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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.
23. Zdeno Chara
BORN: March 18, 1977, Trencin, Czech. NHL CAREER: 1997-present TEAMS: NYI, Ott, Bos STATS: GP 1,553 G 205 A 451 PTS 656 PIM 1,956 ALL-STAR: 7 (First-3, Second-4) TROPHIES: 1 (Norris-1) STANLEY CUPS: 1 HAD SCOUTS known then what they know now, Zdeno Chara would have been a top-three pick in the 1995 NHL draft instead of a third-rounder in 1996. If Mike Milbury had known then what he knows now, he wouldn’t have traded Chara (and a first-round pick) to get Alexei Yashin. And had John Muckler known then what he knows now, he would not have chosen to keep Wade Redden over Chara in 2006, allowing Chara to sign as a free agent with the Boston Bruins. Who knew Chara was going to be this good for this long? Who knew he would play well into…
39. Ching Johnson
BORN: Dec. 7, 1898, Winnipeg, Man. NHL CAREER: 1926-1938 TEAMS: NYR, NYA STATS: GP 436 G 38 A 48 P 86 PIM 808 ALL-STAR: 4 (First-2, Second-2) STANLEY CUPS: 2 HHOF: 1958 THE DEAD PUCK Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s came six decades after Ching Johnson retired from the NHL, which makes Ivan Wilfred Johnson a man ahead of his time. Johnson was not the most fleet-of-foot defender to play in the NHL, partly owing to the fact he was either 29 or 30 by the time his career began – depending on whether documents that had his birth year of 1897 or 1898 were correct – and that he was the heaviest player in the league. One training camp, the 5-foot-11 Johnson showed up weighing 200 pounds – after losing 37 pounds in the…
66. Alex Pietrangelo
BORN: Jan. 18, 1990, King City, Ont. NHL CAREER: 2008-present TEAMS: StL STATS: GP 758 G 109 A 341 P 450 PIM 241 ALL-STAR: 2 (Second-2) STANLEY CUPS: 1 EVERY GENERATION HAS an elite defenseman who plays in the shadow of all-time greats and doesn’t get his due. Brad Park and Shea Weber come to mind. This decade’s version could be Alex Pietrangelo. He was considered a can’t-miss kid when St. Louis drafted him fourth overall in 2008. Blessed with a massive wingspan at 6-foot-3, he was a high-end skater for a big man and a natural leader. He’s since become exactly the player he was projected to be: a horse who excels at both ends of the ice, can work the power play or kill penalties equally well and is relied upon to play half of…
4. Eddie Shore
BORN: Nov. 25, 1902, Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask. NHL CAREER: 1926-1940 TEAMS: Bos, NYA STATS: GP 550 G 105 A 179 P 284 PIM 1,047 ALL-STAR: 8 (First-7, Second-1) TROPHIES: 4 (Hart-4) STANLEY CUPS: 2 HHOF: 1947 WITH EVERY passing year, Eddie Shore’s legacy becomes a little more mysterious, a little more apocryphal. Born in Saskatchewan and raised on a ranch where he hauled hay and delighted in breaking in horses, he was one of the best defensemen ever to play the game and harder than a coffin nail. And like a Paul Bunyan for the hockey crowd, tales of Shore’s legendary competitiveness and old-schoolery become all the more fun to tell. Perhaps the best such story was relayed in The Hockey News by Stan Fischler. It all starts on a January evening in Boston, back in 1929. Shore was…
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