I genuinely thought McAllister and Stopko were about to run away with an insane trophy cabinet to end their careers. Obviously early days in the season, but it probably says something about the small difference in talent beyond 500 TPE.
@Tagger and I brought it up in discord yesterday and I'm almost tempted to do the best ever first 2 seasons of a career. Maybe if this pace keeps up I'll be motivated to do it.
Brace yourself for my post in this season's HOF discussion.
this is almost certainly true, but it's also rare for a shit team to lead to consistently high point totals. It's currently some combination of STHS trying to figure out what to do with a very top-heavy roster in Riga and goalie dearth across the league. It's timing and luck, but then I'd argue every HOFer has benefited from that in some way or another. Indeed, given most HOFers fall between 900 and 800 TPE, how good we view a career might very well be defined by an extra 50 points in rookie and sophomore seasons.
I'd like to hope that isn't likely haha. And I mean it depends on what the lows would be obviously. Is 100-160-140-80-80-80-80-80 a HOF career? Probably not. But replace those 80s with 90s and 100s and probably yes. Of course, there's also generational comparison. If 130 is common for a few seasons, then 160 is a whole lot less impressive.
TBH I'm not really saying anything of substance here. Primarily because I can't bring myself to seriously consider the prospect of this being the peak of my career.
It would be if the hypothetical situations you mention ever came to pass. But as long as they don't it's not hugely difficult to separate HOF from not HOF. I think most debate is in what order people get inducted rather than if they ever will.