HOH Top 60 Defensemen List & Voting Record - Der Kaiser

[overpass]

Der Kaiser

Rank | Player
1 | Bobby Orr
2 | Doug Harvey
3 | Ray Bourque
4 | Nicklas Lidstrom
5 | Denis Potvin
6 | Eddie Shore
7 | Slava Fetisov
8 | Red Kelly
9 | Brad Park
10 | Paul Coffey
11 | Larry Robinson
12 | Chris Chelios
13 | Pierre Pilote
14 | Earl Seibert
15 | Al MacInnis
16 | Scott Stevens
17 | Tim Horton
18 | Borje Salming
19 | King Clancy
20 | Jan Suchy
21 | Mike Grant
22 | Brian Leetch
23 | Mark Howe
24 | Valeri Vasiliev
25 | Scott Niedermayer
26 | Dit Clapper
27 | Serge Savard
28 | Moose Johnson
29 | Chris Pronger
30 | Rod Langway
31 | Sprague Cleghorn
32 | Butch Bouchard
33 | Bill Gadsby
34 | Jack Stewart
35 | Eddie Gerard
36 | Alexander Ragulin
37 | Zdeno Chara
38 | J.C. Tremblay
39 | Bill Quackenbush
40 | Rob Blake
41 | Babe Siebert
42 | Larry Murphy
43 | Ebbie Goodfellow
44 | Lionel Conacher
45 | Alexei Kasatonov
46 | Lester Patrick
47 | Jacques Laperriere
48 | Lennart Svedberg
49 | Guy Lapointe
50 | Marcel Pronovost
51 | Ching Johnson
52 | Art Ross
53 | Sergei Zubov
54 | Carl Brewer
55 | Allan Stanley
56 | Jiri Bubla
57 | Sergei Gonchar
58 | Art Coulter
59 | Sylvio Mantha
60 | Lionel Hitchman
61 | Phil Housley
62 | Vladimir Konstantinov
63 | Hod Stuart
64 | Tom Johnson
65 | Ken Reardon
66 | Babe Pratt
67 | Bill White
68 | Doug Wilson
69 | Brad McCrimmon
70 | Harry Howell
71 | Pat Stapleton
72 | Derian Hatcher
73 | Flash Hollett
74 | Duncan Keith
75 | Lars-Erik Sjoberg
76 | Bob Goldham
77 | Cy Wentworth
78 | Jack Crawford
79 | Randy Carlyle
80 | Eric Desjardins

Players from the Top 60 not to appear on this list
George Boucher
Harry Cameron
Harvey Pulford
Frantisek Pospisil

Players ranked highest overall on this list
Jan Suchy (20)
Mike Grant (21)
Moose Johnson (28)
Butch Bouchard (32)
Art Ross (52)
Jiri Bubla (56)
Lionel Hitchman (60)

Players ranked lowest overall on this list
Marcel Pronovost (50)

Players unique to this list
None

Round | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | Rank 6 | Rank 7 | Rank 8 | Rank 9 | Rank 10
Vote 1|Bobby Orr|Raymond Bourque|Doug Harvey|Nicklas Lidström|Eddie Shore|Viatcheslav Fetisov|Denis Potvin|Red Kelly|Larry Robinson|Chris Chelios
Vote 2|Denis Potvin|Slava Fetisov|Red Kelly|Paul Coffey|Chris Chelios|Larry Robinson|Brad Park|King Clancy|Pierre Pilote|Al MacInnis
Vote 3|Paul Coffey|Francis "King" Clancy|Sprague Cleghorn|Brad Park|Pierre Pilote|Earl Seibert|Tim Horton|Scott Stevens|Chris Pronger|Al MacInnis
Vote 4|Earl Seibert|Tim Horton|Börje Salming|Al MacInnis|Scott Stevens|Valeri Vasiliev|Chris Pronger|Bill Gadsby|Brian Leetch|Dit Clapper
Vote 5|Börje Salming|Valeri Vasiliev|Bill Gadsby|Brian Leetch|Dit Clapper|Bill Quackenbush|Mark Howe|Serge Savard|Jack Stewart|Scott Niedermayer
Vote 6|Bill Quackenbush|Mark Howe|Eddie Gerard|Serge Savard|Scott Niedermayer*|Jack Stewart|Guy Lapointe|Rod Langway*|Marcel Pronovost|Jacques Laperriere
Vote 7|Jack Stewart|Scott Niedermayer|Zdeno Chara|Guy Lapointe|Alexei Kasatonov|Lionel Conacher|Marcel Pronovost|Rob Blake|Emile Bouchard|Larry Murphy
Vote 8|NONE|||||||||
Vote 9|Jan Suchy|Zdeno Chara|Moose Johnson|Ebbie Goodfellow|Rob Blake|Emile Bouchard|Carl Brewer|Babe Siebert|Ken Reardon|Harry Cameron
Vote 10|Jan Suchy|Carl Brewer|Albert "Babe" Siebert|Larry Murphy|Lester Patrick|Ken Reardon|Allan Stanley|Alexander Ragulin|Harry Cameron|Tom Johnson
Vote 11|Ken Reardon|Allan Stanley|Lester Patrick|Alexander Ragulin|Harvey Pulford|Tom Johnson|Doug Wilson|Art Coulter|Sylvio Mantha|Harry Cameron*
Vote 12|Frantisek Popisil|Mike Grant|Allan Stanley|Alexander Ragulin|Sylvio Mantha|Harvey Pulford|Harry Cameron|Phil Housley|Babe Pratt|Sergei Zubov

Click to read more...

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

I know you said you got Mike Grant and Hod Stuart mixed up when you put together this list. I'm curious to know where you would rank them now.

Curious to know more about Jiri Bubla.

I'm surprised 52 is the highest ranking for Art Ross - I had him only a few spots lower than that myself.

 

[kmad]

I like the inclusion of Hitchman. I think he and Hollett are most historically underrated.

While I'm going off topic... Some anecdotes I've read indicate that Hollett would be in the Hall fairly easily if he didn't have a falling out with Jack Adams (who told him in no uncertain terms he would do everything he could to keep Hollett from being inducted).

 

[Epsilon]

Interesting to see Suchy all the way up at 20 and Pospisil not listed.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Laperriere (47), Lapointe (49) and Pronovost (50) well behind J.C. Tremblay (38)?

No love for Bill Gadsby (33) either.

 

[Pear Juice]

There are several things I'd like to adress.

1. Frantisek Popisil got 'lost in translation', I had him included in one of my initial list in the 40 range but I must have forgotten to transfer him to the final one. It's a hideous omission.

2. My high rating of Jan Suchy is based very much on anecdotal information. I didn't get to see him play, but I have spoken to several people I know who were following hockey very closely at the time (one of them actually playing for Tre Kronor in the late 1960s) and they were all in unison. During the late 1960s and early 70s Suchy was flying on an entirely different level compared to the rest of the international hockey world. Adding that he is widely considered Czechoslovakia's best defenseman of all time, I decided to rate him very highly. I am well aware that this is an outlier opinion but I still feel it represents my view of him quite well. In my eyes he's second to Fetisov on the international hockey scene. Had he performed at that level for say ten years instead of five, he'd be in contention for an even higher position.

3. I am actually not sure if I mixed them up per se, but given the chance to rearrange, I would probably list Grant and Stuart somewhere quite close to one another around 30ish. Grant had his greatest period even earlier than Stuart which probably caused some people to rate him very low. Grant had his period of dominance during the 1890s, whereas Stuart rose up to take that place in the early 1900s.

4. I wouldn't say that I rushed the list, but I didn't spend as much time on it as I would've liked in an ideal situation. Given that I have not followed the NHL closely for more than 10 years my knowledge of older players prior to this project was quite limited. I actually was more or less decided not to participate until I got persuaded to join, something I am grateful for.

5. I probably ranked Tremblay that high as some kind of homage to the WHA. My list is not heavy on WHA defensemen but I recognized Tremblay as the clear cut best one and wanted to include him quite highly. His years prior to the WHA years only added to that perception.

6. In hindsight, I've done a 'Chmoose'. Knowing what I know now, I'd at least switch Moose and Ching Johnson.

All in all I am satisfied that my list didn't turn out to be the absolute wreckage that it could have been, given my low initial knowledge of pre-expansion hockey. All of my omissions (except Popisil) are older players which is probably due to my lack of initial knowledge about pre-expansion hockey. There are some issues that I'd gladly adress (Popisil being the most obvious one) but as a whole I am surprised at the quality of the list.