Thursday, August 2, 2007

Overrated?


The latest edition of the NHL players survey has just come in, and it seems that the majority of the players have a grudge going.

The most hated player in the NHL as voted by it's players is Sean Avery by a landslide of 66.4%. He was also voted the most overrated player in the NHL with a much smaller 8.5% vote, just ahead of Bard Richards and Bryan McCabe at 8.0%.

Personally, I believe that Sean Avery is one of the most underrated players in the NHL right now. He is the present-day version of Dave "Tiger" Williams. He is already known for his physical play, but many people overlook his stats. After a few shaky years breaking into the NHL, he turned it up last year getting 18 goals with both the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers, a 3 goal improvement on his 15 the year before.

One game against Toronto that I watched, Avery was the most dominant player on the ice. He was getting into the opposing player's heads before the puck even dropped, got in a fight which got the Rangers going, and got 2 goals and an assist!

Just a few days ago, Avery went to salary arbitration with the Rangers and was awarded a 1-year contract worth $1.9 million dollars. Many think this is a lot for Avery, but I believe that the Rangers got lucky. Under $2 million is underpaying a great player like Avery.

Link: http://www.thehockeynews.com/en/news/news.asp?idNews=24100

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree...Avery was dominant at times in the playoffs...Too bad he had to go through arbitration...I hear the Rangers called him "disruptive"...I guess he's not so bad that they wouldn't sign him.