Defence

Does Rob Blake Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Rob Blake was one of the star offensive defencemen of his era.

But he likely didn’t deserve his Norris Trophy the year he won it.

Does he still belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Listen to us talk about Rob Blake here:

Does Eric Desjardins Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

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:

Is Nicklas Lidstrom the 2nd Best Defenseman of All Time?

If you judge strictly on the basis of Norris Trophy wins, Nicklas Lidstrom is the second best NHL defenseman of all time.

Obviously Norris wins are not the only criteria we should use when evaluating NHL D, so in this episode we look at his entire career and try to figure out where he ranks all time.

Listen to us talk about Nick Lidstrom here:

Defensive Defensemen

Since the position of defenseman was created, there have been defenders who contributed to the team’s offense and there have been players who didn’t much. But this difference was exacerbated by the expansion of the NHL in 1967 and the phenomenon of Bobby Orr, who destroyed scoring records for defenders, and showed that teams could expect scoring from the back-end in ways they never imagined.

This change essentially created a dichotomy between “offensive” defensemen, who scored a lot, albeit not quite as much as Bobby Orr, and “defensive” defensemen, who didn’t score much at all. For our purposes, we’ve arbitrarily assumed that a “defensive defenseman” is a defender which manged .35 adjusted PPG or less throughout their NHL career.

The Hall of Fame’s attitude towards defensively inclined defenders also changed since expansion. The Hall of Fame has inducted six NHL defensemen from that era who scored less than .35 adjusted PPG (of a total of 16 legitimate candidates they could have inducted). But the Hall of Fame has inducted exactly one player who fits the bill, Rod Langway, to play the majority of his career since expansion.

This leads to three possible conclusions:

Rod Langway was the best defensive defenseman since expansion, significantly better than any other, and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame while no other player with a similar skill set deserves the honour. OR
There are other players of Rod Langway’s ability who have been forgotten or overlooked because they didn’t get the awards votes (Norris and Hart) that Langway got, and they deserve to be in. OR
Rod Langway’s awards votes are a historical curiosity that won’t happen again and he didn’t necessarily deserve them, nor do other players who fail to contribute offensively, and no defensive defensemen should be inducted into the Hall of Fame going forward.

How do we sort out this problem?

Sprague Cleghorn

Sprague Cleghorn has one of the all time great hockey names. But was he good enough to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

In this episode, we talk about Sprague and where he ranks among the old timer D of his era. Listen here:

Does Chris Pronger Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Chris Pronger was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame even while under contract to an NHL team. What was the rush inducting while he was still technically active? Was he really that good.

In this episode we discuss Pronger’s career and his HOF case.

Listen here:

Does Sergei Zubov Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Sergei Zubov was one of the best defencemen in the NHL for nearly two decades yet, when he recorded this episode, he was not yet in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Why did it take so long? Was it because he’s Russian? Was it because he played most of his career in Dallas and wasn’t watched enough?

In this episode, we marveled at how Zubov was not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Of course, since then the Hall of Fame corrected their mistake. Still, it’s a fun episode.

Listen here:

Does Eddie Gerard Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Eddie Gerard won a bunch of Stanley Cups. And by one metric he might have been the best defenceman in the early NHL.

Was he? Does he deserve to the be in the Hockey Hall of Fame? We discuss his case on our latest episode.

Listen here:

Does Phil Housley Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Phil Housley has some of the most impressive career offensive totals of any NHL defenceman, especially an American.

He is also -53 for his career.

Should the Hall of Fame inducted a player who appears, on first glance, to have not been very good in his own end?

We discuss in our latest episode. Listen here:

Does Sergei Gonchar Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

We doubt Sergei Gonchar is a name many would have considered for induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But he had a rather great career despite his lack of accolades.

In our latest episode, we debate whether or not Sergei Gonchar deserves to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Listen here: