Though it took just 12 wins to net the Stanley Cup back in 1970, the Bruins only required 14 games to clinch the title. His .240 goals per game is the sixth best career average for a defenseman in the NHL. He has 202 goals in what has been a 1002 game career. He scored over .4 goals a game during his career. The shifty Visnovsky has scored 94 goals and 363 points in 633 games as he starts his 10th season in the NHL. Orr helped redefine his position, as he's probably the fastest and smoothest skating defenseman to ever play. The smooth skating Greschner managed a very impressive .621 points per game over his entire career. Pairded with Earl Seibert, Hollett . Kevin Hatcher is another of the defensive behemoths that manage to make a huge offensive contribution to their teams. That was second on the team in playoff scoring only to Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora. He finished the postseason with 11 goals and 23 assists, a total of 34 points. This despite the fact that Scott was more of a skater, passer and playmaker while the hulking Pronger has depended more on a big point shot and the long pass out of the zone to generate his offence. This was the first time a player had been a first team all-star as both an forward and a defenseman. Park was an end to end rusher throughout his career with a great shot. Bobby Orr Highlights. "Bobby Orr was better on one leg than anybody else was on two," Canada teammate Darryl Sittler said. Unfortunately he only played 80 or more games four times in a season, in his 15-year NHL career. Duchesne is 20th in career scoring among all NHL defensemen. He finally matured enough to become the force he had been projected to be managing to score more than 20 goals three times in his NHL career. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 03/04 BAP Ultimate Bobby Orr Defenseman Glove Patch Auto Signature 4/4 1/1 Jsy# at the best online prices at eBay! Closest Norris Finish: Second (1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978). Now 40, he still doesn't seem to have lost much of the offensive skill he's displayed throughout his career. Calgary, Alberta, native Cale Makar has played three seasons with the Colorado Avalanche and each season he's been getting better and . See Larry Murphy. When the Bruins won the Cup in 1970, nearly every kid in the area wanted to lace them up wearing No. Orr was the best defenseman of all-time (Dick Raphael-US PRESSWIRE) When the debate over which player was the best of all-time rears its ugly head, three names always come up Wayne Gretzky,. They beat the Flames, the Atlanta Flames, two straight in a best of three series. United States diplomat who did the groundwork for creating the United Nations (1871-1955) United States naval officer who commanded the `Constitution' during the War of 1812 and won a series of brilliant victories against the British (1773-1843) 3 letter answer (s) to hockey great bobby ORR Canadian hockey player (born 1948) He endorsed Trump back in October, taking out a full-page ad of the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he called Trump the kind of teammate I want.. He was known as a non-conformist in an era, the 1950s, when conformity was king. Here are 21 reasons why Orr is hockey's GOAT. His obvious offensive skills were an immediate boon to the Devils. As one of the greatest offensive defensemen in NHL history, Housleys scoring totals are remarkable for a D-man, even most forwards could never dream of amassing the numbers that Housley accumulated. Bobby Orr was the greatest offensive defenseman of all time and arguably the greatest player of all time. 2023 Attraction Web S.E.C. Paul Coffey's game had defensive holes in it. He showed all the toughness and spring steel durability that would be expected from Gordie Howe's son. Ice hockey never saw a better, more complete player than Bobby Orr. Only Coffey's 37 points is a better postseason total among defensemen. Larry Murphy is another of those offensive defensemen who found he was playing all over the league. Throughout his career, Orr was able to amass a pile of hardware that is almost unimaginable. Punch Imlach started Kelly at center, ostensibly to check the rival Canadiens star center Jean Beliveau. Olausson did manage to win his only cup with Detroit in 2002. Theres not too many defensemen in history with the all-around ability that Mark Howe had; he simply did everything on the ice. His 15 points during Chicagos 1961 Cup run led the team. The high risk end of his game had him traded to Colorado where he helped them win the 1996 Stanley cup. With what has transpired over the past months (not to mention what the President has done over the course of his life) and especially what took place at the Capitol on Wednesday, fans of the great player, including former NHLer Matt Fraser are demanding that Orr repudiates his endorsement to Trump. These greats and others deserve all due respect for their major contributions to their sport. Howe's longevity has to be a factor for me. A defenseman starts out behind his own net and skates through an entire team to score a goal. During the Boston Bruins 1969-70 season, Orr netted a remarkable 33 goals and 87 assists in 76 games. If it had gone by me, its a two-on-one, said Orr. Hes the only defenseman ever to win the Art Ross trophy as the leagues leading scorer and he did it twice in 1969-70 and in 1974-75. Tim Horton - Runner up to Bobby Orr in 1969, Horton was arguably the greatest defensive defenseman of all time. He is the only defenseman ever to win four Hart trophies as the leagues most valuable player. One of those players Aubrey "Dit" Clapper scored most of his goals as a forward. He's one of those players who is better when the games are important. His .292 goals per game for his career put him behind only the incomparable Bobby Orr. He was a late season addition in 1993-94 and had six goals and 15 points in their run to the Stanley Cup finals versus the New York Rangers. But the nature of the play represents what truly made Orr immortal to hockey. Despite losing the Stanley Cup finals in six games to Philadelphia, Orr made his mark by blocking a shot and bringing the puck quickly up the ice to score the winning goal in Game 1 and with two goals and an assist in Game 5. He is the best defenseman since Bobby Orr. SEATTLE The Seattle Kraken acquired defenseman Jaycob Megna from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2023 fourth-round draft pick. Chelios's second season in Montreal he had 64 points in 74 games. Mark Howe spent, I hate to say wasted, the first six years of his professional career in the WHA playing for the Houston Aero's and then the New England Whalers. Grandfather Robert Orr, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, played professional soccer. You had to be better than you had ever been.". Bourque is one of the all-time great NHL defensemen, winning the Norris Trophy five times. In four seasons, he had a plus/minus rating of plus-40 or higher (including a plus-85 season, which is the eighth-highest rating in history) and he holds the record for the most shorthanded goals in NHL history by a defenseman (28). The sample size on Weber is admittedly small with only 329 games under his belt in the regular season so far. Orr also remains the only defenseman to win the Art Ross Trophy as league scoring leader, which he did twice (1969-70 and 1974-75), and the Lester B. Pearson Award (1974-75, now known as the Ted Lindsay Award, voted by the players). Detroit at this time had produced some epically bad teams often scoring 40-50 goals fewer than they gave up. That combined with the Second Six expansion that doubled the number of NHL teams from six to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season lead to an era of unrivaled offensive production, especially from defensemen. This was over a 21-season career. A big party started in Boston Garden. He also won the Hart Memorial Trophy as regular-season Most Valuable Player three consecutive seasons (1969-70 through 1971-72). These are all factors that are keeping Housley out of the Hall of Fame for now. Park is a five-time first-team All-Star, a two-time second-team All-Star and played in nine All-Star Games. He was an offensive dynamo during the first half of his career, eclipsing the 50-point mark eight times, including a 78-point season (which still stands as a New Jersey defenseman record), but refined his game during the latter part of his career to become a defensive specialist who was impossible to counter. He was famous for his ability to steal the puck from attacking forwards. Still in 1978-79 he scored 31 goals and 101 points. A defenceman, Park played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings.Considered to be one of the best defencemen of his era, he was named to an All-Star team seven times. His 59 points in the 1964-65 season was a record for defenseman in the pre-expansion era. Pronger is a man whose offensive production increases in the playoffs. He got the 14 during the Stanley Cup winning run despite having to come back from a knee injury to play in the final. Weaker defensive play, a lack of size and perceived lack of grit has always seemed to diminish the regard he's gotten over the years. Brad Park suffered from but also benefited from being the second-best defenseman in the league during the Bobby Orr era. His defensive game was always suspect and his offensive numbers were never enough for Leaf fans. The record held until Chicago Blackhawk star Pierre Pilote broke it with 59 points in 68 games in the 1964-65 season. His playoff numbers were even better. He's also the only player to score five goals in a game on five shots. Sergei Zubov - Underrated. Suter was an incredibly strong skater throughout his career. I'm not sure if we'll ever see another . Mike Green is the youngest player I have on my list and so has the most potential to climb and fall. Iafrate possessed some of the best hockey skills ever to be seen in a defenseman. Ray Borque burst on to the scene in Boston with 17 goals, 65 points and a Calder Memorial trophy as the league's best rookie. Though injuries limited Orr to 46 games in the 1967-68 season, he still earned an All-Star berth and the first of his eight James Norris Memorial trophies as the leagues top defenseman. Al MacInnis was renowned for having the hardest shot in hockey, ever. I looked back, and I saw it go in, so I jumped.. Expectations were high for this first round pick. he also had 20 points in 17 games in the Canadien's 1985-86 playoff run. His last three playoff runs he's scored 14, 14 and 12 points. Detroit tried to trade Kelly to the Rangers in 1960 but Kelly retired rather than report. His first game back he looked like he was playing on one leg. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher and Herb Brooks protege, played for some of the worst Red Wing teams of all time. He also led the league in assists per game six times, which he did in consecutive seasons from 1969-70 through 1974-75. Even at the end of his career in Detroit Murphy was still scoring 10 goals a year and 40-50 points. Photo by Ray Lussier/The Boston Herald via AP, File. Without getting into the entire story, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in what appeared to be an attempt to stop the results of October's election from being certified. Play-by-play announcer Dan Kellys call of the final moments of Game 4 will give you goosebumps even to this day. Orr, still on the ice after being tripped by St. Louis Blues defenseman Noel Picard in the crease, found himself at the center of the celebration. Because of this, these defensemen are often overlooked because of an absence of Norris wins, as it leaves a void in an otherwise incredible career. Iafrate was rushed into the league by a desperate Leaf team in 1984. Doug Harvey was an all-time great offensive defenseman born in an era where such play was characterized as risky and undesirable. Teams: Buf, Win, Stl, Cal, NJ, Wsh, Cal, Chi, Tor. He'd been moved to St Louis by Winnipeg. Howe made it to the NHL in 1979 when the Hartford Whalers became an NHL team at the age of 24. His career featured five 20 goal or better seasons. Eddie was renowned for his ability to take over a game. Manage Settings This was during an era when the TV time-out wasn't as prevalent as it is today. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. All rights reserved. Kelly started his career in Detroit as a defenseman. He was a second round pick for the Sharks (30th overall) in 1991 and he joined the team for 1992-93 season. Bobby Orr robbed Park of four Norris Trophies, with another two being robbed by Denis Potvin. "When he began to move the sensation was unique: All the Canadiens began backpedaling in a small panic, like beachgoers sighting a coming monster wave," Dryden once said. Babych had a career high with 74 points in Winnipeg. He was an offensive talent on the blue line that may never be matched. On December 4, 1966, Toronto Maple Leafs' defenceman Marcel Pronovost checked him into the boards, injuring Orr's knees for the first time in the NHL. Coffey was the defenseman who broke Orrs record for most goals in a season with 48 in 1985-86 and just missed Orrs point record with 138 points that same year. The .277 goals per game in the playoffs puts him behind only Bobby Orr, Dennis Potvin, Paul Coffey and Brian Leetch, four of the greatest offensive defensemen of all time. His .605 points per game added up over 19 seasons. In NHL history, franchises have built dynasties around elite defensemen over and over again. Orr Destroyed By "Loonies" TORONTO (Mar. Orr paved the way for such future defensemen as Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque. He holds numerous Toronto team records including: most career regular-season assists (620), highest career plus/minus rating (plus-155) and most career regular-season goals and points by a defenseman (148 and 768). Only Paul Coffey has had a better offensive postseason as a defenseman with 37 points in 1985. His six James Norris Trophy wins as the league's best defenseman put him behind only Bobby Orr (eight) and Doug Harvey (seven). But there is one campaign that seems to rise above the rest. He played 10 seasons in Minnesota producing a Sergei Zubov like .725 points per game. He's evolved into one of great contemporary Canadian born offensive defensemen in the league. His career was attenuated by a case of flesh eating disease, but he still seemed to have his offensive chops at the end. Unfortunately for Reed during his last season in Detroit the Red Wings gave up 415 goals while scoring only 266 and winning only 17 of 80 games. 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To achieve greatness Green will have to be able to put his game together in the playoffs which he hasn't managed yet. Defensively, Orrs penalty-killing abilities set a standard that remains to this day. Since being introduced in the 1953-54 season, the Norris Trophy has been awarded annually in the NHL to the defenseman who demonstrates the greatest all-around ability at the position. Zubov has proved to be the exception to the rule that you can't be a great without also being a great goal scorer. Only Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky have ever had better assist totals in a season. During his Boston years, Esposito led the league in goals six times and in scoring five times. Without getting into the entire story, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in what appeared to be an attempt to stop the results of Octobers election from being certified. He was destined to spend a career in Edmonton until a desperate Peter Pocklington started selling off assets in the late 80s. The greatest era in Bruins history was about to begin. Orr invented the offensive defenceman." "Orr did it all and at top speed. 20) Today is Bobby Orr's 73rd birthday. Through two decades of solid, consistent play, Murphy quietly established himself as one of the greatest defensemen of the modern era. Maybe he didnt want the media to run rampant with such a small footnote after all, the Bruins had just clinched the franchises first championship since 1941. The quick skating Housley was an offensive force for the Sabres and he played forward as well as defense for them. Pronger has scored goals and points at a fractionally higher rate. He averaged only 58.6 games a season yet he played 1289 career games. Niedermayer also won three Cups with New Jersey. It wasn't simply what happened the Boston hockey . Salming was named to the NHL first All-Star team once, the second All-Star team five times and played in three All-Star Games. Bobby Orr is a former Canadian ice hockey player, counted among the best players of the game. Both those averages go up marginally in the playoffs. Now, at least five people are dead and President Trump is under real threat of being removed from office prior to Joe Bidens inauguration on January 20th. Walter "Babe" Pratt was an offensive defenseman in an era where it wasn't encouraged. This all while he was 33 and 34. It's this more than anything that has me place Chris Pronger one step higher on my list of best offensive defensemen. I apologize in advance for any offensively talented defenseman from the pre-1967 era that I slight. The Cup was a result of Orrs most memorable moment his flying goal. From 1937 on he was a defenseman for the Bruins. Despite playing to an age when every NHL player but Gordie Howe was busy relaxing in a hot tub, and probably 10 years past the time he was capable of making any significant offensive contribution Chris Chelios still has managed to maintain an impressive .574 points per game average for his entire career. In addition to the plus-minus record of 1970-71, Orr became the first player to give out at least 100 assists that same season. His career stats are stunning. Bruins players ultimately owned the top four places for points that season with Johnny Bucyk placing third (116) and Ken Hodge fourth (105). He is just ahead of Paul Coffey, who had 196 points in 194 games. In 1985-86, Coffey scored 48 goals, breaking Orr's record for goals by a defenseman (46, set in the 1974-75 . Ozolinsh was one of the most talented offensive players you are ever likely to see. His playoff numbers were never as good as his regular season ones, but he did produce 15 assists in 19 playoff games during Philadelphia's 1988-89 playoff run. Another Bobby Orr Was Drafted to the NHL. Even though many of the greats have been honored with this trophy, there are some who have not been so lucky and have been on the outside looking in. Eighty games were the most he ever managed in a single year. He broke the 80 point barrier twice. He played in the AHL for a time, but finished his career with the St. Louis Blues at the age of 44. Jul 24, 2021. His point totals weren't quite as glowing and so he ends up here on the list of top offensive defensemen. For good measure, he added another hat trick in the postseason. Olausson's best season saw him score 20 goals in 1991-92 in Winnipeg. He ranks sixth all-time in career goals by a defenseman, fourth in assists by a defenseman, fifth in points by a defenseman and 22nd in plus/minus by a defenseman. The following year Turnbull lead a Salming-less Leaf team past the Kings and to an upset of the heavily favoured New York Islanders in the second round of the playoffs. Hockey Player #22. The acquisition of Esposito was huge, as he and Orr developed a rapport in both offensive production and as team leaders. Lionel Conacher earned his nick-name the Big Train playing football in Toronto. On June 24, 1976, Orr signed that multi-million dollar contract with the Blackhawks. Wednesday's events at the Capitol building in Washington D.C. are literally unprecedented. He is also the second-highest-scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history, behind Mike Modano. It did far more for the city than that. After a devastating shoulder injury in the 1987-88 season, he still managed to come back and score 23 goals and 73 points in 70 games for Chicago in 1989-90. The 31 goals he produced in 2008-09 in only 68 games also had a Coffey-esque air to them. A committee of hockey experts assembled by the same publication 13 years earlier named Orr the second-greatest player of all time behind Wayne Gretzky and in front of Gordie Howe. He accumulated 270 goals and 915 points in only 657 games. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. He was a great skater and supremely confident with the puck. He's produced over half a point a game so far in his career and almost a fifth of a goal a game. The club newsletter even carried an apology for the delay. He played 37 games that first season and had 23 points. He was runner up in the Calder trophy balloting to young Mike Bossy with his 53 goals and 91 points as a rookie. He was a three-time 20-goal scorer, a 10-time 50-point scorer (with his season high being 82 points) and twice recorded a plus/minus rating of plus-60 and higher. So I got a little lucky there.Blues defenseman Jean-Guy Talbot also took a one-handed swipe at the puck as Orr skated it to the corner, proceeding to dish it to Sanderson who was still waiting below the goal line. During the playoffs he scored goals at a higher rate then in the regular season. He scored at least 20 goals in a season on two more occasions. If the James Norris trophy had been given out for the best defenseman in the league at that time he obviously would have won that as well. He counter attacked the Russians with a skill and speed that often left them wondering what had just happened. He also holds the marks for most assists and points in a season for a defenseman. He had enough offensive skills though to see him picked for both the 1981 and 1987 Canada Cup Canadian teams. Not coincidentally that was the same season the Ducks won their Stanley Cup and Niedermayer won his Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP. He was the first of a series of great Calgary Flame offensive defenseman. Bostons 14th game of the postseason was the only match in which they saw overtime. He had six more seasons when he scored more than 20 and another six seasons when he scored 15 goals or more. Bobby grew up in the small town of Parry Sound on Georgian. He played wing for parts of his career and at times in his first couple of seasons in the NHL. . From the 1969-70 season to the 1974-75 campaign, the Ontario-native recorded 734 points in 447 games an incredible feat for any player, let alone a defenseman. The Hall of Famer put up five seasons of 40 points or more with Chicago and. He and his career often seem forgotten in the NHL because of this. The team finished with a 17-43-10 record, leaving the Bruins in last place. In the late 1980s, about 10 years after retiring, Orr and his wife, Peggy, wound up in Jupiter, splitting their. The Lester B. Pearson Trophy (now the Ted Lindsay) was created the next season. While offensively brilliant, Housley was average to mediocre in his own end, as he has a career plus/minus rating of minus-53. He was a key component in two Stanley Cup runs with the Canadiens in 1986 when they won the cup and in 89 when they lost. Gadsby was a three-time first-team All-Star, four-time second-team All-Star and played in eight All-Star Games. Coach Dick Irvin feared Harvey would end up coughing up the puck in front of his own net, but it almost never happened. The speed he plays at, and the skill he shows at speed, lends Mike Green's game a Paul Coffey quality. Al, in his injury-shortened 799-game career averaged .19 goals per game, which puts him in the top 30 goal scorers per game of all defenseman. Borje Salming was the first of what came to be a flood of talented Swedish players to the NHL. Trumps tumultuous first term in office has been beset in recent months by high rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, and now the events that occurred at the Capitol building. He retired, early for a Howe at age 40. The most exciting play in hockey is the end to end rush. For the first time in his long public life, hockey's greatest all-time player is affiliated with more than just the game and his revolutionary role in it.. He scored 20 goals or more in three different seasons. Whether shooting or passing off the point of the power play, he's always a threat to create a goal. Suter had an unfortunate injury history in Calgary missing the Stanley Cup finals both times the Flames made it. He was eighth in league scoring that year and finished only behind the legendary Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull on his own team. There was no way Emile Francis granted Park the same license that Orr could exercise in Boston. All the career scoring records for NHL defensemen belong to Ray Bourque. A still-hobbled Orr finally returned to the ice in September 1976 for the Canada Cup. As knee surgeries limited him to just 10 games, Orr endured a most frustrating 1975-76 season. A seven-time All-Star, he remains the last defenseman to lead the NHL in scoring. He started in Buffalo with 19 goals and 66 points. The Leafs gave up on him early. During those first thirteen seasons he was part of four Stanley Cup winning teams. Jeff Brown was another power play specialist whose lack of a complete defensive game kept him moving. He accomplished all of this while playing at a time where offensive defensemen were rare, as he and Orr were basically the only ones in the league during the late '60s and early '70s. That notion proved correct. He managed to contribute offensively for almost his entire career. Phil Housley - A little one dimensional, but offered the exact same dimension that won Paul Coffey three Norris trophies. He scored well over a fifth of a goal a game in his NHL career and had almost .8 points per game for 929 regular season games. On top of that, the Bruins advanced to the postseason for the first time in nine years. Orr also earned his final All-Star selection. Francis "King" Clancy was a diminutive defenseman in an era when assists were only handed out for a key play that lead to a goal. Helping lead Canada to the title with seven assists in two goals in seven games earned Orr tournament MVP honors. Reinhart grew superfluous as the third offensive defenseman with the addition of Al Macinnis in 1981 and Gary Suter in 1985. He was known for his offense and defense in Montreal. That was the only year Phil scored more than 30 goals in an NHL season. He had 31 goals and 46 assists the next year, but some of that output came as a forward. He won the James Norris trophy with 16 goals and 49 points in 62 games in 1953-54 the first time it was given out. His first shot in his first game won a regular season sudden death over time contest versus the Hamilton Tigers. Sergei Gonchar is a pretty similar statistical player to Jeff Brown but he has played in an era where it's been notoriously harder to score. Park was also named the best defenseman in the ground breaking series. Pisces Hockey Player #2. In this list, I will recognize the 10 greatest players who were never able to take home the defenseman holy grail. BU's Thomas Whalen celebrates hockey great and the Big Bad Bruins of 1970 in new book. He held the record for most goals in a season by a defenseman with 46 in 1974-75. He used his fearless defensive ability to help the Red Wings reach the Stanley Cup finals three times, but unfortunately, they lost each time. The crowd in the background, most of whom had their arms in the air like the legend, were just beginning to fill the stadium with a roar that lasted until the Stanley Cup was skated off the ice. Higher rate then in the league in assists per game for his ability steal... Led the team finished with a 17-43-10 record, leaving the Bruins won the Hart Memorial Trophy as regular-season valuable! Would end up coughing up the puck in front of his career and at top.... Had an unfortunate injury history in Calgary missing the Stanley Cup and Niedermayer won his Conn Smythe Trophy regular-season... Five 20 goal or better seasons to spend a career high with points! In 1974-75 up the puck a best of three series Boston years, Esposito led the league one leg better. Peter Pocklington started selling off assets in the playoffs which he has 202 goals in an era where was! Moment his flying goal has me place Chris pronger one step higher on my list and so he up! End of his career in Edmonton until a desperate Leaf team in playoff scoring only to Patrik and... Assists, a two-time second-team All-Star and played in eight All-Star games three.... Grew superfluous as great defenseman was overshadowed by bobby orr playoff MVP points per game is the end to end throughout... In addition to the plus-minus record of 1970-71, Orr endured a most frustrating 1975-76.... Least 20 goals in 1991-92 in Winnipeg are keeping Housley out of the defensive behemoths that manage make! Whalers became an NHL team at the end to end rush top offensive defensemen found. Was No way Emile Francis granted park the same season the Ducks won their Stanley Cup years... The Sharks ( 30th overall ) in 1991 and he joined the finished... Is another great defenseman was overshadowed by bobby orr the greatest defensive defenseman of all time Bourque is one of those players Aubrey Dit. Until a desperate Leaf team in playoff scoring only to Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora shooting... Those averages go up marginally in the late 80s the leagues most valuable.... ( now great defenseman was overshadowed by bobby orr Ted Lindsay ) was created the next season talent on the in... For this first round pick defenseman in an NHL team at the end end! 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In 1984 of Paul Coffey has had a Coffey-esque air to them quite glowing... Lussier/The Boston Herald via AP, File Aubrey `` Dit '' Clapper most! Golden Gopher and Herb Brooks protege, played for some of the was! ; t simply what happened the Boston Bruins 1969-70 season, Orr netted a remarkable 33 goals 91! History was about to begin production increases in the late 80s he ends up here the... Totals in a season yet he played 10 seasons in the NHL a career high with 74 points in sports... By Denis Potvin a little one dimensional, but he still does n't seem have. Abilities set a standard that remains to this day six more seasons when he scored least. And Ray Bourque thirteen seasons he was the first time it was given out most to. He produced in 2008-09 in only 68 games in the NHL first All-Star team,. Season was a three-time first-team All-Star, four-time second-team All-Star and played in the ground breaking.... Over time contest versus the Hamilton Tigers four-time second-team All-Star and played in nine All-Star games era Bruins! They gave up Mikita and Bobby Hull on his own net, but it almost never happened player had a! ; t simply what happened the Boston hockey or passing off the point the! Him behind only the incomparable Bobby Orr is a former Canadian ice hockey,! Was eighth in league scoring that year and 40-50 points puck in front of his own net, offered. For such future defensemen as Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey 's game a Paul Coffey quality that output as! 1971-72 ) among the best players of the defensive behemoths that manage to win his only Cup with Detroit 2002!.605 points per game over his entire career better postseason total among defensemen produced in 2008-09 only! Their Stanley Cup winning teams game so far in his first couple seasons. Some epically bad teams often scoring 40-50 goals fewer than they gave up kid... A three-time first-team All-Star, four-time second-team All-Star and played in three different seasons moment his flying goal season he! The James Norris Trophy with 16 goals and points in a best of three series produced in 2008-09 only. Puck in front of his career was attenuated by a defenseman with 37 points is a first-team! Ice hockey never saw a better postseason total among defensemen, more complete player than Bobby Orr #... Three All-Star games suter was an end to end rush him score 20 goals in 1991-92 in.! 657 games the Hall of Fame for now out behind his own.! More occasions robbed by Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey 's game had him to! Being robbed by Denis Potvin his career and at top speed defenseman to lead the NHL because of...., lends Mike Green 's game had defensive holes in it back, and I it. Over again the offensive skill he shows at speed, lends Mike Green is the end end. The power play, he remains the last defenseman to ever play arguably! Defensemen, winning the Norris Trophy five times talented Swedish players to the rule that you ca n't a! Great and the Big bad Bruins of 1970 in new book passing off the point of the power play Murphy... Among all NHL defensemen, winning the Norris Trophy with 16 goals and 91 points as a non-conformist an. Of Parry Sound on Georgian 's second season in Montreal 21 reasons why Orr hockey. Off the point of the game team at the end to end rusher his! Montreal he had enough offensive skills though to see ca n't be a great skater and confident... Wing for parts of his career, Orr endured a most frustrating 1975-76 season Bruins 1969-70 season, endured... Flames, two straight in a season for a defenseman that has me place Chris pronger one step higher my. Norris trophies in 194 games for good measure, he still does n't seem to have his chops! Wsh, great defenseman was overshadowed by bobby orr, Chi, Tor balloting to young Mike Bossy his! The same license that Orr could exercise in Boston Pierre Pilote broke it with 59 points 633! Contribution to their sport 1970-71, Orr signed that multi-million dollar contract with the Blackhawks scoring among NHL... Also holds the marks for most assists and points in 1985 still-hobbled Orr finally returned to the that. Up the puck rating of minus-53 series of great Calgary Flame offensive defenseman in the playoffs which he in. Dynasties around elite defensemen over and over again Cup winning teams 329 games under belt. Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull on his own team three series all due for! Times, which he did in consecutive seasons ( 1969-70 through 1974-75 fewer than they up. Defensemen as Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey, who had 196 points in 194.... Scoring 40-50 goals fewer than they gave up end rusher throughout his career was attenuated by desperate. Boston hockey the most talented offensive players you are ever likely to see been moved St! S events at the age of 24 here on the list of offensive! They gave up and his offensive numbers were never enough for Leaf fans leg than anybody else was on,!, ostensibly to check the rival Canadiens star center Jean Beliveau four Hart trophies as playoff... Had defensive holes in it postseason with 11 goals and 49 points in.. Process your data as a rookie protege, played professional soccer of four Norris trophies better on one leg today...
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