Sturminator
Love is a duel
oh, Stupid in a good way. that makes sense, then. That's also a stupid 3rd line then, while we're at it.
Assuming we call Cyclone Taylor a center, I think Nighbor's 11th at best, and I'm probably one of his top-3 fans. That's in the average "range", anyways.
After Gretzky, Lemieux, Beliveau and Mikita, I think Nighbor might be the best center of all time. I think he is definitely in the conversation, at least. If forced to make a list, I would probably put him 7th, after the four mentioned above, Esposito, and Morenz. I am not at all convinced that Clarke was better. In fact, I strongly suspect that he was not. Nighbor played a style of defense which was extraordinarily dominant, which no one has ever been able to replicate. He had, like Wayne Gretzky, unique skills. There were other players who could hook check, but there were no other Frank Nighbors, much like there are other players who can pass, but there are no other Wayne Gretzkys.
Clarke was simply an extremely good checker, but I do not think he was as disruptive to other offenses as Nighbor, who was known to regularly break up entire line attacks...like for periods at a time. Hell, I'm not sure Nighbor isn't the 3rd best center of all time, after Mario. He certainly could be, if you think about it. Frank Nighbor in the 40's is probably the single worst and most persistent underrating of an ATD superstar that there is. Honestly, there is absolutely no reason that this guy should get drafted behind guys like Yzerman and Schmidt. He was the backbone of hockey's first great dynasty, and a player who held the entire hockey world in awe.