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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.
94. Gus Mortson
BORN: Jan. 24, 1925, New Liskeard, Ont. NHL CAREER: 1946-1959 TEAMS: Tor, Chi, Det STATS: GP 797 G 46 A 152 P 198 PIM 1,380 ALL-STAR: 1 (First-1) STANLEY CUPS: 4 WHEN IT comes to nicknames, Gus Mortson was hard to beat. Known as ‘Old Hardrock,’ Mortson was a tough-nosed defender who grew up in Kirkland Lake, which is Northern Ontario mining country. Hockey was Mortson’s ticket out of the mines, but he took his lunchpail with him and played the game with physical ferocity. His pro career began with one season in the minors with the Tulsa Oilers, on a pairing with defensive defenseman Jimmy Thompson. The two were known as ‘The Gold Dust Twins,’ a reference to the mascots of a popular cleaning product who always did their chores together. While Thompson made sure the back…
48. Brent Burns
BORN: March 9, 1985, Barrie, Ont. NHL CAREER: 2003-present TEAMS: Min, SJ STATS: GP 1,113 G 210 A 484 P 694 PIM 685 ALL-STAR: 3 (First-2, Second-1) TROPHIES: 1 (Norris-1) BRENT BURNS IS impossible to miss both on and off the ice thanks to his big game and even bigger personality – but sometimes it’s a case of mistaken identity. When Burns took his family to Disney World in the summer of 2017, for example, other tourists thought he worked at the park as a pirate character. Was it the big beard and missing teeth? Maybe it was the full-sleeve arm tattoos. But Burns does a lot of swashbuckling on the ice, too, converting from a forward in major junior (where he also played in the NHL occasionally) to one of the most offensively dominating defensemen of…
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…
28. Babe Pratt
BORN: Jan. 7, 1916, Stony Mountain, Man. NHL CAREER: 1935-1947 TEAMS: NYR, Tor, Bos STATS: GP 517 G 83 A 209 P 292 PIM 463 ALL-STAR: 2 (First-1, Second-1) TROPHIES: 1 (Hart-1) STANLEY CUPS: 2 HHOF: 1966 BABE RUTH WAS A winner. So was Walter ‘Babe’ Pratt. His baseball prowess earned him the nickname, but championships followed him every time he put on skates. In 26 seasons from junior through the NHL, his teams won 15 titles. It was impossible not to notice Pratt, who was a giant for his time at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds and had a gregarious personality just like his baseball counterpart. Pratt’s stupendous puck-rushing ability made him one of the most thrilling players of his generation. His offense exploded after the New York Rangers traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942-43. He…
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