Best playoff performers not in the HOF

[Victor 11,205]

The playoffs are the most important part of the season, a fact which is beyond dispute. Yet when it comes to voting for awards, other than playoff MVP of course, and discussing Hall of Fame candidates, they are relegated to a secondary role. The stats are presented and any strong playoff performer will be given kudos for it, but while it's very possible to get into the Hall with an average playoff record, the opposite is out of the question. The possible exception to this is goaltenders who very noticeably stepped up in the playoffs, to the extent this overshadowed any regular season shortcomings.

 

I'm not here to lead a revolution against this status quo and open this particular can of worms. However, let's spend some time recognising some of the best playoff performers in VHL history who did not make it into the Hall of Fame.

 

Valtteri Vaakanainen @Jubo

As he approached retirement, I pondered whether Vaakanainen had deserved more recognition in the playoffs and if he had counteracted his solid but unspectacular regular season results (just over 600 points in 8 seasons, never clearing the 100-point mark, although four times scoring 40 goals or more). In truth, he was simply the first beneficiary of the 16-team era expanding playoffs such that there are simply more games to accumulate points in. Four trips to the finals (all sadly unsuccessful) meant Vaakanainen accumulated nearly 80 playoff appearances in half his career, a feat achieved by just 27 players in the VHL's first 70 seasons, but by 63 and counting since.

 

Still, he sits seventh in all-time playoff points, behind Scotty Campbell of course but overtaken only by 4 contemporaries (including The Seabasstard, another potential option for this article) and modern day phenom Axle Gunner. Even more impressively Vaakanainen is still tied for fifth in goals with 52, Gunner being the only player to overtake him since his retirement. Whilst it doesn't stand out enough now that more players have joined the ranks, and the lack of championships and regular season success will work against him, it's still probably the most impressive non-HOF performance in the playoffs of the modern era, especially coming as it did before peak meta.

 

Tyler Reinhart @Zetterberg and Zach Kisslinger II @Kisslinger

Speaking of peak meta, that is the main reason I chose Vaakanainen over Seabasstard (a fellow perennial bridesmaid), but did want to highlight two point-per-game standouts. The leaders in that category are all in the Hall unless they had a very low amount of playoff appearances. Reinhart and Kisslinger have fairly low numbers for the modern age at 48 and 53 games played, respectively, but enough to not completely disregard their 1.42 PPG rate (joint 20th all time, including the various statistical outliers).

 

What did work against them was being the beneficiaries of the meta, albeit in different ways. Reinhart only made the playoffs three times, but all were as part of Vancouver's threepeat, S81 being a particular inflationary post-season (Tyler got 31 points in 18 games but brother Jerome got nearly as many goals (28) as well as a record-breaking 52 points). The bigger caveat against him is of course the massive fall-off post meta – from 417 points in 4 seasons in Vancouver, to 97 points in his last three seasons (S83-S85).

 

Kisslinger didn't actually get a massive post-season boost during meta (he was a rookie in S81 and only played 14 games, Warsaw failing to qualify in S82). The meta case against him, during a brief spell on the HOF ballot, was that he earned 215 of his 730 career regular season points as a rookie and sophomore (i.e. during meta), including his second season being the best of his career. Despite remaining a consistent scorer and a key player in Warsaw's S84 championship, Kisslinger couldn't defeat that argument.

 

Tyler Cote @Ball

From a controversial relatively recent era, to a man no one remembers apart from @CowboyinAmerica and @eaglesfan036 (it's OK, I'll get back to the modern day shortly). I did however want to give a shout-out to someone from a bygone age who hasn't been completely lost to time, with a very impressive 1.38 point-per-game rate in the playoffs (not far behind Kisslinger and Reinhart above) and that in 60 games. All but 11 of Cote's points came in three straight final runs with Calgary from S44 to S46, being named playoff MVP in the victorious campaign of S44, the first Kanou Trophy winner to be mentioned here. His regular season performances did let him down, with a career best of 95 points at a time when all the stars hit 100 on multiple occasions. Truly the trailblazer for future Vaakanainens, years ahead of his time.

 

Rara Rasputin (me!) and Papa Emeritus @Beketov

Enough about forwards though, let's give some recognition to the goalies. Specifically a pair which were early beneficiaries of more teams playing more playoff games, but also crushed by the meta era. Emeritus and Rasputin were even teammates in S80, Emeritus the backup while Rasputin came agonisingly close, a win away from stopping Vancouver's threepeat from ever starting. That was the last of Rasputin's four straight finals appearances, with a championship and playoff MVP in his first (S77) and consistently better performances than in the regular season (where he never cracked the .920 save percentage mark).

 

Emeritus would take over the mantle with 4 trips to the finals in the next 5 seasons, all ending in defeat despite his best efforts. With 52 wins for Rasputin and 50 for Emeritus, they sit second and fifth all-time, with the rest of the stat line in line with past and present Hall of Famers. It's the regular season where they fell short, Rasputin's record mentioned above, while Emeritus got four post-meta seasons to rebuild his career stats but remains in HOF ballot purgatory in part because only one of those (S84) was truly outstanding.

 

Siyan Yasilievich @badcolethetitan and Hari Singh Nalwa @Dil

From goalies to defencemen, we have two more similar cases who overlapped for over half of their careers. With 89 and 88 playoff points respectively, Yasilievich and Nalwa sit in the top 8 among defencemen all-time, whilst Nalwa is the all-time leader in blocked shots, a category in which Yasilievich is seventh. Nalwa is one of a select list of four-time cup winners in VHL history, two to start his career with Vancouver and one to end it with London (playing alongside Yasilievich who won his only championship there), and a playoff MVP performance with Warsaw in between.

 

So what's stopped them from induction? For Yasilievich, it's the big discrepancy between his step up in the post-season and just a steady and respectable regular season career. In an era of the likes of long-time teammate Jake Thunder and Brian Payne, he didn't stand out as one of the best and would have needed historic playoff heroics to make the ballot. Nalwa was on the ballot for a few seasons thanks to achieving more than a point per game but playing in the same era and the lack of regular season awards meant he did not survive the cull.

 

Bo Johansson @Shindigs

And finally, someone who is still on the ballot and has still been getting votes, to the point where the call may one day arrive. Johansson's career also largely overlapped with Yasilievich and Nalwa, and he outperformed both in the regular season, although not enough to sway all voters yet. Despite spending his career with Chicago who failed to make the finals in that generation, Johansson is also not hugely handicapped with his playoff record, where his 1.16 PPG mark in 55 games is actually the tenth-highest among defencemen all-time. Just like he keeps popping up in regular season conversations, Johansson was a surprise appearance here which maybe even boosts his case for induction.

[Frank 5,380]

I remember Tyler Cote! 

[Banackock 8,415]

Legends

[Scurvy 1,715]

Always love the VHL lore articles.  Thanks !