Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Top 100 Defensemen of All-Time
In our 2020 Collectors' Edition, The Hockey News counts down the Top 100 Defensemen of All-Time and tells the tale of each legendary player on the list.
90. Jack Crawford
BORN: Oct. 26, 1916, Dublin, Ont. NHL CAREER: 1938-1950 TEAMS: Bos STATS: GP 548 G 38 A 140 P 178 PIM 202 ALL-STAR: 2 (First-1, Second-1) STANLEY CUPS: 2 SUFFICE IT TO say the Boston Bruins of the 1930s and 1940s were not looking to Jack Crawford to create offense. In the regular season, Crawford averaged one goal roughly every 14 games. In the playoffs, that average dipped to about one goal every 20 games. The Bruins were far happier when Crawford delivered one of his patented and devastating hits. At the time, the Bruins had the likes of Flash Hollett and Dit Clapper who could provide offense from the blueline. They needed someone to do the dirty work. And Crawford did it willingly for the Bruins for 12 seasons. In fact, the Bruins were the only team…
22. Borje Salming
BORN: April 17, 1951, Kiruna, Swe. NHL CAREER: 1973-1990 TEAMS: Tor, Det STATS: GP 1,148 G 150 A 637 P 787 PIM 1,344 ALL-STAR: 6 (First-1, Second-5) HHOF: 1996 BORJE SALMING WAS A trailblazer whose legacy was forged through an iron will. One of the first Swedish players to come over to the NHL, Salming became a star with the Toronto Maple Leafs beginning in his rookie season of 1973-74. But it wasn’t easy. Europeans were stereotyped as being soft by NHL players, and Salming was tested nearly every game. Despite constant hacks, hits and slashes, he stood his ground and earned the respect of the league. Of course, Salming was incredibly talented as well. He also seemed to be in the right place on the ice, and by his fourth season in Toronto, he put up more…
31. Drew Doughty
BORN: Dec. 8, 1989, London, Ont. NHL CAREER: 2008-present TEAMS: LA STATS: GP 919 G 117 A 385 P 502 PIM 635 ALL-STAR: 4 (First-2, Second-2) TROPHIES: 1 (Norris-1) STANLEY CUPS: 2 DREW DOUGHTY HAS packed a lot into a little more than a decade’s worth of pro hockey. He burst onto the scene during his draft year, with his end-to-end rushes propping up an otherwise pedestrian Guelph Storm team in the OHL. A little on the heavy side, he dropped 20 pounds that season to prove he was committed to a pro career, and the Los Angeles Kings rewarded his work by taking him second overall in 2008. Doughty went straight to the NHL from there, and by Year 2, he snagged a coveted spot on Canada’s blueline at the 2010 Olympics, where he won the first…
HOW THE LIST CAME TO BE
THE DAY IN 2018 we published The Top 100 Goalies of All-Time is also the day we planted the seed for The Top 100 Defensemen of All-Time. Goalies and blueliners take care of business on the homefront, which is the No. 1 ingredient for winning hockey in the playoffs. While the debate is open for the best goalie of all-time – our panel picked Terry Sawchuk, but four others made it a close race – it’s a near-unanimous decision in selecting the top defenseman. Bobby Orr is the man. I say near-unanimous because one of our panel members thought Nicklas Lidstrom did enough in the final years of his career to come out on top, ahead of Orr. Here’s how the voting process worked: our 10-member voting committee consisted of The Hockey…
Made possible with the support of
