Did NHL '94 "cap" their player ratings?

[Premium]

Outside of the highest tier, the players in NHL '94 are very similar. It seems as if they follow a prototype, kind of like how Raph classified the types of players in his draft strategy. There are shooters, skaters, speedsters and servicemen. However.. for some reason, there is a clear lack of hybrids. This had to have been done intentionally.

Shooters are never skaters/speedsters.

Speedsters are never skaters/shooters.

Skaters are never shooters/speedsters.

A player that should be a hybrid usually gets into one of the categories, and ends up with 4s in the other categories. Here are examples of what I'm talking about:

Joe Sakic - Fits into shooter, but should be a skater too. His agility/stick are capped at 4.

Mats Sundin - Fits into shooter, but could possibly fit in to all three. Everything else is capped at 4.

Sergei Fedorov - Fits into skater, but should be a speedster too. His speed is capped at 4.

Valeri Kamensky - Fits into shooter, but should be a hybrid of all three. All the other stats missing are capped at 4.

Geoff Sanderson - Fits into serviceman, but should be a hybrid of shooter/speedster. Instead they are all capped at 4.

Joe Juneau - Fits into serviceman, but should be a hybrid of skater/speedster. Instead everything is capped at 4.

Stephane Richer - Fits into shooter, but should be a hybrid of the shooter/speedster. Instead he has 4 speed.

Mark Messier - Fits into skater, but should be a speedster as well. Instead he has 4 speed.

Cliff Ronning - Fits into speedster, but should be in the skater category. Instead he has 4 stick.

Shooters cap at 4/4 skating and 4 stickhandling.

Skaters cap at 4 speed and 4/4 shooting.

Speedsters cap at 4 stickhandling and 4/3 shooting.

Klima is the one true exception, meaning they must have really respected his talent. My guess is that too many players outside of the real-life stars would have had too high of an overall if they had received higher ratings than 4 in their areas of specialty.

Were there really NO forwards in the NHL that were fast with a good shot? No forwards that were fast with good hands? No forwards with good quickness, good hands and a good shot?

[The Russian Rocket]

Outside of the highest tier, the players in NHL '94 are very similar. It seems as if they follow a prototype, kind of like how Raph classified the types of players in his draft strategy. There are shooters, skaters, speedsters and servicemen. However.. for some reason, there is a clear lack of hybrids. This had to have been done intentionally.

Shooters are never skaters/speedsters.

Speedsters are never skaters/shooters.

Skaters are never shooters/speedsters.

A player that should be a hybrid usually gets into one of the categories, and ends up with 4s in the other categories. Here are examples of what I'm talking about:

Joe Sakic - Fits into shooter, but should be a skater too. His agility/stick are capped at 4.

Mats Sundin - Fits into shooter, but could possibly fit in to all three. Everything else is capped at 4.

Sergei Fedorov - Fits into skater, but should be a speedster too. His speed is capped at 4.

Valeri Kamensky - Fits into shooter, but should be a hybrid of all three. All the other stats missing are capped at 4.

Geoff Sanderson - Fits into serviceman, but should be a hybrid of shooter/speedster. Instead they are all capped at 4.

Joe Juneau - Fits into serviceman, but should be a hybrid of skater/speedster. Instead everything is capped at 4.

Stephane Richer - Fits into shooter, but should be a hybrid of the shooter/speedster. Instead he has 4 speed.

Mark Messier - Fits into skater, but should be a speedster as well. Instead he has 4 speed.

Cliff Ronning - Fits into speedster, but should be in the skater category. Instead he has 4 stick.

Shooters cap at 4/4 skating and 4 stickhandling.

Skaters cap at 4 speed and 4/4 shooting.

Speedsters cap at 4 stickhandling and 4/3 shooting.

Klima is the one true exception, meaning they must have really respected his talent. My guess is that too many players outside of the real-life stars would have had too high of an overall if they had received higher ratings than 4 in their areas of specialty.

Were there really NO forwards in the NHL that were fast with a good shot? No forwards that were fast with good hands? No forwards with good quickness, good hands and a good shot?

Think they just decided to pair down instead of up as a general rule. Having only 6 values for statistics doesn't leave that much to discretion.

Stats and game tape were also much less available at the time. You mostly had to rely on primetime games and that put a top heavy bias into the process.

Stats like SHA were also just picked off a certain threshold of goals and raw SH%

Edited April 12, 2016 by The Russian Rocket

[tru]

interesting stuff. who are the outliers? Bourque and Lemieux and Bure and Selanne and Mogilny and Oates and Tikkanen and Yzerman come to mind, but I didn't check any ratings.

[CamKneely]

Am I crazy or do the ratings closely correspond to who was in the Skills Competition at the All-Star Game in each event? Bourque's shot ratings reflect this, so do the fastest skaters.