Intangibles a Hall-Qualifier

“Intangibles” isn’t always a meaningless bailout phrase, and had it not been so widely applied by struggling analysts devoid of explanations for why Player A or B is good, we might still remember that.

For example, there’s no way to quantify just how afraid opposing players are to skate anywhere near Chris Pronger because he will hurt them for fun. We’ll never know how much of a difference Mark Recchi’s leadership had on the Boston Bruins title run. And we’ll never know how many rushes were thwarted because Pavel Datsyuk is sound positionally.

So how much should we take “intangibles” into account when deciding which players get to go into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and who gets left out in the cold?