Originally Posted by 72off
Sort of a strange, low-profile career for Sergei Zubov. Comes in to a stacked Rangers team, and in his first full year leads them in regular season scoring, this of course in '94 when they went on to win the Cup. The next season is the lockout, after which he is dealt to Pittsburgh. He spends just one season there before being shipped to Dallas. Since then he has played 12 strong seasons in Texas. His teams made the playoffs in 13 of 16 seasons, 6 times making to the Conference finals (although he only played 11 games in '08), and both finals appearances resulted in Stanley Cup victories. His international career was over by age 26, playing just once for Russia since he was 22 (in the '96 World Cup). He won an Olympic gold medal in '92, and is the leading NHL point scorer among Russian d-men.
He's had a lot of ice time over his career, with 26:16 MPG over the 9 seasons that I have data for. He's never been worse than -4 in any season (only a minus player in 4 seasons), and +148 for his career. Oddly he only has 3 ASG appearances, somehow he didn't make it the year he led the Rangers in scoring with 89 points and was a +20, or two years later when he was over a PPG and +28 on the Penguins, or in '06 with the Stars when he registered 71 points and was +20. Just 3 fairly routine seasons from '98-'00 did he play in the ASG (has he been ducking it?). And only once has he been named to the post season All-Star Team, a 2nd team pick in '05-'06, and was nominated for the Norris Trophy for the first, and only time in his career.
Three times he has been top-10 in the league in assists, 6 times he has been top-10 in on-ice for goals for, and five times has has been top-10 in on-ice PP goals for (twice leading the league). He is 3rd in points among active d-man (behind Lidstrom and Chelios), 4th in playoff games played among active d-men (behind Chelios, Lidstrom, and Niedermayer), and 3rd in playoff points among active d-men (behind Lidstrom and Chelios).
Maybe someone who has watched him more closely over his career can speak to this, but he comes off as a poor man's Lidstrom that no one really cares about. The only time I watched him very closely at all, was in the '07 playoffs when he dominated the Canucks' top line. The top two offensive players for the Canucks were held to just 3 goals and 7 points over the 7 game series, between them (including 1 goal and 2 assists in the game 7 Zubov was out for). The Canucks had a good chance of losing the series, had Zubov not been injured and thus forced out of the last 1.5 games of the series. Zubov had 4 points, and was a +3 in the series, and committed just one penalty. The Stars had shutouts in each of their 3 victories in the series, but lost game 7, in which Zubov did not play. He was exceptional in the series, and it strikes me as though he has likely been this way most of his career.
Has he always been this good? Has he just been overshadowed this entire time? I mean, early he was playing guys like Messier and Leetch. Then for a season with Lemieux, Jagr, and Francis. From there over to some strong Dallas teams with guys Belfour, Hull, Turgeon, and some excellent undrated players. Over his career he has had some increidble contemporaries at his position, such as Leetch, Chelios, Bourque, Coffey, Blake, MacInnis, Pronger, Niedermayer, Chara, and of course Lidstrom. All of these players have won the Norris Trophy since Zubov has been in the league, a likely reason why he has just the one nomination to his name. To me, he just seems totally underrated and underappreciated. And I think the biggest reason is that Zubov has played in the same conference as Nicklas Lidstrom (and his 6 Norris Trophies) of the Detroit Red Wings (and their 4 recent Stanley Cups), not to mention the Colorado Avalanche and their success.
Basically what I'm saying is I like the pick. Zubov has been a big minute d-man on good teams pretty much his entire career, while putting up a lot of points along the way. Solid 2-way player, stayed out of the box, and also out of the limelight.
