Best Face-Off Men in History

[Bluesfan1981]

I'm surprised Peter Zezel hasn't been mentioned yet, he was great.

 

[BobbyAwe]

I remember Phil Esposito was very good at draws but remember hearing that he couldn't even win a draw against Derek even in practice

It is said he won 20 out of 21 draws against Esposito in a scrimmage then Phil blew his top and refused to face off against him anymore. Course that was in Sanderson's book I believe

 

[barfy2000]

I'm surprised Peter Zezel hasn't been mentioned yet, he was great.

Funny you should say that. I was just watching one of the old Leafs games from the 93 playoffs. And I noticed something that I had never seen before by Zezel.

He was taking a faceoff, and before the puck was dropped, he looked back at Dave Ellett and motioned for him to kind of move closer, making it seem he was going to try and win the draw cleanly back to him. The opposing Kings centremen noticed this and without thought won the puck back cleanly. Only Zezel never even tried to go after the puck. He knew the Kings C was going to win it back cleanly like that so as soon as he did, he just went right after the puck, which in turn created a pretty good scoring opportunity for the Leafs. I thought it was pretty smart of him.

 

[KOMO_ROCKS]

Joel Otto was very good.

 

[corneo]

I liked Peca a lot during his time with Buffalo. He was their #1 faceoff man and their captain.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Kasper won some key draws for the bruins