Is Kevin Lowe the worst defenseman in the HHoF?

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Bruce McCurdy is a great guy and an outstanding media personality / journalist -- in fact, he's probably my favorite Oilers'-related media person ever -- but I'm gonna disagree with him, here.

These tributes to Kevin Lowe, when discussing his actual playing ability, tend to boil down to "he was a shut-down guy". I mean, it's an important thing, but was he really that good at it? To me, he wasn't. He was above-average at his best, and just as his best years were fading (after 1987), he started getting a little bit of media attention (his Norris-voting finishes were 5, 7, 8, 10 over an eight-season period). Bizarrely, he seems to have gotten 2 first-place Norris votes in 1988... for reasons I can't understand.

My question would be: Since 1967, what HOF'er defenceman has the next-worst Norris voting record than 5, 7, 8, 10 for his career? That's just not good enough to warrant Hall of Fame induction.

More generally, if he was such an amazing shutdown guy, why did he play on a team notable for middling-poor defence in spite of having two of the best (maybe top 10?) goaltenders of the generation?

I could see some sort of argument based around him being handed the top assignments, difficult minutes, blah blah blah, but it better be convincing.

Hell, if we're just going to induct every name drop worthy player from the dynasty, you might as well put Semenko in based on how his teammates felt about his importance

 

[wetcoast]

Edit: To directly answer your question, the second worst Norris record of a HHOF defenseman who played after 1967 would be either Phil Housley or Sergei Zubov.

Both of these players obviously have more HHOF worthy resumes as well and it's not even really close that's how bad the Lowe induction is.

The committee members that voted for him should be hanging their heads in shame.

 

[wetcoast]

I have to give you credit for posting the silliest, most ill-informed thread in the history of this board and actually opening that post by saying that the thread you are responding to is silly and ill-informed.

We are through the looking glass, people...

I didn't read the whole thread but the post that you are quoting is just errrr..well like what you said it was.....

 

[wetcoast]

Yes, with Wilson in, Carlyle is the only eligible Norris winner not in. His win was before my time, but from the outside, it sure looks like he didn't deserve it.

Potvin probably deserved the Norris that year but it wasn't like Carlyle was a passenger on that horrible Pens team and was his Norris really any worse than the 2 Rod Langway received?

Carlyle won't make the HHOF as player but alot of that has to do with playing the Oilers/Glames in the first round of the playoffs .

I mean if he stays on the Pens how does he look in his 30's with some new guy named Mario on his team?

Also I don't think that it's clear at all that Lowe was really any better than Carlyle, can anyone really make a case for it?

I love Elias and think he's an easy HHOFer at some point, but he was no Hossa without the puck. If Elias was a good defensive player, Hossa was a great one.

Agree on this.

 

[overpass]

More generally, if he was such an amazing shutdown guy, why did he play on a team notable for middling-poor defence in spite of having two of the best (maybe top 10?) goaltenders of the generation?

I could see some sort of argument based around him being handed the top assignments, difficult minutes, blah blah blah, but it better be convincing.

Hell, if we're just going to induct every name drop worthy player from the dynasty, you might as well put Semenko in based on how his teammates felt about his importance

During Lowe’s first stint in Edmonton from 1979-80 to 1991-92, the Oilers allowed the third fewest goals per game in the playoffs of any team. 3.16 GA/game in 170 playoff games. Hardly middling to poor defensively.

NHL.com Stats

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Carbonneau at least has an exceptional Selke voting record, so he can have a claim to be elite at something.

Kevin Lowe is a Don Awrey or Terry Harper level guy. Good players you want to go to battle with, but that’s it.

Awrey never got a single All Star vote in his career, let alone a Norris vote. Harper finished 5th in his rookie year (behind Lapierre) and later finished 8th (tied with Lapierre but behind Tremblay).

 

[The Panther]

Yes, there are lots of reasons for Lowe not to be a Hall of Famer (like, everything about him, for starters), but the Oilers not being known as a defensive team is not one of them.

The Oilers from 1983 to 1990 were very capable of strong defensive play, as they showed many times, but it didn't generally work to their advantage to play a sit-back-and-wait style (for obvious reasons). The Oilers in that era were not a "normal" team where you can just look at GAA and make an evaluation of their team defense. There were numerous games every year in that period where the Oilers would build up, say, a 6-2 lead after two periods, and -- unlike most teams -- they would keep playing aggressively in the third, only now not caring about goals-against. In the third period, they'd often give up 2-on-1's and 3-on-1's (I even saw things like 2-on-0's quite often!), and sometimes Moog / Fuhr / Ranford would make the saves, and sometimes they wouldn't, but either way it didn't matter as the game was already won.

This is the typical kind of game that I'm talking about (in fact, they put in the AHL back-up goalie just to give him some work, since the game was effectively over four minutes into the second period): Philadelphia Flyers at Edmonton Oilers Box Score — March 4, 1988 | Hockey-Reference.com

If the Oilers had played like a normal team, the final score here would have been 6-2 or whatever instead of 7-4, and the team GAA would have reduced. But... does it matter? The point is to win the game.

Granted the Norris competition for team defence wasn't exactly strong in the 80s, this is how Edmonton ranked in defence in the old Campbell Conference (of 10 teams):
1984 - 2nd (tied)
1985 - 2nd
1986 - 3rd
1987 - 3rd
1988 - 2nd
1989 - 5th (I think they get a pass for this one as everyone was reeling from the Gretzky trade)
1990 - 3rd

And, as noted above, they could really turn the defense up a notch in the playoffs, notably in 1987 and 1988.

 

[Roo Returns]

Lowe should be in the Hall solo for the amount of chest hair he consistently showed in any jersey hey ever wore.

 

[slimbob8]

He's high on the list for sure. I hate how it's just a matter of time for anybody to eventually make it once you're nominated. Lowe's been retired for decades now. If he wasn't considered hall worthy before I dont see what's changed now to all of a sudden make him worthy. The guy had a great career for sure, but there's much, much more worthy players waiting that should be ahead of him in the queue.

 

[The Panther]

Lowe should be in the Hall solo for the amount of chest hair he consistently showed in any jersey hey ever wore.

He 'learned' to grow it from his defense-partner, Lee Fogolin:

Amusingly, when Lowe first entered the NHL in 1979, teammates called him 'Vicious' because they thought he looked like Sex Pistol Sid Vicious.

 

[Voight]

Potvin probably deserved the Norris that year but it wasn't like Carlyle was a passenger on that horrible Pens team and was his Norris really any worse than the 2 Rod Langway received?

Carlyle won't make the HHOF as player but alot of that has to do with playing the Oilers/Glames in the first round of the playoffs .

I mean if he stays on the Pens how does he look in his 30's with some new guy named Mario on his team?

Also I don't think that it's clear at all that Lowe was really any better than Carlyle, can anyone really make a case for it?




Agree on this.

I don't have an issue with either of Langways Norris'. Whats yours?

 

[The Panther]

I don't have an issue with either of Langways Norris'. Whats yours?

(Jumping in here.) I'm personally okay with Langway's first Norris for 1982-83 (though I have a feeling Mark Howe was better that season). But for 1983-84, I think Paul Coffey should have won it, or Ray Bourque.

 

[overpass]

I've pulled some quotes from the newspaper archives for people who want to understand what Kevin Lowe brought to the table.

February 6, 1982, Globe and Mail, Neil Campbell

And, when the money's on the line, it's usually Lowe and Lee Fogolin who get the vote of Oiler coach Glen Sather.

"It's been good for Fogey, too, because Kevin handles the puck so well," Sather says. "Fogey gives the puck to Kevin and then it's out of our end."

Defencemen on a team that puts as much emphasis on scoring goals as Edmonton carry a heavy load.

"We really have to concentrate on defence, more so than on a lot of teams, because we always have to be aware our forwards might be going in three deep," Lowe says. "On a lot of teams, it's automatic. The defencemen expect the forwards to come back. That's nothing against our forwards because that's the style they play and it works, but we have to be aware of it a lot."

Lowe grew up learning from watching Savard.

"My mom always used to think I played like Savard because my movements are slow and I try not to let things bother me on the ice. Savard plays the man well and plays defence but he isn't really physical. That's the type of defenceman I am."

Lowe was voted by the PHWA to the Campbell Conference all star team for the midseason 1984 all star game. Here are the Campbell conference midseason all star teams as voted by the writers. The remaining 8 slots on the team were picked by coaches.

1st team
John Ogrodnick - Wayne Gretzky - Jari Kurri
Paul Coffey - Rob Ramage
Murray Bannerman

Mark Messier - Marcel Dionne - Rick Vaive
Doug Wilson - Kevin Lowe
Grant Fuhr

In 1985, Lowe wasn't voted to the team by the writers, he was a coach's pick (by Glen Sather). In 1986 they replaced the writers voting with fan voting, and Lowe was either a fan vote or a coaches pick for the rest of his all star appearances.

Globe and Mail, April 25, 1984, Neil Campbell

In an era when coaches shuffle defence pairings and line combinations like a deck of cards, the Lowe-Fogolin combination is an anachronism.

And, playing for a team known for scoring goals, not preventing them, they are something of an anomaly.

In a sense, the partnership is almost as old as the Oilers' NHL history.

When Edmonton played its first NHL game, which also happened to be against the Hawks, they were the starting defence combinations. The forwards were Stan Weir, Dave Lumley and Dave Hunter.

But the partnership didn't really become permanent until March, 1981. Its performance in that spring's playoffs made it inseparable. "When we took New York Islanders to six games that spring, I don't think Fogey and I were on the ice for a goal against in the series," Lowe said. "We were pretty proud of that." The two fell into their roles quickly that first spring, with Lowe moving the puck and Fogolin providing the muscle. "I'm not the greatest puck-handler in the world, so Kevin handles the puck more in our end," Fogolin said. "I try to stand up more and force them to throw it in. "Nobody beats him in his own corner with the puck. He'll always beat that first man and get it up to the forwards."

...

At first, the Oilers hoped that Lowe would be an offensive threat, but the rookie quickly understood the role best suited to him. "As the team got better and evolved, I realized it wasn't necessary for me to carry the puck, so I was able to concentrate on the defensive part of my game." Lowe also evolved as he grew more confident in his abilities. He learned when and how to take risks and began using his body and blocking shots more.

In the Oilers' Smythe Division final against Calgary Flames, one of the toughest playoff series in recent memory, he used his stick and body in the manner of a Denis Potvin.

The strength of the partnership rests on the familiarity it breeds. Each partner knows how the other will deal with a situation almost before he does. "It seems as though, if I get caught on a two-on-one, he'll come up big and make the play to stop it," Fogolin said. "Or, if he gets caught pinching in, I'll make the play. "Playing with one another that long, you kind of know where the other guy's going to be. Instead of taking the split second to react and get there, we're already there." "We sort of have a thing going that, because we've wanted to stay together all along, when one guy screws up, the other guy works twice as hard to try to make up for him," Lowe said. "It becomes a personal thing."

After being voted a top four defenceman in his conference for the midseason all-star game in the 1983-84 season, Lowe went on to be one of the leading contenders for the 1984 Conn Smythe trophy.

Globe and Mail, May 19, 1984, Neil Campbell

The most valuable player in this spring's Stanley Cup playoffs almost certainly won't be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.

It is supposed to be the MVP that gets the trophy, but you would have to see more than the first four games of the final to appreciate Edmonton Oiler defenceman Kevin Lowe.

Traditionally, the panel of journalists that has selected the winner has opted for a member of the championship team.

Only three times in 19 springs has it gone to a member of the losing team in the final, which probably eliminates left winger Clark Gillies, who has scored a dozen goals and been the best New York Islander.

Never has it gone to a player on a team that didn't make the final, which eliminates Montreal Canadien goaltender Steve Penney.

That pretty much narrows the field to the Oilers, who should claim the title tonight, and makes Lowe, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr the logical favorites.

Messier probably will win it because the important goals he has scored in this series will stand out in the selectors' minds.

Messier's most notable goal was the one in the third game that tied the score 2-2. He faked defenceman Gord Dineen to the outside and then went in to blast an unstoppable shot past goalie Billy Smith.

However, Messier's ability to match the muscle of Islander centre Bryan Trottier probably has been more important than his scoring.

Messier also played well early in the Smythe Division final against Calgary Flames, but his play was uneven in other games this spring.

Fuhr probably would have been the favorite had injuries not kept him out of games in the Flame and Islander series.

When he did play, he established himself as one of the National Hockey League's best goaltenders.

He was responsible for at least two wins in each of the division and Campbell Conference finals and for the opening 1-0 decision over the Islanders.

As a stay-at-home defenceman, Lowe has made less tangible contributions. Nevertheless, he and defence partner Lee Fogolin were the notes of caution on a sometimes reckless team.

Game after game, he was the best Oiler defenceman, a steady player used in the most difficult situations, capable of directing the play in the style of a classic blueliner.

In some distant spring, when it is possible for his type of player to be a star, he may take the award. In 1984, it probably will go to Messier.

Lowe also played on the 1984 Canada Cup team, and was selected for the 1987 Canada Cup team but couldn't play due to injury.

Lowe's scoring stats really dropped off in 1984-85 and 1985-86 as he played more defensively. After his scoring bounced back, he said in the 1987-88 season that the coaches were asking him and the other defencemen to jump up in the play more and not stay back, especially after Paul Coffey left.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, January 14, 1988

Lowe's actually been a tower all season and the team statistics show it. The Oilers now have the fourth best defensive record in the NHL and goalie Grant Fuhr has three shutouts, more than any other netminder in the league.

It's quite a turnaround for the Stanley Cup champions - bar-the-door defence instead of run-and-gun offence.

And the Edmonton coaches give much of the credit to the Oiler's first choice in the 1979 entry draft.

Lowe's a shot-blocking cross between Hall of Famers Serge Savard and Bill Gadsby, says an appreciative coach Glen Sather.

Conceding that Paul Coffey's departure left a hole on the Oilers, Sather says Lowe more than responded to the pressure. "The load has fallen on Kevin and he's been great.
" People talk about defencemen around the league ... who's good and whatever ... and in my opinion he's been the most consistently good defenceman the last eight years. "

Oiler co-coach John Muckler doesn't wax quite so poetic but there's no shortage of praise. " I'd say he has a shot at the second all-star team. "

This is heady stuff for Lowe, who's been picked by general managers for two Canada Cup teams but virtually overlooked outside of Alberta for individual recognition. The 28-year-old from Lachute, Que., was for years overshadowed by the brilliance of Coffey, a two-time Norris Trophy winner now toiling for Pittsburgh.

Boston's Ray Bourque and Philadelphia's Mark Howe will likely be the blueliners on the year-end all-star team. But Lowe should be considered with Montreal's Chris Chelios, Coffey (if his knee gets better), the Ranger's James Patrick and Calgary's Gary Suter for the second team.

Lowe ended up finishing 5th in Norris and all-star voting for 1987-88, behind Bouque, Scott Stevens, Suter, and Brad McCrimmon. In the playoffs, Lowe famously played through broken ribs and a broken wrist. The article below has Lowe going more in depth about how he had previously played more defensively but now had to get more involved in the attack.

May 21, 1988, Toronto Star, Rick Matsumoto

Believe it or not, the Edmonton Oilers selected defenceman Kevin Lowe for his offensive skills.

He scored 26 goals and earned 60 assists in the 1978-79 season for Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. That was enough to entice the Oilers to make him their first-ever draft pick when they joined the National Hockey League in 1979.

It looked like a brilliant move when Lowe scored the team's first NHL goal on opening night.

"But I didn't score again until January," he said, smiling, as the Oilers prepared for last night's second game of the Stanley Cup final against the Boston Bruins at Northlands Coliseum.

Oilers won the first game of this year's final in a defensive struggle, 2-1, on Wednesday.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series goes tomorrow night at Boston Garden with the fourth game also slated for the Garden on Tuesday.

Those two goals, one in October and the other in January, were the only goals Lowe netted in his rookie season.

Since then he has scored 52 goals, including the nine he bagged this season. Those nine were the second most goals he has scored in a single season in his nine-year stint with the Oilers.

For Lowe, the change from a scoring defenceman to a kitty-bar- the-door rearguard came as the Oilers developed their high-octane attack around Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey.

"We'd be up three or four goals in the first period, so was it really necessary for me, a defenceman, to go up and score another goal?" he said. "Or was it better to stay back and prevent goals and protect that lead?"

The answer was obvious, and in the intervening years Lowe has become one of the NHL's premier defensive defencemen.

Lowe, who turned 29 last month, said the loss of the offensively high-powered Coffey has made it necessary for so-called defensive defencemen such as himself to become more involved in the attack this season.

"During the regular season I was more involved, but I've done less of it in the playoffs because of the cast," said Lowe, displaying the plaster casing on his left wrist, which he broke in late March.

"There's no doubt we all had the responsibility to move the puck a little better and try to add to the offensive thrust because Paul did that for not all, but a lot, of us."
Filling Coffey's shoes

Coffey, a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's top defenceman, was traded to Pittsburgh in December after sitting out two months of the season because of a contract dispute with the Oiler brass.

Gretzky, who synchronized so well with Coffey, admitted the forwards have had to make alterations to their play to compensate for the absence of the skilled defenceman.

"There's no one in the league who throws the long pass better than Paul Coffey," said Gretzky. "He can throw the puck from behind the net to centre ice and put it on your stick. He can move the puck real fast.

"We don't have that any more; we've lost that. You don't replace that. So we have to come back a little deeper and concentrate a little more on our own zone."

Gretzky said defencemen such as Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg and Craig Muni haven't had to change their styles much to compensate for Coffey's absence.

"They've become involved a little more in the offence, though," he admitted. "It's more of a five-man unit now. Some of those guys who used to stay back a lot more . . . well, we need them to get involved more in the offence because we don't have Paul or (Reijo) Ruotsalainen."

Lowe said the adjustment from a role of strictly preventing goals to that of helping to create scoring chances hasn't been that tough.

"In the playoffs I've always had pretty good success offensively," he said. "During the regular season I've stayed back a little more.

"It all has to do with our style of play. We're a little more wide open during the regular season, so it's a little more important for the defenceman to really concentrate on not getting caught."

Lowe pointed out that Oiler forwards often get caught deep in the other team's zone because of their offensive thrusts.

"Now if a defenceman gets caught, too, it creates a 3-on-1 or a 4- on-1 for the other team," he said.

The Oilers, partially because of the departure of Coffey, evolved into a more disciplined team in the regular season.

That, said Lowe, let the defence move up with the play and become more involved in the offence.

Globe and Mail, May 20, 1988, Trent Frayne

"Our discipline is surprising people," said (Gretzky). "It always does. Last year against Philadelphia everyone was surprised by our defence. It's the same now. But our defence is underrated. Kevin Lowe is very underrated. All the guys are. A player like Raymond Bourque attracts the attention so our guys are overlooked. But they aren't complaining, they're doing their job."

The 1988-89 Hockey News Yearbook included polls of NHL players on a variety of topics. NHL forwards were polled to name the best defensive defenceman and named Lowe along with Raymond Bourque, Scott Stevens, and Mike Ramsey.

January 6, 1990, Edmonton Journal, Ray Turchansky

For a decade now, Kevin Lowe - the would-be politician - has been the Edmonton Oiler most readily approached by the media when it comes to analysing the Oilers, the national debt or the closing of Keillor Road.

Often, the questions are not about himself, being a defensive defenceman and all.

This year things haven't changed much. The questions have been about his engagement to Olympic skiing medallist Karen Percy, his skiing ability (he has never skied) and the tough times of the Christmas Bureau of which he's honorary chairman.

Meanwhile, very quietly, Lowe has had a hallmark National Hockey League season, rewarded by his selection to play in the all-star game - "there must have been a lot of Edmonton people voting."

Despite taking cortisone shots in his shoulder, Lowe has been among the top half-dozen Oiler point-getters most of the season.

With 23 points in the first half of the season, Lowe is on the verge of surpassing his totals of 24 and 25 the last two seasons, and of beating his career high of 46 in the 1983-84 season.

"It's just one of those years," said Lowe. "I've been lucky in the sense I have been giving the puck to guys who have been scoring.

"I can't put my finger on it. But the last couple of years I've tried to get up in the play, it's what the coaches want."

He was an offensive player with the junior Quebec Remparts, but changed his style when he was made the Oilers first-ever NHL draft pick.

"You've got to find your spot. It was the type of job that was open. There's very few defencemen that can play offensively in this league."

In midseason 1990, Lowe was again named as one of the top defensive defencemen in a poll of NHL players. 14 of 123 players named Lowe, behind only Mike Ramsey and Brad McCrimmon. However, Lowe injured his back in the latter part of the 1990 season and struggled to stay in the lineup at times during the playoffs as the Oilers won the Cup.

Lowe went on to have a subpar 1990-91 season, in part because his back continued to trouble him, and he was a step slow. But he bounced back with an improved 1991-92 season as he took the captaincy with the departure of Mark Messier.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, January 12, 1992

Now, however, his Oiler career is at a crossroads.

It has nothing to do with his play, either. Lowe has rebounded from a bad 1990-91 season when people started whispering that he had lost a step. ''He's our best defenceman,'' said Oiler assistant coach Ron Low.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, May 24, 1992

What does it say when the two best Edmonton Oiler skaters in the Campbell Conference final are the team's two oldest players?

It says more about Kevin Lowe's and Craig MacTavish's heart and soul than their birth certificates.

If you noticed carefully, Chicago coach Mike Keenan went out of his way after every Blackhawk win in their four-game sweep to salute Lowe and MacTavish, leaving the distinct feeling he would like to borrow both guys for the Stanley Cup final.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, April 17, 1994

Kevin Lowe once played six weeks with broken ribs hidden by a flak jacket during an Edmonton Oiler Stanley Cup run in the late '80s. So what's a sprained wrist?

"I was talking to my mom the other day and she said, `Have you ever played in the playoffs and not been hurt?' " the New York Ranger said.

Lowe missed five of the last six league games after falling on the wrist against New Jersey the day before Easter but he'll be there today with a splint on the wrist.

He was shooting pucks at practice Saturday and he'll partner Sergei Zubov when the Rangers begin their quest for the Cup, something that's eluded them for 54 years. He's the only Ranger with any health problems.

Lowe's brother Ken, the Oilers trainer who'll work with Team Canada at the worlds, rolled his eyes as he thought of his mother's medical analysis. "She's right. Let's see, when he was here he had the rib injury, a fractured wrist, the rotator cuff, the bad groin. It's the wear and tear after all those years."

Kevin, who turned 35 Friday, has also had three concussions, three that he's reported to the medical staff anyway.

"In college football in the States if you get three, you can't play anymore," said Ken. The latest one was when Vancouver's Sergei Momesso belted him.

"He said it happened because he was trying out new skates. . . . Yea, sure," laughed Ken.

The problem is Lowe's paper-thin helmet.

June, 6, 1994, Montreal Gazette, Red Fisher

Say hello to Lowe, who yesterday spent an uncommon amount of time in the medical room for treatment on the shoulder he separated in Game 7 of the Rangers-New Jersey series.

"That's second degree, not first," said Keenan quietly. (A first- degree separation normally keeps a player on the sidelines for 10 days. Second degree could be as long as a month.)

On Saturday, Leetch and his frozen shoulder earned and deserved a No. 1 rating with his two goals and five of the Rangers' 25 shots. On the other hand, while it's possible that hardly anybody noticed, other than the Rangers and Canucks, Lowe, born in Lachute more than 35 years ago, was No. 1a.

And some comments from Edmonton journalists on Lowe's retirement in 1998.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, July 31, 1998

He faced things head on -- scribes and slapshots. Was there ever a player who blocked more shots than Lowe?

His No. 4 should be hanging from the Coliseum rafters in a ceremony this fall but as long as Wayne Gretzky keeps playing, Oilers GM Glen Sather can't do it. For now, we'll never see No. 4 on anybody else. That's the way it should be.

Lowe should also be following Sather into the Hockey Hall of Fame too but he has an uphill fight. He never racked up points like former teammate Paul Coffey. But he did win six Stanley Cups and played 1,468 career games.

"Sure, I think Kevin should be in the hall of fame some day," said Colin Campbell, now Gary Bettman's second-in-command at the NHL home office. "He was a lot like Bob Gainey as a player."

Lowe, who scored the Oilers' first NHL goal, was the soul of the Oilers. He played hard and he always played hurt.

Nobody ever played as doggedly with three broken ribs on his left side and a busted hand as Lowe in the 1988 Oiler Stanley Cup drive. He had a cast on his hand and a flak jacket to guard the ribs.

"I didn't even know about the ribs until one day in practice in the second game of the finals when I asked him why his sweater was so big," said Gretzky.

Lowe always soldiered on, thoroughly dependable.

"In all those Islanders-Oilers games, I thought Kevin was the guy who really held the Oiler defence together," said former Islanders star Mike Bossy. "He wasn't a Paul Coffey certainly but Kevin was their leader.

"You always knew he would take somebody out of the play; he'd take a hit; he'd block a shot. He never played on the fringes."

Mark Spector, Edmonton Journal, July 31, 1998

Ironically, there is no freeze frame moment that will stay forever in the minds of anyone who watched Lowe's career. Moreso a collection of fairly innocuous moments, really.

Or big moments made forgettable by a last-second check, or a shot deflected into the seats. For 19 seasons, four with the New York Rangers, Lowe's value was tallied in pucks that cracked off his shin pad in the dying seconds of a game.

Remember how the Chicago Blackhawks used to come storming out for the first 10 minutes in old Chicago Stadium? Lowe's steady game would help carry Edmonton to a scoreless draw through 10 minutes, and once the emotion of Wayne Messmer's Star Spangled Banner had worn off, Gretzky, Messier et al usually pounded the Blackhawks the rest of the way in.

"Kevin was never getting the headlines or setting the records for scoring goals," GM Glen Sather said Thursday. "He was the consummate team guy who helped keep everything together when things got a little bit scratchy.

"He leads with his heart, and he led a lot of those players. And I'm talking about Wayne, Mark, Jari, all of them. He was a guy who did a lot of great things for this hockey team."

Sure, there were many, many games won on the backs of Gretzky and Messier in those years. But many of the big goals in close, crucial games were preceded by stretches of play when Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier, or Rick Tocchet and Tim Kerr, had the puck and couldn't score.

That was the frightening quality of those dynasty teams: behind the league's best offence was its best goalie and perhaps its best defence, anchored by Lowe.

 

[Staniowski]

I've pulled some quotes from the newspaper archives for people who want to understand what Kevin Lowe brought to the table.

February 6, 1982, Globe and Mail, Neil Campbell


Lowe was voted by the PHWA to the Campbell Conference all star team for the midseason 1984 all star game. Here are the Campbell conference midseason all star teams as voted by the writers. The remaining 8 slots on the team were picked by coaches.

1st team
John Ogrodnick - Wayne Gretzky - Jari Kurri
Paul Coffey - Rob Ramage
Murray Bannerman

Mark Messier - Marcel Dionne - Rick Vaive
Doug Wilson - Kevin Lowe
Grant Fuhr

In 1985, Lowe wasn't voted to the team by the writers, he was a coach's pick (by Glen Sather). In 1986 they replaced the writers voting with fan voting, and Lowe was either a fan vote or a coaches pick for the rest of his all star appearances.

Globe and Mail, April 25, 1984, Neil Campbell


After being voted a top four defenceman in his conference for the midseason all-star game in the 1983-84 season, Lowe went on to be one of the leading contenders for the 1984 Conn Smythe trophy.

Globe and Mail, May 19, 1984, Neil Campbell


Lowe also played on the 1984 Canada Cup team, and was selected for the 1987 Canada Cup team but couldn't play due to injury.

Lowe's scoring stats really dropped off in 1984-85 and 1985-86 as he played more defensively. After his scoring bounced back, he said in the 1987-88 season that the coaches were asking him and the other defencemen to jump up in the play more and not stay back, especially after Paul Coffey left.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, January 14, 1988


Lowe ended up finishing 5th in Norris and all-star voting for 1987-88, behind Bouque, Scott Stevens, Suter, and Brad McCrimmon. In the playoffs, Lowe famously played through broken ribs and a broken wrist. The article below has Lowe going more in depth about how he had previously played more defensively but now had to get more involved in the attack.

May 21, 1988, Toronto Star, Rick Matsumoto


Globe and Mail, May 20, 1988, Trent Frayne


The 1988-89 Hockey News Yearbook included polls of NHL players on a variety of topics. NHL forwards were polled to name the best defensive defenceman and named Lowe along with Raymond Bourque, Scott Stevens, and Mike Ramsey.

January 6, 1990, Edmonton Journal, Ray Turchansky


In midseason 1990, Lowe was again named as one of the top defensive defencemen in a poll of NHL players. 14 of 123 players named Lowe, behind only Mike Ramsey and Brad McCrimmon. However, Lowe injured his back in the latter part of the 1990 season and struggled to stay in the lineup at times during the playoffs as the Oilers won the Cup.

Lowe went on to have a subpar 1990-91 season, in part because his back continued to trouble him, and he was a step slow. But he bounced back with an improved 1991-92 season as he took the captaincy with the departure of Mark Messier.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, January 12, 1992


Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, May 24, 1992


Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, April 17, 1994


June, 6, 1994, Montreal Gazette, Red Fisher


And some comments from Edmonton journalists on Lowe's retirement in 1998.

Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal, July 31, 1998


Mark Spector, Edmonton Journal, July 31, 1998

These quotes accurately describe how the hockey world felt about Lowe at the time...he always seemed like the anchor and leader, and "soul", of the Oilers.

Lowe's prominence on the Oilers, and his importance to the team, was probably roughly the same as Bob Gainey and Serge Savard (who are mentioned) on the Canadiens. And Lowe's game did have some similarities to Savard's....but some significant differences too.

None of this is to say that people have to agree with Lowe's induction to the Hall, though.

--------------------

It's interesting that the Globe article identifies Lowe as being deserving of the Conn Smythe in '84, and also mentions that Messier will probably win it, and also mentions Fuhr (and Clark Gillies, and Steve Penney), but doesn't mention Gretzky...unless this is only part of the article.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

Lowe easily the worst defenseman inducted in nearly 35 years.

I'm honestly not sure that he was a weaker overall player than Phil Housley.

I don't know if I'm quite there- but it's possible for a reasonable person to hold these two positions simultaneously:
1) Housley is a weaker overall player than Kevin Lowe
2) Kevin Lowe is a more incomprehensible Hall of Fame induction than Housley.

If his career didn't fall off a cliff, I'd say Subban would actually be trending in a HHOF direction. But it did fall off that cliff.

It's possible that some future HoF Committeemen might decide that the free-fall doesn't even matter to them. It's kind of frightening to consider the possibility.

Seabrook is who I thought of too as a contemporary example of a "contextual" great who was a lesser piece on a multi championship team. Even if he wasn't an individually outstanding player, there's something to be recognized as a fixture on those legendary teams.

Yes- there absolutely IS something to be said for being such a player. You get your name carved on The Cup a few times- and know that it's there because you were a contributor, and not just a fellow-passenger. Maybe you get your name framed on your team's "Wall of Fame" or "Walk of Fame" or whatever-the-Hell place-of-honor is reserved for the "belovèds" of that team's fan-base. When in town, you never have to buy a beer with your own money ever again, if you don't want to. That's the level of recognition such a player deserves to get- not anything more than that...

Is it just me or does Lowe have a better case than Hossa?

(out of 5) on the beclownage-meter, and would typically take the biscuit comfortably in any normal thread-- but in this thread, the competition is just too tough...

Guys like Guy Lapointe and Doug Harvey are deservedly in the Hall of Fame and Lowe was that player in his era.

+ and the beclownage-meter was broken and had to be dispatched for repairs.

 

[Moose Head]

Awrey never got a single All Star vote in his career, let alone a Norris vote. Harper finished 5th in his rookie year (behind Lapierre) and later finished 8th (tied with Lapierre but behind Tremblay).

Not sure what your point is here.

My point was that those guys were very solid defensive 2nd pairing guys who played on great teams. Lowe for whatever reason has always been considered more than that and it came through in the Norris trophy voting. He wasn’t more than them. Hell, Ken Morrow was a better defensive dman than Lowe and I don’t see anyone clamouring to get him into the Hall.

People were just mesmerized that an Oiler was dedicated to defensive play, lol

 

[Roo Returns]

He 'learned' to grow it from his defense-partner, Lee Fogolin:

Amusingly, when Lowe first entered the NHL in 1979, teammates called him 'Vicious' because they thought he looked like Sex Pistol Sid Vicious.

Gary Oldman playing Kevin Lowe? I'd buy that for a dollar.

 

[overpass]

It's interesting that the Globe article identifies Lowe as being deserving of the Conn Smythe in '84, and also mentions that Messier will probably win it, and also mentions Fuhr (and Clark Gillies, and Steve Penney), but doesn't mention Gretzky...unless this is only part of the article.

No, the article didn’t mention Gretzky. It is an interesting omission.

Keep in mind it was written before the final game, where Gretzky scored 2 goals and 1 assist.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I just realized that wait a minute, if Kevin Lowe is in the Hall then Adam Foote and Derian Hatcher can totally be in the Hall too lol they were better dmen.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

I just realized that wait a minute, if Kevin Lowe is in the Hall then Adam Foote and Derian Hatcher can totally be in the Hall too lol they were better dmen.

To be honest, Hatcher in the Hall wouldn't be the worst thing

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Hell, Ken Morrow was a better defensive dman than Lowe and I don’t see anyone clamouring to get him into the Hall.

Maybe because he only played 3 seasons of more than 70 games. Only 7 seasons of more than 35 games.

 

[JianYang]

Lowe should be in the Hall solo for the amount of chest hair he consistently showed in any jersey hey ever wore.

I raise you Dave Babych.

 

[Roo Returns]

I raise you Dave Babych.

That guy looked like he was 45 in entire career. Wow, was a rookie before I was born and 33 during the 1994 SCF which is six years younger than me now and although even with my covid beard, he still looks older than me.

 

[Moose Head]

Maybe because he only played 3 seasons of more than 70 games. Only 7 seasons of more than 35 games.

Jeez, Lowe played a lot of games. More than double Morrow. At his best He must have been better.

A lot of two way dmen played a lot more games than Orr. They must have been better!

 

[Michael Farkas]

That guy looked like he was 45 in entire career. Wow, was a rookie before I was born and 33 during the 1994 SCF which is six years younger than me now and although even with my covid beard, he still looks older than me.

Seriously. Dave Babych was drafted for his veteran leadership...