Is Ryan Smyth A Hall of Famer?

April 12, 2014. That's where it happened. Ryan Smyth played his final game of his career. He was drafted in 1994 by the Edmonton Oilers and played a large portion of his career with them. Unfortunately he never had the privilege of winning the Stanley Cup. The closest he got was 2006 when the Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in seven games. Smyth not winning the Stanely Cup is the biggest reason people are saying he is not Hall of Fame material. However, before people throw him out of the Hall for not having a Cup they should look at the stats and see if he really should or shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.


There are players in the Hall of Fame with no Stanley Cup. These players have to have tremendous stats to make up for that. If we take a look at their stats versus those of Ryan Smyth, that will be a good measuring bar as to if Smyth should be there or not. It helps too if those players are that as the same position of Ryan Smyth.


Just to be absolutely clear we are going to be looking at former NHL left-wingers who have not won a Stanley Cup that are in the Hall of Fame to see where Ryan Smyth stacks up against them. The following list is those who meet the criteria and how many points they had and in how many games, and in which seasons he played.


Doug Bentley- 543 points in 566 GP, '39/40-'43/44, '45/46-'51/52, '53/54.
Michel Goulet- 1,152 points in 1089 GP, '79/80- '93/94.
George Hay- 134 points in 239 GP, '26/27-'30/31, '32/33-'33/34.
Mark Howe- 742 points in 929 GP, '79/80-'94/95.


Ryan Smyth- 842 points in 1,270 GP, '94/95-'13/14.



I'm going to assume that right away you see a problem. Two of the guys who I found to compare Smyth to played well before Smyth's time, and it's not fair and not logical to compare eras like that. So looking at Michel Goulet and Marke Howe we see some similarities for Smyth. Smyth wasn't quite a point per game player, neither was Howe. Smyth averaged 0.66 points per game and Howe had 0.79. So even there Smyth is  a bit worse. However, Smyth also outlasted both Howe and Goulet in playing time, playing 18 seasons (would've been 19 if not for a lockout). Another case for Ryan Smyth is for quite awhile he was arguably the face of the franchise, not too many players get to say that.


Ryan Smyth hasn't won a Stanley Cup, but he has something else. An Olympic gold medal. I'm not sure if the Hall of Fame voters would look at that as an equivalent, but it does mean he won on a big stage, and I think there's a chance they do. I hope they do.


-Darren.