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Making the Case for the GOAT: Terrance Nova
#1
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2020, 05:20 PM by ml002.)

In this series of articles, I will be making the case for several players to be the greatest player the SHL has ever had. I’ll only be covering retired players, so the few active players in the conversation will have to wait until they hang up the skates. So what makes the GOAT? What are the criteria? Well that’s hard to say, some will say it's all about stats and championships. Some will say it's all about individual awards. And others will say it’s all about the impression that player made in league history. For me, I tried to take all of these and find the players that best fit all of these criteria, and my goal in this series is to present the best case I can for each of the players to be considered the greatest SHL player of all-time. I will warn goalies now, there are no goalies in this series as comparing skaters to goalies is so hard since goalies are at the whim of the players in front of them, but I will be doing a similar series about the greatest goalie in SHL history once I finish this series.

The Chief Scorer

To start, I randomized a list and it landed as Terrance Nova as my first player to make the case for, and it might be one of my favorite cases to make in this series. Nova was drafted 9th overall in the S32 SHL Entry Draft to the Minnesota Chiefs. He went on to play sixteen of his twenty one seasons with the Chiefs, finishing with 820 points in 800 games for them, only having less than 40 points once, his rookie season where he finished with 36 points and was nominated for the Jesster Trophy for best rookie, winning a Challenge Cup in S39, earning an Anton Razov Trophy nomination along the way to the Cup, and winning the Ron Mexico Trophy as the SHL’s Most Valuable Player as he posted a ludicrous 75 points in 50 games, which ranks as the 4th highest single season points total in the SHL STHS Realism Era. He finished better than a point per game in eight of his sixteen seasons with the Chiefs. If it weren’t for a player we’ll be covering in the future of this series, Nova would be undoubtedly the greatest Chief in team history.

Wandering Chief

After sixteen relatively successful seasons in Minnesota, the Chiefs traded Nova to the Edmonton Blizzard for a S50 2nd and Artemi Berezin. Nova would play for the Blizzard for three seasons, playing a lesser role on a team competing for Cups as he tried to fill the rather barren trophy case he had. In his first season with the Blizzard, they managed to win the Challenge Cup with Nova playing an important role for the team as key depth. The following two seasons saw average returns for Nova as he eventually was allowed to walk to free agency in the S51 offseason, signing with the Winnipeg Jets. Playing a veteran role on a Jets team in flux between the old guard and the future, Nova found some success in S52 achieving his 18th season with at least 40 points or more. S53 was Nova’s final season in the SHL, as he retired the following offseason, but not before achieving 1000 career SHL points, becoming only the 3rd player in the league’s history to reach that elusive milestone.

Underappreciated Greatness

Terrance Nova managed a career that can stack up with any when comparing pure scoring, but also he managed to achieve at least 50 hits in 12 of his 21 seasons he played in his career. He was also a penalty killing monster in his prime as he regularly was over 100 PKM for much of his career. If you go by SHL decades (S10’s, S20’s, etc) Nova was one of only twelve players to achieve 500 points in a 10 season span (credit to @"luketd" for this statistic). Yet when you look at his career awards, it is incredibly barren.

Quote:Nova Career Awards:
1x Ron Mexico Trophy (S46)
Ryan Jesster Trophy Nominee (S33)
Anton Razov Trophy Nominee (S39)
1x Karpetsov Trophy (S46)
2x Challenge Cup (S39,S49)
1x 1st Team All Star
1x 2nd Team All Star
2x 3rd Team All Star

He scored at least 20 goals 14 times in his 21 seasons in the SHL, was a consistent 40 point scorer, and added a necessary physicality to his game. Nova’s consistency helped him achieve things one two other players were able to in their careers so far and still managed to win the Challenge Cup twice, and his career points per game average sits at 0.96, the second highest of the players I’ve chosen to study for this series. It should be noted, in a previous PT or WFT I had done research on unbreakable records and came across that Nova was 2nd all-time in postseason points, but with the Bojo Box’s current state I can’t confirm that it is still true. Nova will be eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time this offseason, and most certainly will be a first ballot selection (if not the committee needs to be burnt to the ground frankly). Nova suffered from playing in probably the most talent rich era in the SHL, which overshadowed his consistency and longevity. Just think about the difference playing for the Blizzard for his whole career or being a key part in the Dragons’ dynasty could have had on the league’s look at his career if he had that chance to be on one of the league’s premier franchises.

Career Statistics:
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Note: Misread my own chart on goals fixed it in the final paragraph. am dumb

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#2

Nova was always an incredibly under appreciated player in the league. Looking forward to the rest of this series!

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#3

He's a beaut

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#4

06-24-2020, 05:11 PMztevans Wrote: Nova was always an incredibly under appreciated player in the league.  Looking forward to the rest of this series!

Ofcourse he was under appreciated, he was on Minnesota. Huh

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#5

Thanks for this article, I enjoyed the read.

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#6

06-24-2020, 05:13 PMスウェグキング Wrote:
06-24-2020, 05:11 PMztevans Wrote: Nova was always an incredibly under appreciated player in the league.  Looking forward to the rest of this series!

Ofcourse he was under appreciated, he was on Minnesota.  Huh

Min and Lap both underrated placed because both bad :thinking: though I always appreciate that S46 Minny team, especially having Skillstedt having his career year by like 40 points as he retires

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#7

This is great. Can't wait to see the rest.

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#8

I can release the list for the future candidates if you guys want as well

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#9

06-24-2020, 05:21 PMml002 Wrote: I can release the list for the future candidates if you guys want as well
As curious as I am, I think it's better to wait and see with each article.

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#10

06-24-2020, 05:19 PMluketd Wrote:
06-24-2020, 05:13 PMスウェグキング Wrote: Ofcourse he was under appreciated, he was on Minnesota.  Huh

Min and Lap both underrated placed because both bad :thinking: though I always appreciate that S46 Minny team, especially having Skillstedt having his career year by like 40 points as he retires

Yeah until I shut em down

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#11

A great player and a great teammate <3

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#12

i did not know Nova was still playing up to S53, Minnesota's crazy top line was one of the first things that ever stood out to me as a new user. Excited to see the rest of this series.
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#13

06-24-2020, 05:19 PMluketd Wrote:
06-24-2020, 05:13 PMスウェグキング Wrote: Ofcourse he was under appreciated, he was on Minnesota.  Huh

Min and Lap both underrated placed because both bad :thinking: though I always appreciate that S46 Minny team, especially having Skillstedt having his career year by like 40 points as he retires

Sad Sucks to suck, Felt like we always got pissed on when it came to praise despite having some great players on the team throughout the years.

Yeah that retirement was pre-mature lmao, at least i went out with a bang Cool

And Nova really is a good lad, well deserved to be mentioned among the greats!

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#14

Very glad we were able to have Nova for a few seasons in the twilight of his career. He was a great player to have on the team!

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#15
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2020, 06:39 PM by WannabeFinn.)

Making the Case for the GOAT Deplorable: Terrance Nova

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