Thread: Who is considered the best two-way Kings player ever?

Originally Posted by rinkrat

Jari Kurri

Originally Posted by gescom

i was gonna say...

depending on how you choose to look at it, Kurri, by virtue of his entire body of work both with and away from the Kings, has to be the answer.

Yeah, that guy could do EVERYTHING and do it well.


As for Anze, he's gonna get a lot of nods now, but he won't ever be as good at as many things as Kurri.

Originally Posted by darby

Originally Posted by rinkrat

Jari Kurri

Originally Posted by gescom

i was gonna say...

depending on how you choose to look at it, Kurri, by virtue of his entire body of work both with and away from the Kings, has to be the answer.

Yeah, that guy could do EVERYTHING and do it well.


As for Anze, he's gonna get a lot of nods now, but he won't ever be as good at as many things as Kurri.

Sure. Yari was good at a lot of facets of the game. Unbeleiveable hockey sense, at all parts of the rink, at all times of the game. But I would be hard press to say he could match Kopi's play making and one on one abilities. As far as skill, Kopi is one of the best today, and one of the best in Kings history.

Originally Posted by Maddogg420

Kopitar

Best all round. That means has the best offensive abilities and defensive awareness. Anze Kopitar by a country mile! And he will only get better because he wants too! I see Anze score 50 goals and have 60 assists with a +30! And could do it for quite a few seasons! He's that good! He saved our bacon a few times in the playoffs and scored some magnificent goals!!!

PS Love to see Anze Kopitar play with Jeff Carter and Dustin Penner for awhile just to see. Leaving Mike Richards to play with Dustin Brown and Justin Williams. Big guys with big guys and diggers,muckers together! I think the chemistry would be scary!!!

Originally Posted by bladerunner

Best all round. That means has the best offensive abilities and defensive awareness. Anze Kopitar by a country mile! And he will only get better because he wants too! I see Anze score 50 goals and have 60 assists with a +30! And could do it for quite a few seasons! He's that good! He saved our bacon a few times in the playoffs and scored some magnificent goals!!!

PS Love to see Anze Kopitar play with Jeff Carter and Dustin Penner for awhile just to see. Leaving Mike Richards to play with Dustin Brown and Justin Williams. Big guys with big guys and diggers,muckers together! I think the chemistry would be scary!!!

I bit to much, but I like your optimism .

If you're going to open it up to complete bodies of work, with the Kings and before / after there's another name that deserves consideration...

John Tonelli (sp?).

Realize that Jari Kurri has over 600 goals and almost 800 assists for almost 1400 points. Kopitar has a loooonnng way to go to reach Jari Kurri.

Kurri was a +76 one season. And he had seasons of 71 and 68 goals.

I love Kopitar, and he's great by today's standards, but people that only saw Kurri at the end of his career (LA->) don't get how good he was in Edmonton.

Kopi, without a doubt. Kurri didn't spend enough quality time in a Kings' uni to earn that title.

Since Jari Kurri might be the best player in the history of the game at the particular style of play described here, yeah, its not close.

Kopitar is a terrific, maturing player, but c'mon, we are talking B+ versus A+ here.

One player won the cup with the Kings, one did not. Kopitar is by virtue of winning the best 2 way player to play in a Kings uniform.