A few more tidbits on Lehman:
@ResilientBeast posted more contemporary opinions on him than I ever could have. So I'll just post two quickies:
1) The 1925 MacLean's All-Time All-Star list
Here's a copy to the original article:
All-Star, All-Time Canadian Hockey Team | Maclean's | March 15, 1925
Note that the voters were basically a who's who of hockey insiders at the time.
Georges Vezina was 1st Team. Percy LeSueur was 2nd Team. Hugh Lehman and Clint Benedict were tied for 3rd team.
Two things should be noted about the article:
a) The final vote count clearly put "old-timers" like LeSueur on the same footing as "modern" players. We had this discussion when Russell Bowie finished 2nd to Nighbor, ahead of Lalonde. In fact, there were some voters who filled out separate ballots for the two different generations and had them both counted.
b) The only major criticism of the final list by contemporary press came from western papers complaining that it was biased against western players. Among goalies, this would only affect Lehman.
2) His legacy - by the 1930s, for Charlie Gardiner to be "the best ever," the Lehman was 1 the 2 commonly thought of then-GOAT goalies
When researching Charlie Gardiner about 10 years ago, I was taken by the fact that when writers were discussing whether Gardiner was "the greatest goalie of all-time," he was generally compared to two men - Georges Vezina and Hugh Lehman.
Here's one example:
Wes Champ - President of the Regina vics after returning from watching 2 games of the Stanley Cup playoff series:
"Charlie Gardiner is the greatest goalkeeper hockey fans ever saw.
...
Gardiner is even better than Hughie Lehman, known as "Eagle Eye' was in his prime, and the way he comes out of his goal - sometimes as much as 15 feet - just breaks the hearts of opposing sharpshooters."
Sure, some of this could be Western Bias. Clint Benedict and Georges Vezina would be easy to compare for fans of Eastern hockey, but Lehman would have been the choice of
Western fans.
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Anyway, Lehman is an easy #1 for me this round. Probably should have gone close to Clint Benedict. DEFINITELY should have gone in the realm of Tony Esposito and Roy Worters.
Every weakness Lehman may have had in the playoffs, Tony Esposito had, and Lehman actually did win the Cup as a starter (albeit on a fairly stacked team).