This was back in the day that speed killed. Bure, Bondra, Federov… guys that were fast were putting up monster numbers. Problem is rookies don’t get the ice time that Selanne got that season. Hell, defenseman barely get that much time on the ice. He was playing a monster amount of minutes/game that season.

Guys with that speed don’t have room in front of the net anymore. The new defensive systems in hockey force those fast guys to the outside… also, defenseman play more defense now than back in the day.

Also, everyteam would have a speed defenseman back then that would occasionally get caught deep (I’m looking at you Phil Hausley). Creating more fast paced end to end play. There weren’t sophisticated neutral zone traps and puck control teams like we have now either.

I have a feeling, with the dawn of the crap trap, no forecheck styles of teams now-a-days, we’re going to see an “illegal defense” penalty brought into the NHL at some point. It would be terrible, but if this is done it will re-open up center ice.

My proposal for opening up center ice without changing the rules, establishing the zone over the blue line would open up the entire half of the ice for the offence. By that I mean as long as the puck enters the zone before other players or the player controlling the puck, the puck can come back over the blue line and everyone would still be on sides. The red line would become the new (out of the zone) line. (I know a lot of people won’t like this, but it would fix the trap systems because people would establish the line and then could pull back and send the puck to a streaking winger, like a sling shot drop pass…)

So I looked it up… poor guy declined fast after the lockout.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8460493

Chad Kilger never really panned out to much of a scorer. I’d say Anaheim won on that deal, just a bit.