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Brian Leetch, LD
2x Norris Trophy winner
2x First All-Star Team
3x Second All-Star Team
1x Conn Smythe Trophy winner
Top 100 NHL Player
Norris Trophy Voting: 1 ('92), 1 ('97), 3 ('96), 4 ('91), 5 ('94), 5 ('01), 8 ('99), 9 ('02), 11 ('04)
All-Star Team Voting: 1 ('92), 1 ('97), 3 ('96), 4 ('91), 4 ('94), 5 ('01), 7 ('89), 7 ('02), 8 ('95) 8 ('99), 11 ('04)
NHL Stats
1028 points in 1205 NHL GP
97 points in 95 NHL playoff GP, x1 Stanley Cup winner
5x Top 10 Assists: 3, 6, 7, 8, 9
1x Top 10 Points: 9
Defensemen Scoring Placements: 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 13
Defensemen VS #2 Scores: 119, 115, 111, 104, 96, 95, 95, 94, 94, 93, 89, 88, 62
Team Scoring Placements: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6
International Stats
13 points in 16 Olympic GP
4 points in 7 Canada Cup GP
8 points in 12 World Cup GP
Leetch was the captain and best skater on the 1996 US team that won the World Cup.
Career Retrospectives
NHL Top 100 Player Profile
People around hockey were always more impressed with Leetch than he ever was with himself.
"His skating ability was ridiculous," former NHL forward and United States teammate Bill Guerin said. "It was effortless. He could glide across the ice. His hands and legs would be going in different directions. He could pass the puck in stride, and laser-beam a puck across the ice on your tape."
…
"Smooth is the perfect word I would use to describe Leetch," said NBC Sports analyst Ed Olczyk, also a member of the Rangers' 1994 championship team. "He did everything at the same level. He could skate you out of trouble as well as any defenseman I've played with or against skating."
At 19, Leetch was the most skilled player on the United States Olympic team at the 1988 Games in Calgary.
"So much poise and control," said USA Hockey general manager Jim Johannson, who played on that team. "He probably had the best agility of anyone I've ever played with. He had a precision that no one also did."
...His signature move was a swivel-hip, side-to-side, shake-and-bake, which often ended with Leetch moving smartly around his opponent. He left many opposing players in his wake.
"He was a different type of puck-moving defenseman," Smith said. "He didn't race up ice like Paul Coffey or Bobby Orr. It never became all about Leetch where you wondered if he would go coast-to-coast and score, although he did do that at times. But once he got the puck the other team was in trouble. We were going to for sure get it out of our zone, and most likely we were going to end up with a scoring chance, even if he started in our zone."
…"He had the ability to go in whatever direction he wanted to go at the drop of a dime," Smith said. "He could avoid so much contact because of that ability."
It wasn't as if he was worried about getting waylaid by heavy hitting.
"He wasn't the slightest bit afraid," Smith said.
Smith said Leetch's offensive flair overshadowed the reality that he was always a dependable defensive player. Another gift he had was a superhuman-like ability to recover quickly from his shifts. He could play more minutes than anyone else on the team because he could regain his normal breathing pattern so quickly.
That was important, Smith said, because "we wanted him on the ice in all situations."
Greatest Hockey Legends
The key to Leetch's game was always his mobility and vision. He was a terrific skater and stickhandler. Everyone marveled at how he could sidestep the league's best forecheckers and make a great breakout pass, often creating something out of nothing. He was a good rusher too, and manned a power play point as good as anyone. Defensively he overcame relatively small size with impeccable timing and positioning. He was never adverse to the physical game either. He truly was one of the all time great defensemen.
Newspaper quotes through Leetch's career
Frank Brown, Daily News, Feb 2, 1992
“Brian is so laid back,” says ex-Ranger Bernie Nicholls, “that there could be a war going on outside and it wouldn’t bother him.”
On the ice, it is different. On the ice, Brian Leetch is a waiter at brunch, dodging and darting and weaving and hustling through the commotion without spilling a drop of steaming coffee. On offense, he sweeps and swerves and commands respect. On defense, there is an authority to him; it is as though he already knows your plans if you have the puck.
…On the ice, he is completely in control. All of him is there for all to see. There may not be a defenseman in the league who can keep the puck in the zone as well at the left point. There may not be a defenseman in the league willing to chance splitting the opposing defense and scoring a goal as Leetch will if the chance avails.
“The way he is on the ice seems to be the way he is as a person,” says his partner, Jeff Beukeboom. “He’s very in control.
“On the ice, it seems like whatever he does is so effortless,” Beukeboom continued. “Some guys, when they play, it’s push, push, push. It seems with him, he was just born to be a hockey player, and he’s just doing what his destiny is.”
New York Times, Dec 12, 1993
For most of his career, Leetch's incredible playmaking talent has earned him carte blanche on the ice. That's not so with Keenan around. Keenan has dramatically altered Leetch's role in the Rangers' system. Leetch is still expected to be the offensive catalyst on the power play. And he is expected to initiate plays. But he is also expected to play defense. And in five-on-five situations, he is expected to be patient, and conservative, and, if necessary, play the dreaded dump and chase.
"Brian has played exceptionally well in the last 20 games at least," Keenan said. "The thing that probably stands out most of all is that he's been playing excellent defensive hockey, especially one on one. We look at him to create offense, of course, but his one-on-one play and his penalty killing have been exceptional."
Leetch acknowledges that Keenan's instructions have made him a better all-round player, even if he's not particularly fond of the change. There are times when he gets the puck and aches to rush up ice, but knows he's not allowed. There are other times, though, when he looks at the team's record, and the balanced scoring, and can only feel good about what has happened this fall.
Frank Brown, quoted from The Post-Star, June 6, 1994
It doesn't matter how many people are in the rink or how much noise they are making. A moment will come in a game when Brian Leetch sees an opportunity and a little siren will sound a signal that you better watch him, because Brian Leetch is about to do something very special.
Sometimes Mark Messier will be holding the puck at the boards, a prize he has pulled out of a scrum and you almost can hear him saying, "Leetchie ... GO!" And Leetch, watching from the left point a few feet away, simply will jolt into action at top speed, because Leetch knows Messier will get the puck to him and Leetch also knows he can get back into position if Messier, by some accident, does not get him the puck.
And by the time Leetch has powered into the open, it is way too late for the other team, which was studying the puck when it should have been listening for that alarm to go off.
It happened again Saturday night, another night when Brian Leetch gave even more than you thought anyone could have when he helped give the Rangers a 5-1 triumph and more victories than they have had in any playoff since 1972.
Frank Brown, New York Daily News, June 6, 1994
Michael Jordan was no less great a player before his Chicago Bulls won an NBA title; that he carried a team up those last few steps of the mountain before the eyes of the entire basketball world merely validated the claims of greatness made for him. The same was true of Mario Lemieux before he helped the Pittsburgh Penguins take that journey: It didnt matter how many hundred points Lemieux scored in the regular season, how many plays he made to haul you out of your seat Doing it in the playoffs, under the harshest glare of the brightest spotlight, is what was needed for certification.
Brian Leetch is making that step now, striding forward and upward and making the Stanley Cup Finals his personal property. He is doing what you have been watching for so long in New York, but something the rest of the world has not had the opportunity to see.
…Colin Campbell played defense for the Canucks the last time Vancouver was in the Stanley Cup Finals. Mike Bossy, an opponent, dominated that series; this time, Brian Leetch is a player he coaches. "All year long and throughout the playoffs, the thing that's astounded me about Brian's game is his strength, physically, with the ice time he's getting, and how he can still throw a check in the third period or get in a one-on-one confrontation when the guy's trying to put the puck through his feet and still challenge the guy physically," Campbell said. "Most offensive defensemen, at that point, try and make it a puck game, instead of a physical game. That's one area where Brian's game has improved dramatically. And that's a giant step forward.
Brian makes the odd mistake and you ' kind of get mad and you forget that when you play 35 minutes a game, you're bound to have the odd puck bounce on you or the odd decision blow up in your face. But when you look at his ice time, and the chances to score that he generates and the chances against, it's incredible."
Cole, Cam. Edmonton Journal; Edmonton, Alta. [Edmonton, Alta]. 06 June 1994: D1.
Even when Canucks coach Pat Quinn starts mentioning Leetch in the same breath as Orr, as he did Sunday, your first reaction is: he's just blowing smoke, trying to inflate the opposition's sense of self-importance.
"Leetch is much better than I thought he was," Quinn said. "We were aware of his offensive skills, because his numbers reflect that, but he's clearly much better in leading the play and defending than I expected him to be. He's made very few mistakes defensively. He breaks up a lot of plays and steers it back the other way as quickly as any defenceman I've ever seen."
But Pat, we say, you played against Orr. You remember, goading him into fights, making him so mad he once took off his glove and threw it at you? Wasn't he the greatest ever?
"They're different players," said Quinn, chuckling. "Bob was a guy who could take it end-to-end at any time. You don't see Leetch do that as much, but he's better at jumping into (offensive) holes. I think he's better defensively (than Orr). He plays it more conventionally as a face-up defenceman. He breaks up more plays at his blue-line than Orr did. Orr usually took it off you after . . . well, he never took it off me because I never got that far with it."
And suddenly, you realize: he means it.
This isn't your standard Stanley Cup hype-induced testimonial, it is becoming a widely-shared belief.
There is a former NHL defenceman who is bound for the Hall of Fame who says that the three Norris Trophy candidates this year - Raymond Bourque, Al MacInnis, and Scott Stevens - could pool their skills and the composite wouldn't be as good as Brian Leetch.
No one on Quinn's team has been quite that complimentary, but so far in this Stanley Cup final, Leetch, who has eight screws in his left ankle and six in his right, has put them all to the Canucks.
The 26-year-old navy brat born in Corpus Christi, Tex., scored two goals in the Rangers 5-1 victory in Game 3, and has three goals and two assists in the final already, but what's really stunned those observers who had come to think of Brian Leetch as a talented, injury-prone, one-way player, is the tenacity of his defence.
The Edmonton Oilers had a talented, one-way player named Paul Coffey who we dared to mention in the same breath as Bobby Orr simply because he was on his way to passing Orr as the highest-scoring defenceman in the history of the game.
But the Rangers who knew Coffey best - Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Kevin Lowe - say Leetch is better.
"I've never seen a defenceman move on his feet the way he does," said Anderson, whose own skating stride has been the subject of instructional videos. "Coffey's more a glider and a power strider. Brian can change direction like Bure, Fedorov and Kovalev. He can turn on a dime and go in the other direction."
"Leetchie is dominating games the way the greats have done," said Messier.
"Coff had the great straight-ahead, blow-you-away speed," said Lowe. "Leetchie's a little more manoeuvrable. Coff would snap that great long pass to spring somebody or stand at the blue-line and flick a hard, accurate pass to Gretz at the corner of the net . . . but Leetch is just liable to beat three or four guys and then lay a pass right on the tape to somebody on the other side of the ice."
Luba, Frank. The Province; Vancouver, B.C. [Vancouver, B.C]. 06 June 1994: A40.
Everyone in hockey knows Brian Leetch can score.
But the Stanley Cup spotlight has revealed that the New York Rangers star who moonlights as an offensive threat is also outstanding at his day job -- playing defence.
Sure, the Broadway blueliner is tied for the playoff scoring lead with Toronto centre Doug Gilmour (both have 28 points) and he's set a flock of club post-season scoring records. But he's also leading in plus-minus (plus-23) and has defensively surprised the Rangers' Cup opposition, the Canucks.
"We're aware of his offensive skills because he's kept scoring and his numbers certainly prove it, but he's clearly much better at reading the play and defending than I expected him to be," Canucks head coach and general manager Pat Quinn said of Leetch.
"He breaks up a lot of plays and steers it back the other way very, very quickly -- as quickly as I've ever seen a defenceman do it," added Quinn.
Pap, Elliott. The Vancouver Sun; Vancouver, B.C. [Vancouver, B.C]. 09 June 1994: D1.
The Vancouver Canucks' game plan was to get physical with Brian Leetch.
Throw the puck in his corner, bump the New York Ranger marvel at every opportunity and try to grind him down. Alas, the Canucks are discovering you can't hit what you can't catch.
"He has such tremendous speed and if you're not watching him the whole time, he'll blow by you and all of a sudden he's in the play,'' Canuck centre John McIntyre said Wednesday, 24 hours after he became another Leetch victim on New York's first goal in the 4-2 Ranger win Tuesday.
"What we have to do with him is what we've done with Mark Messier, or Doug Gilmour in the other series, and that is to make sure we get a stick on him. Because he's a defenceman, you're not always facing him or swinging with him and then he sneaks up behind you. We'll have to make sure we have eyes in the back of our heads and help each other out.''
Leetch's sublime four-point performance was still the hot topic Wednesday as the teams winged their way here for Game 5 tonight. The Rangers, of course, will be looking to polish off the Canucks and win their first Stanley Cup since 1940. If they do, Leetch will likely be the toast of the ticker-tape parade.
"Leetch is making big play after big play and we haven't been able to keep him off the board,'' acknowledged Canuck boss Pat Quinn. ``Right from day one, we wanted the puck in his corner and wanted him to handle it as much as possible. We wanted to have some contact with him if nothing else but to tire him out. But it seems he's been indefatigable and he's risen to the occasion.
"He's been their best player by a big margin.''
McDONALD, ARCHIE. The Vancouver Sun; Vancouver, B.C. [Vancouver, B.C]. 15 June 1994: D2.
Leetch, who was born in Texas but grew up in hockey-happy New England, was selected by a panel of hockey writers. It was an easy decision.
He scored the Rangers' first goal Tuesday night and led all scorers in the playoffs with 11 goals and 23 assists. His 34 points are second in playoff history to the 37 accumulated by Paul Coffey of Edmonton Oilers in 1985.
His most amazing statistic, however, is that he was on the ice for 61 of the 81 goals the Rangers scored in the playoffs, including all three markers last night.
...The Canucks appeared to be getting to him when they won Games 5 and 6, but he turned in a solid performance in Game 7 and was notably effective when matched against the Canucks' quicksilver Pavel Bure.
"You need players of that calibre to make a difference, and he made a big difference,'' said Rangers' coach Mike Keenan.
Unlike the Canucks whose defencemen received relatively equal playing time, Leetch was the wheel horse for the Rangers. ``His stamina was amazing,'' said Keenan. ``In one overtime game he played 52 minutes.''
"He's the best two-way defenceman in the NHL today,'' said teammate Adam Graves. ``He threw some of the best hip checks I've ever seen. He's quiet, but he works very hard. He's probably the best-conditioned athlete on the team.''
New York Times, Feb 26, 1996
Coach Colin Campbell of the Rangers does not use the word superstar frivolously. That is why he calls defenseman Brian Leetch a near superstar. But Campbell is clearly convinced that Leetch can supplant Boston's Ray Bourque as the National Hockey League's next great defenseman.
"I think Brian Leetch can grab the torch," the coach said. "In my opinion, he is the premier defenseman in the league. Among his great strengths is his recovery rate after shifts and his ability to play a lot of hockey and thrive on it."
...And he is among New York's most effective penalty killers.
There is only one thing left on Campbell's wish list when it comes to Leetch: consistency.
"He did things that we needed him to do," Campbell said. "The down low, the hard, the penalty kills, the battling. And it all came against a hard, tough team."
John Dellapina, Daily News, Sep 29, 1996
“I realize Wayne and Mark are great players and very popular guys,” coach Colin Campbell said. “But with all due respect, we have two guys who were the two best players in the World Cup and it was not Wayne and Mark. It was Brian Leetch and Mike Richter.”
One is arguably the best defenseman in the game—if not then indisputably among the top three. The other has few peers when it comes to big-time, big-game goaltending. They are the motor and anchor of a Rangers team that won’t have had a successful voyage this season unless it ferries home a Stanley Cup.
Jim Matheson, The Province, Oct 19, 1997
He had 34 points to lead everybody in the '94 playoffs. He's got 650 points in 649 career games and another 89 in 77 playoff games. Nobody plays defence any better and today he's wearing the captain's C that Messier left behind when he joined the Vancouver Canucks.
Teammates say New York Rangers new captain Brian Leetch may be quiet, but he is one of their biggest leaders on the ice. Leetch has picked up two Norris trophies in his career. behind when he joined the Vancouver Canucks.
"He's a great leader," said teammate Wayne Gretzky. "Mark used to tell me before I came to New York that Brian was one of the greatest players he'd ever played with because of his talent and because he plays hard. "Brian has a tremendous amount of respect in the locker room as a player and a per son. You don't need to be a rah-rah guy to be a leader. A lot of times guys get the C and they do change, but he's the same guy."
The Journal-News, Oct 27, 1998
The Rangers insist there is no break and that Leetch will play tonight against Buffalo. However, he has not yet had X-rays taken.
But this is Brian Leetch, who played the last two rounds of the 1994 playoffs with one functioning shoulder (and won the Conn Smythe Trophy), played the 1996 playoffs with a foot that was broken, played the last part of the '97 playoffs and most of the 1997-98 season with damaged cartilage in his wrist, and has played before with a broken bone in his foot and a broken finger.
Stevens Point Journal, Dec 12, 1998
But Graves disputes the idea that Leetch's game is skating downhill. He feels that the numbers are not the best way to gauge what Leetch, the team's captain, means to the Rangers.
"When you talk about Brian Leetch, you talk about the cornerstone of the organization," Graves says. "He is a leader in every aspect of the game. You are talking about a guy who single-handedly can control the pace of the game, control every aspect of the game." Rangers coach John Muckler also feels that Leetch has not lost anything from his best years.
"He is every bit as good as a player as he was before," Muckler says of Leetch, a two-time U.S. Olympian. "He is a horse: He plays the most minutes on the team. He is a great leader; he's a winner. He competes every night, regardless of how the game is going. "I don't know what we would do without him. Brian Leetch is Brian Leetch, and that's pretty good."
The Record, Dec 16, 1998
In the past, shutting down the opposition's top offensive line was somebody else's responsibility. Now, when Eric Lindros and Jaromir Jagr jump on the ice, so does Leetch. That additional duty, along with his usual power-play and penalty-killing shifts, has increased his ice time to more than 30 minutes per game.
Not surprisingly, he's risen to the challenge. The same natural talent that's enabled him to become the Rangers' all-time leading scorer among defensemen also helps him match the speed of opposing forwards when they move in on the rush, push them wide and away from the net and, occasionally, rub them out with a crunching body check.
"It's nothing really new," said Leetch's defensive partner, Ulf Samuelsson. "I've always known how he's improved his defensive game since coming into the league. I remember watching him when he first broke into the league the first couple of years. He always was blessed with the offensive skills, but he quickly developed a strong defensive game, too. He plays as hard as anyone out there and he's just a perfect match against the good players he's playing against."
As Niedermayer is now getting noticed for his offensive accomplishments, Leetch is finally receiving the recognition he deserves for his defensive play. That may sound strange considering Leetch was twice voted the best defenseman in the league, but the Norris has become an award about points, and Leetch's diligence in his own end has often been overlooked.
"I always thought Brian was a good defensive player," Rangers coach John Muckler said. "I didn't see anything wrong with his defense. I think that's just a handle that somebody put on him, that he couldn't play defense. I never believed that. I believed he was the complete package and he's showing that he is."
But Muckler, who became the Rangers coach in February, did ask Leetch to change one part of his game. Leetch was often the one leading the rush, trying desperately to make something happen. One of the few strong skaters on what had become a slow team, Leetch felt it was his responsibility.
More often than not, though, it resulted in an odd-man rush for the other team.
So, Muckler requested Leetch stay back more and join the rush late, as he did when Mark Messier was on the team. It has prevented him from getting out of position defensively, and helped him handle the additional ice time. "It's easy," Leetch said. "You just headman the puck, get it up and wait for your opportunity. Plus, Muckler gives me as much ice, more ice really, than any coach I've been with before. I'm playing 30 minutes a game, so you have more energy to play in your own end and you still play the power play and the penalty kill and you're not as winded from getting caught up ice and having to backcheck and getting caught in between."
Meriden, CT Record-Journal, Nov 19, 2000
Because if the Norris awarded annually to the league' s top defcnseman were to be handed out today Brian Leetch would be a lock to win it for the third time in his career.
“He’s at the top of his game right now,” Mark Messier said after Leetch was named the second star in a dominant if losing effort in Vancouver on Friday night. “
"He's as good a player as there is in the game right now” Messier continued after the Rangers’ 4-3 : defeat. “He’s doing everything for us. Tonight we probably taxed him too much by taking too many penalties. But that’s how good he is: He can step in and play an unbelievable game defensively like he did tonight He is just unreal right now.”
Leetch played a game-high 31 minutes 33 seconds Friday night, an unheard of 13 minutes in the second period alone including the last 5:29. Consider that a normal shift is around 45 seconds to a minute! A period is 20 minutes. A game is 60 minutes. Leetch leads the league in ice time this season with an average of 30:07 a game. At 32 where other athletes are nearing the end of their prime, Leetch seems to have gained a step in the last few seasons. He is so fluid this season and the confidence is back in his shot. He is also hitting people all over the ice.
...Leetch moves around everyone else with ease. Friday night, on a one-on-one rush, he turned thte 24-year-old Jovanovski around like a puppet on a string with an outside-in deke. And Jovanovski is one of the top five or six defensemen in the league right now.
Scott Burnside, National Post, Nov 21, 2000
It is pretty much unanimous. Brian Leetch is Superman.
What remains to be seen is whether the pace the Rangers defenceman is setting at the quarter-pole will grind him into a meek Jimmy Olson by the time the playoffs roll around.
Preparing for their 20th game tonight against the Maple Leafs, Leetch has teammates and opponennts gaping at his play at both ends of the ice.
…He has already equalled his offensive numbers of last season and leads all NHL defenseman with 26 points, seven points more than Rob Blake. He is also blocking shots, killing penalties and leading the rush.
“That’s as good as a I’ve seen a player play in a long time,” Low said yesterday of the 32-year-old defenceman. “He’s not doing easy work. This is a grind and he’s handling it unbelieveably.”
Leetch is also leading the NHL in ice-time, averaging more than 30 minutes a game, a pace both the player and his coach acknowledged would be tough to keep up over 82 gamees.
National Post, March 5, 2004
Brian Leetch has always been a blur. Whether jumping into the rush, or wheeling out from behind his own net to lead one, the defenceman has been flashing past opposing players for almost two decades, and every man he has beaten along the way has seen the exact same sight: the New York Rangers' lettering on the front of Leetch's sweater as he approaches, and the No. 2 on his back as he passes by.
"When we went into Madison Square Garden, or they came to wherever I was playing, our rule of thumb on the right side anyways was to be a stick's length away from Brian Leetch because he goes everywhere," Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tom Fitzgerald said. "You usually don't see a man-on-man situation, but the team's I played for - really that was the only way you could cover him because he finds the holes and he finds open space."
New York Daily News, Nov 9, 2009
"It's perfect Brian to me has been underrated in a lot of ways for a long time, said Mike Richter, Leetch 's longtime Rangers and Team USA teammate who is in Toronto for the ceremony. 'You just started to expect great things from him every single night out, and he would still manage to deliver them. And I really think defensively Brian was far better than people ever gave him credit for. When you see the ice the way a (Wayne) Gretzky does, or a Brian Leetch does, you can be just a step ahead of everything.
"He'd put himself at risk by making those rushes that he did, but somehow he'd always be the guy to cover up. I remember times when he would lead a rush, and then if it wouldn't go right and the other team would get a 2 -on-1 out of it, he'd be the lone defenseman back. And you're thinking, 'How does he do this?"
Statistical Note
Brian Leetch was noted for being a great performer on the power play and penalty kill. Here are some statistical metrics from his prime, along with comparable defencemen.
Power Play Prime Performance
In his prime, Leetch was behind only Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, and Al MacInnis as a point producer on the power play. His teams' PP were 19% above average despite not being as stacked as Orr's Bruins, Potvin's Isles or Hedman's Lightning.
PLAYER | Start | End | Pos | GP | $PPG/82 | $PPP/82 | $PP% | $TmPP+ |
Bobby Orr | 1969 | 1975 | D | 514 | 12 | 48 | 97% | 1.51 |
Denis Potvin | 1975 | 1981 | D | 495 | 11 | 43 | 99% | 1.22 |
Al MacInnis | 1988 | 1994 | D | 513 | 9 | 41 | 88% | 1.26 |
Brian Leetch | 1991 | 1997 | D | 492 | 8 | 38 | 96% | 1.19 |
Sergei Gonchar | 2002 | 2010 | D | 551 | 8 | 36 | 94% | 1.10 |
Paul Coffey | 1989 | 1995 | D | 500 | 6 | 35 | 85% | 1.22 |
Erik Karlsson | 2012 | 2018 | D | 492 | 5 | 34 | 81% | 0.93 |
Victor Hedman | 2016 | 2022 | D | 506 | 4 | 34 | 67% | 1.30 |
Chris Pronger | 1999 | 2007 | D | 506 | 8 | 34 | 82% | 1.19 |
John Carlson | 2016 | 2022 | D | 489 | 5 | 34 | 77% | 1.05 |
Phil Housley | 1990 | 1996 | D | 453 | 7 | 34 | 91% | 1.10 |
Paul Coffey | 1982 | 1988 | D | 504 | 10 | 34 | 85% | 1.11 |
Ray Bourque | 1987 | 1994 | D | 598 | 6 | 33 | 90% | 1.06 |
Penalty Kill Prime Performance
Leetch's penalty kill metrics in his prime aren't at the level of the very best PKers, but they're in the territory of strong first unit PKers. He was on the ice for an estimated 55% of the PK for units that were 7% above average.
Player | Start | End | Pos | GP | SH% | $TmSH+ |
Nicklas Lidstrom | 2003 | 2010 | D | 559 | 57% | 0.84 |
Adam Foote | 1998 | 2004 | D | 441 | 57% | 1.00 |
Chris Phillips | 2006 | 2012 | D | 558 | 57% | 0.87 |
Dan Hamhuis | 2006 | 2013 | D | 596 | 57% | 0.88 |
Rod Langway | 1983 | 1989 | D | 534 | 57% | 0.82 |
Ryan McDonagh | 2012 | 2019 | D | 572 | 56% | 0.83 |
Brian Leetch | 1991 | 1997 | D | 492 | 55% | 0.93 |
Robyn Regehr | 2004 | 2011 | D | 545 | 53% | 0.97 |
Kevin Hatcher | 1991 | 1997 | D | 514 | 53% | 0.89 |
Teppo Numminen | 1996 | 2002 | D | 547 | 52% | 0.93 |
Rob Blake | 1998 | 2004 | D | 515 | 52% | 1.01 |
Duncan Keith | 2010 | 2017 | D | 591 | 51% | 0.96 |
Brooks Orpik | 2009 | 2015 | D | 484 | 51% | 0.83 |
Jamie Macoun | 1987 | 1994 | D | 543 | 51% | 0.97 |
Kimmo Timonen | 2004 | 2011 | D | 557 | 51% | 0.87 |
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