Brian Leetch: Greatest American Player Ever?

[Zanex]

I loved Coffey, just saying he wasn't as good as Leetch was defensively yet his plus/minus is way higher. Just proves what a useless stat plus/minus us.

The point about PIM is it shows how responsible a Defenseman is generally speaking. You rack up penalty minutes when you're lazy on the back check or when you're caught out of position and have to trip a player, etc. Things Leetch rarely was.

Yes if you're a fighter that has to be taken into account, but you're not going to help your team if you're sitting in the penalty box.

We're players like Orr and MacInnis big fighters? Their PIM is way higher than Leetch's.

 

[Paul Padovano]

Judging defensemen abilities defensively by penalty minutes is just strange imo.
Defensemen who played tough and were intimidators with hits and fighting had more penalty minutes. It didnt make them worse defensively. Beck? Potvin? Langway? Stevens? These guys could play defense but were not Lady Bing candidates.

I'm one of the biggest Leetch fans ever. My hope is people list him in their top 10 but to make him better based on PIM is reach in my opinion. Brian is better than some give him credit for but not based on PIM. Brian was not a fighter. He was never going to pick up 15-20 minutes in 1 night.

I don't think many hockey writers would put Leetch in the top ten. That doesn't mean he does not belong there, but just to give you an idea, Ken Campbell and Adam Proteau of "The Hockey News," don't even put Leetch in their top 1 2 all time d men since 1967 (or post expansion). In case you're wondering who they rate as better, there's Orr, Bourque, Lidstrom, Potvin, Coffey, L Robinson, Stevens, Macinnis, Chelios, S Savard, Park, and Niedermayer (in that exact order). Finally, after getting passed these names, Leetch is listed.

The fact that "The Hockey News" can come out with a book putting Scott Niedermayer ahead of Brian Leetch makes me think that some people need to watch Brian's entire career, all over again. That's if they paid attention in the first place.

 

[hackeyman]

We're players like Orr and MacInnis big fighters? Their PIM is way higher than Leetch's.

Orr had over 50 fights I believe and several offsetting roughing penalties which kinda have been a thing of the past for a while but were very common in Orr's day. Orr played a very physical game . As well I expect he drew more penalties than he took .

 

[NickyFotiu]

Orr had over 50 fights I believe and several offsetting roughing penalties which kinda have been a thing of the past for a while but were very common in Orr's day. Orr played a very physical game . As well I expect he drew more penalties than he took .

The era and especially the Bruins played a very physical brand of hockey.

 

[NickyFotiu]

I don't think many hockey writers would put Leetch in the top ten. That doesn't mean he does not belong there, but just to give you an idea, Ken Campbell and Adam Proteau of "The Hockey News," don't even put Leetch in their top 1 2 all time d men since 1967 (or post expansion). In case you're wondering who they rate as better, there's Orr, Bourque, Lidstrom, Potvin, Coffey, L Robinson, Stevens, Macinnis, Chelios, S Savard, Park, and Niedermayer (in that exact order). Finally, after getting passed these names, Leetch is listed.

The fact that "The Hockey News" can come out with a book putting Scott Niedermayer ahead of Brian Leetch makes me think that some people need to watch Brian's entire career, all over again. That's if they paid attention in the first place.

The 6 in bold are beyond debatable so that is a very strange list in my opinion. I have seen lists that do have Brian in the top 10 and that is where he should be imo.

 

[Zanex]

I don't think many hockey writers would put Leetch in the top ten. That doesn't mean he does not belong there, but just to give you an idea, Ken Campbell and Adam Proteau of "The Hockey News," don't even put Leetch in their top 1 2 all time d men since 1967 (or post expansion). In case you're wondering who they rate as better, there's Orr, Bourque, Lidstrom, Potvin, Coffey, L Robinson, Stevens, Macinnis, Chelios, S Savard, Park, and Niedermayer (in that exact order). Finally, after getting passed these names, Leetch is listed.

The fact that "The Hockey News" can come out with a book putting Scott Niedermayer ahead of Brian Leetch makes me think that some people need to watch Brian's entire career, all over again. That's if they paid attention in the first place.

Niedermayer and Stevens ahead of Leetch? LMAO! Leetch was better than 3 Stevens and Niedermayer's name shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breathe as Leetch.

Call me biased but I wouldn't take ANY of those guys over a prime Leetch save for maybe Orr. None of them ever reached the level peak Leetch did.

If Leetch played on good teams the last 8 years of his career this wouldn't even be a debate. But he's punished for being loyal to a team that had inept management for many, many years, unfortunately.

 

[Paul Padovano]

Niedermayer and Stevens ahead of Leetch? LMAO! Leetch was better than 3 Stevens and Niedermayer's name shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breathe as Leetch.

Call me biased but I wouldn't take ANY of those guys over a prime Leetch save for maybe Orr. None of them ever reached the level peak Leetch did.

If Leetch played on good teams the last 8 years of his career this wouldn't even be a debate. But he's punished for being loyal to a team that had inept management for many, many years, unfortunately.

Leetch is probably my favorite player of all time, but I kid you not. This was info I found in a book "The Hockey News" put out years ago. It's called "The Top 60, since 1967; the best players of the post expansion era."

 

[nyrmetros]

Laughable..... Leetch and Chelios are USA Hockey legends.