If you never watched Eric Desjardins play, you might think this is a stupid question (unless you have a lot of faith in the concept of Defensive Point Shares). But, for a time, Desjardins was one of the best defencemen in the NHL.
Did he do enough to warrant induction into the Hall of Fame? Listen to us talk about Eric Desjardins here:
Desjardins’ stats:
Career:
- 1988-2006; 17 seasons, 16 quality
- 136G, 439A for 575P in 1143 games, +198; 114.5 PS; 24:34 ATOI (since 1998-99)
- Desjardins is 22nd All time in Defensive Point Shares
- Draft: In his draft class (1987), Desjardins, drafted 38th overall, is
- 11th in Goals
- 7th in Assists and Games Played
- 9th in Points
- 2nd in Plus/Minus
- Era: Of the 19 defensemen to play in at least 1000 games between 1988 and 2006, Desjardins is
- 6th in Goals and GPG
- 8th in Assists
- 9th in APG and Points
- 7th in PPG, Offensive Point Shares and Point Shares (everyone above him on the PS list is in the Hall of Fame)
- 5th in Plus/Minus
- 4th in Defensive Point Shares
- 82-game average: 10G, 31A for 41P, +14; 8.2 PS
- 3-year peak (1998-2001): 82-game average of 16G, 40A for 56P, +13; 26:27 ATOI; 10.9 PS
- No possession stats
- Playoffs: 23G, 57A for 80P, +16 in 168 games; 26:46 ATOI (since 1998-99)
- Adjusted: 142G, 458A for 600P
- Adjusted 82-game average: 10G, 33A for 43P
- Obviously Desjardins is not on any adjusted per game leaderboards
- Traded once in his prime with John LeClair and Gilbert Dionne for a Mark Recchi and a 3rd round pick.
Accomplishments:
- Top 5 in Norris voting twice
- Top 5 Defensive Player (by DPS) three times (‘92, ‘00, ‘03)
- Scored 15 goals twice
- Tallied 40 assists twice
- Scored 50 points twice
- Top 10 in Plus/Minus once
- 2nd Team All Star twice
- 3 All Star Games.
Great Teams:
- NHL:
- Best Player? On one Final Four (‘00 Flyers)
- Best D (by points) on one Champion (‘93 Canadiens) and one Final Four (‘95 Flyers)
- Top 2 D (by points) on one Runner Up (‘97 Flyers)
- Top 4 D (by points), though he played in only 1/3rd of the games, on one Runner Up (‘89 Canadiens)
- Canada/World Cup:
- Top 4? D (by points) on one Canada Cup Champion (‘91 Canada) and one World Cup Runner Up (‘96 Canada)
- World Juniors:
- Top 2? D (by points) on one World Junior Champion (‘88 Canada)