Does The Hammer Really Belong In The Flyers Hall Of Fame?

I'm risking making a lot of enemies among Flyers fans with this post. But I don't believe that Dave "The Hammer" Schultz belongs in the Flyers Hall Of Fame. There, I said it. There is no doubting that The Hammer is a powerful figure in Flyers lore. But should that equate to Hall Of Fame status? I say no and I'll lay out my reasons why below.

The Hall Of Fame, a team's personal Hall or a League's, is a place reserved for those of the most elite statistical import to a franchise or a league's success. There are many kinds of successful players who come in all forms, but not all are worthy of the status "Hall Of Famer".

Dave Schultz is one of those players. He was what players and media today define as a character player. Good for team morale and providing a spark, but his numbers are hardly worthy of Hall Of Fame status. First of all, he only played four seasons for the Orange and Black, the least amount of tenure of any of the other forwards in the Flyers Hall. But he was fortunate enough to play in the Flyers golden era. And he became the face of that era, The Broad Street Bullies.

But, he was the face the league put on the Flyers image. A tough guy, a goon. A guy who would rather just deck you instead of making a nifty backhand move around you. But this wasn't the trademark of The Bullies from inside the Philadelphia city limits. For that, just look at the forwards who have entered the Flyers Hall before this night. Bobby Clark, Barber, Rick MacLeish, Gary Dornhoefer, and Reggie Leach could, and would, intimidate you. But they could also put the puck in the net. So much so that three of these players, Clark, Barber, and MacLeish, rank in the top four on the Flyers all time scoring list.

Bobby Clarke, forever the face of this franchise, was as tenacious as they came. His 1,453 penalty minutes are only surpassed by Rick Tocchet and current GM Paul Holmgren. Both of them have more than double the points of Schultz, but are not in the Flyers Hall Of Fame.

The Hammer ranks 50th among Flyer forwards on the teams all time scoring list, tied with Scott Hartnell, who will pass him with his next point, Justin Williams, and Peter Forsberg, who spent two injury plagued seasons with the Flyers.

You may argue that it's not fair to compare Schultz to Forsberg, because the latter is a superstar. But, that's exactly my point. He shouldn't be compared to Hall Of Famers. He's just not in that class.

Here are the Hammer's lasting stats during his four years in Philadelphia. He led the league in penalty minutes in three of those years. He still holds the NHL record for time spent in the penalty box in one year, 472 minutes in 1974-75. Again, hardly stats associated with a Hall Of Famer.

Don't get me wrong, Schultz played an important role in helping the Flyers win back to back Stanley Cups in the mid 70's, often antagonizing the opponents best player and taking that player off the ice with him after fighting majors or match penalties. But I think the odds would still be on those Flyers teams winning if Schultz was playing somewhere else. I'm not so sure that would be the case without some of the other players elected to the Flyers Hall Of Fame.

To further prove my point, the Flyers of the mid 80's had great teams the reached the Stanley Cup Finals two times. There are three forwardsfrom those teams, Brian Propp, Tim Kerr, and former Captain Dave Poulin, in the Flyers Hall. Those teams had a beloved enforcer too, Dave Brown. But I don't think he's getting into the Flyers hallowed circle anytime soon.

Championship caliber teams across all league's and all times have credited "character" players for their roles in the teams successes. But, that doesn't mean they need to be placed among the games elite talents.

-Mike Tursi

Note I: I only compared Schultz to other Flyer forwards because I wanted the statistical analysis to be on a comparable basis.

NoteII: I originally wrote this post for the Hockey Herald. It can also be viewed there by going to www.thehockeyherald.com