Toews, Schmidt play same game, Fischler says

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler will write a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, brand of humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

Comparing NHL stars from yesteryear with contemporary players is a fun exercise as long as we understand that the game as played today is faster, the players are bigger and the rules are different than they were decades ago.
That said, it's still an interesting exercise, since I remember watching players from long ago who were All-Stars and award winners in their eras. So here we go:
1. Milt Schmidt = Jonathan Toews
When the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1939 and 1941, Schmidt was their No. 1 center. Hard-bitten, clever and thoroughly tenacious, Schmidt played in the middle of Boston's "Kraut Line" with Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer.
"He was not fun to play against," said New York Rangers center Don Raleigh, who played opposite "Uncle Miltie" for a number of years. "He had so many ways to beat you besides just scoring."
Schmidt led the NHL in scoring in 1939-40 and was selected to the First All-Star Team three times. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP in 1950-51 and retired four years later. To say that Milt was the heart and soul of those first-rate Bruins teams would be an understatement.

Ditto for Toews, a captain on three Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Chicago Blackhawks and one of the best two-way centers in NHL history.
2. Babe Pratt = Erik Karlsson
Big. rangy. able to play offense as well as play defense expertly in his own zone. That scouting report fit Pratt in the 1930s and 1940s as well as it fits Karlsson today.
Pratt, whose NHL career lasted from 1935-36 through 1946-47, could rush the puck and generate offense, just as Karlsson does. Like Karlsson, the Babe had a flair for the dramatic. Starring first for the New York Rangers and then the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pratt learned his hockey under the legendary Lester Patrick in New York and then Hap Day in Toronto. He played on Stanley Cup winners with the Rangers (1940) and Maple Leafs (1945).

Karlsson isn't a Cup winner yet, but he's displayed Pratt-like qualities as a puck-carrier, shot-maker and all-round defenseman. After nine seasons with the Ottawa Senators during which he won the Norris Trophy twice, Karlsson was traded to the San Jose Sharks on Sept. 13; the Sharks are hoping his arrival will be the missing piece for their first championship.
3. Roy Worters = Marc-Andre Fleury
There was a time in the NHL's early days when small could be big when it came to goaltending. Worters was far and away the most able practitioner of that line of thinking.
Start with the fact that he was all of 5-foot-3 (his nickname was "Shrimp"), meaning that opponents had plenty of space to shoot at. Logic says Worters' lack of size should have made life easier for shooters. But it was not; in fact, it was never even close.
Worters compensated for his lack of size with a blend of speed and insight in a career that ran from 1925-37. He had a "book" on every NHL shooter and -- with radar accuracy -- could figure in advance how and where the shot would go.
Fleury (6-foot-2) is nearly a foot taller, but his reflexes and knowledge of shooters in 13 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins and two with the Vegas Golden Knights are a good match for the skills that made Worters a Hockey Hall of Famer.