are still active and those numbers could change anyhow.

Bold denotes active
Goals Leaders:
Esa Anrikkanen- 514
Aaron Wilson- 492
Theo Morgan- 479
Kristian Eriksson- 476
Dick Clapper- 472

Assists Leaders:
Aaron Wilson- 796
Alonzo Garbonzo- 765
Daniel Smeb- 700
Robert Phelps- 597
Bobby Sharp- 596

Points Leaders:
Aaron Wilson- 1288
Daniel Smeb- 1077
Esa Anrikkanen- 1063
Dick Clapper- 1052
Andreas Kvalheim- 1020

It’s no surprise to say that Aaron Wilson takes the cake here. Aaron leads in two categories, and has quite the leg up in points to boot. What’s most astounding is the fact that he is currently still playing, and while it’s possible he may be on his last leg, this means there's the potential of those numbers going up.

Longevity, or Games Played. This stat holds quite a bit of weight in my opinion. Not only does it allow a player to pump up all of their other stats, but it also speaks volumes about their work ethic. Whether they are kept around because they are still playing great, or just a great player to have around because of experience, I think you’ll find that the best players are also those who stick it out the longest.

Games Played Leaders:
Esa Anrikkanen- 1458
Daniel Smeb- 1276
Slip McScruff- 1230
Andreas Kvalheim- 1226
Dick Clapper- 1222

Esa’s lead is about 3 seasons worth of games in today’s era, which is quite a bit when you consider how hard regression can hit late into a career. The three active players are now pretty close to Esa’s record but still have to play about half a season to best it, let’s hope for their sake they have some left in the tank.

When it comes to Awards, we could look up who has the most and come up with a handful of brand new to the article names… but that’s not what I want to do. These criteria were set up in order of importance so what we should really be looking into are the Awards of the names continually pop up throughout the things we’ve already discussed. I’m unsure of how up-to-date the Award tracker I’m looking at is so again, the numbers could be different.

CC= Challenge Cup, AS= All-Star, AW= Awards Won, AN= Award Nomination
Esa Anrikkanen- CC: 5, AS: 3, AN: 3
Aaron Wilson- CC: 2, AS: 2, AN: 1
Dick Clapper- CC: 1, AN: 2
Daniel Smeb- CC: 2, AS: 1
Andreas Kvalheim- CC:2, AS: 1, AW: 1

I think the leader here is pretty clear cut, and again it’s Esa. Anrikkanen is tied for the most Challenge Cup wins with just a handful of others (according to the sheet I’m looking at). There are absolutely other players with a ridiculous amount of personal awards but unfortunately those players just didn’t fall into the top players of our other criteria.

As it stands, at this particular moment in time, I think it’s safe to consider Esa Anrikkanen the GOAT of the SHL… though it’s hard to say for sure when it’s tough to find all of the most accurate information. I do believe this title will change hands and it will happen much sooner than you think. I think that Aaron Wilson actually holds the top spot in Goals, Assists, and Points now. He wasn’t too far off on Games Played on the list I was looking at either, sitting somewhere around 12th place. In my opinion we should wait until he retires to pass off the honor, that way his stats are set in stone. I do like that the SHL doesn’t have this stand alone Gretzky-like player and I’m sure there are a ton of other criteria to look into that would yield different results, but who knows. Maybe the Wayne SHL incarnate has yet to grace us, or maybe they’ve just started their career… maybe it’s YOU!

[somethin’ like 1000 words]

*CptSquall* · 04-30-2023, 09:13 AM

Approved, +5 TPE to @hewasajazzman

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