u/rigoletta

I'm curious to know whether you think Shane and Ilya would be considered "franchise players" vs. "generational talents" (let's assume in today's NHL).

My working definitions (both gleaned from this post about the Habs): a "generational player" is someone who so far exceeds what the standard player can do that they only come around once or twice every 10 years, such as Lemieux, Gretzky, McDavid, and potentially now Celebrini. A "franchise" player, on the other hand, would be the top 15 players in the league - still elite, still better than your average all-star player, but not a rare talent that only gets seen once every 10 years.

I've always assumed both Shane and Ilya to be solid franchise players, not to the level of "generational." The odds of both of them being on the level of McDavid, let's say, seem highly unlikely. We also don't get that many stats about either of them (understandable choice from RR, why discuss stats when the reader is there for the love story lol) Then again, I've seen people argue over calling Ovi and Crosby "generational", so now I don't know what I think.

Obviously both labels are entirely subjective and no concrete number of total career games, points, cups, or awards won can define one or the other (r/hockey is full of these arguments) but I'm curious to know you guys' thoughts.

(As for going back to the books for text evidence, I've read both HR and TLG but have also read so much fanfic that I can't remember what's canon anymore ...oops lol.)

EDIT: thank you all for all your thoughts! It's very fun to discuss IRL hockey in this space and my mind has been expanded. (please no one take this back to r/habs , I could not survive that degree of "generational talent" inception lol)

There is no good reason for these fics to exist and this is 10000% about me trying to find alternative ways to cope with the state of the world, so here goes.

I’ll take anything that goes beyond the usual homophobia in the NHL/ world: Trump, ICE, global warming, witnessing genocide on instagram, rising fascism, the surveillance state, private equity, data centers, idc. I am so depressed all the time about all these things- I either need 1) to know that Ilya is also depressed about these things, and/or 2) for Hollonov become marxists and usher in the revolution (or at the very least, join the NDP and lead it to victory like Canadian Mamdanis).

I doubt there’s much out there, given that this show has been one of the best distractions from all this shit, but if you know of any, I’d love to read them. ❤️