Is Chris Osgood a hall of fame goalie?

Question

This guy in my opinion is really underrated..and has been a major part of many really great season in Detroit...and his stats compare well to some legendary goalies...whats your take?

Answer 1

When a team has a ridculous defense then tha team has one ridiculous goalie

Answer 2

I wanna say yes but at best it's a possibility.  He needs to win the Conn Smythe this year, stay the starter for a few more years, rack up the wins, and possibly win another Cup.

Answer 3

Gotta love Ozzie, especially in this series, but over his career IMO, he hasn't been consistant enough to be hall of fame. Time will tell though.

Answer 4

The standard seems to be 400 regular season victories. Osgood needs a few more seasons as a starter to reach that level. He's over 300 now.

Rick, on Long Island, Osgood backstopped a team with little talent into the playoffs. When he left, they reverted to being the Islanders.

Answer 5

Many say no, I say possibly.  A cup this year wouldnt hurt his chances.  He also has 3 more years in Detroit and will likely be the starter next year.  A few more years on the Wings could put him over the edge.  One argument I hear quite a bit is that he has never won an individual award.

Answer 6

Ozzie is nothing without that team in front of him.  He showed that in New York and St. Louis.  He had to come back to Detroit to do anything special.

Answer 7

No doubt in my mind that Ozzy is HoF material. He has a career 58% winning percentage whereas Patrick Roy only had a 53.5% winning percentage. Although Ozzy only has 363 wins as compared to 551 for Roy, Roy had a career 2.3 GAA in the playoffs while Ozzy has a 2.14. In regular season games, Roy had a career 2.54 GAA and a .910 save pct., Ozzy has a career 2.43 GAA and a .907 save pct. Roy won 4 Stanley Cups in his time, and if Detroit holds on to win this year, then Ozzy has his name on the Cup 3 times.

I compared Oz to Roy because many consider him to be the best goaltender of all time. Personally, I think Brodeur is a much better 'Tender than Roy ever was and I HATE the Devils.

Answer 8

Negative.

He's been a part of some great teams for sure, but he's simply not shown the type of greatness it takes to make the HOF. While he's part of the reason the Red Wing's are in such a commanding lead right now, he's not the biggest reason.

Answer 9

I think his stats and his performance warrants consideration, although I don't think he gets in unless he has at least one more year like this one.  He has always been underrated, and despite his performance this year, probably will continue to be.  

To those who criticize Osgood during his years in SL and NY, keep in mind that even while playing for bad teams he had winning records, and improved the record of his team beyond where it had been.

Yes, he gets a lot of help from playing with a great team - but don't forget he is PART of that team, too.  At some point he has to get some credit.  Keep in mind that he has stopped 41 shots in the finals, and there have been some difficult saves in there - more than a few.

To get back to your question - One of these has to happen for Ozzie to make the Hall:

--  Two more Finals shutouts ion 2008 in a sweep.

-- Another year as good or better than this, with another Cup to go with it.

-- Three or Four more solid years with stats approaching this year, and reaching into the Top Ten all-time in wins.

IMHO

Answer 10

Ozzy has always been shortchanged on recognition in goal because he has played behind such good teams.  Am I wrong or did Roy play behind some pretty stellar teams as well?  Roy played on teams that were excellent in Monteal and Colorado, teams that easily made the Stanley Cup Playoffs year in and year out.  Few goalies were ever given much credit on bad teams although Hasek was certainly on some bad Buffalo teams and shined even with a losing record in some seasons.

One thing that certainly hurts Ozzy is the fact that in most seasons he faced few shots behind a stellar Detroit defense and his save percentage maybe doesn't look as good since the majority of the shots he did face were very good shots that did get to the net.  Even his own team would get top notch netminders to play with the team that limited the number of starts he would get thus diminishing the stature he could have gained by being the #1 goaltender.   He could easily have had multiple 40 win seasons had he not been forced to share time in net, something Detroit teams have regularly done during Osgood's career.

Roy's Junior career was certainly nothing of greatness, he played on bad teams which shows that a bad team won't help even some of the best goalies.

He has never won the Vezina Trophy but even several past winners that won the award never were given the honor of entry into the HHOF mostly because they maybe only had a few great seasons.  Osgood has been consistant and while maybe not the finest goaltender in any one season he was certainly among the top in the league during many.  

In the end, Osgood will finish his career with more regular season and playoff wins, regular season and playoff shutouts than many goalies already in the hall of fame and he will be criticized for not being good enough.  If he is not given the honor of induction he will be the Dino Ciccarelli of the goaltending side.  Great stats but no respect

Answer 11

I have to agree with you about Ozzie never getting the credit that he deserves and being underrated in terms of NHL goalies, but at this point, I think it's going to take more than one phenomenal season to get him there... sadly.  People seem to forget that he was the goalie for the Wings in 98 when they won the cup and was playing just as good back then as he is now.   I love Ozzie, but at times he's not as consistent as I would like him to be, although you would never know that by looking at his stats right now.  

There's talk that he's in the running for the Conn Smythe Trophy this year and if that happens (I think it's a longshot personally), then hopefully it'll give him some of the credit that he deserves and make him HoF worthy.

Go Wings!!!

Answer 12

I agree that he is very underrated! Ozzie is a great positional goalie. He sees the plays very well and always seems to be in spot to make the save look easy. When other good goalies have awesomes saves on SportsCenter, look at how out of position they were. Ozzie just seems to have mastered that aspect of the game over his career. A goalie is only as good as the team in front of him, no matter who the goaltender is. Take awaythe Trap and Brodeur doesn't have those low numbers from earlier in his career. Look at Luongo, a great goalie but not good numbers while in Florida. That's why its a team sport. and didn't the Islanders go 11-0 & 25-5 to start the season when Ozzie joined them? As far as numbers, it's all relative. Look at Fuhr's numbers. Every player has to be judged on his impact at that time in history. If Ozzie gets 400 wins, he has to be in.

Answer 13

There is No DOUBT, Ozzie is IN. His career, his stats, is longevity, his name is on the cup. One of the best all time winning percentages yada yada yada.