Lefebvre vs Macoun vs Rouse

[Stephen]

How do you rank these three defensive defensemen based on defensive play and importance to the Toronto Maple Leafs teams of the early mid 90s?

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[seventieslord]

as Leafs / for their whole careers:

- Macoun was the best of them, at everything. Best skater, best with the puck, best in the crease, strongest, toughest, best defensively, best offensively.

Lefebvre and Rouse were more "niche" players than anything. Although both had value, they were 2nd/3rd pairing players. Between them, Lefebvre was more of a "pure" defensive specialist, very strong positionally. Rouse was more of a ruffian who could clear the crease.

Both in Toronto and in the other stops in their careers, Macoun was given more icetime, both overall and at even strength.

 

[MS]

As noted above, Macoun was easily the best of these players, although he wasn't quite at the level in Toronto that he had been in Calgary during the late 1980s.

Lefebvre is an interesting player in that for a couple years he was an excellent shutdown defender, and was playing that role for Colorado ahead of Adam Foote when they won the Cup in 1996. Was a #2-3 defender for that team for a couple years, then declined steeply after 1998 or so as his mobility went south.

Lefebvre would be ahead of Rouse on peak value but probably behind on career value. As for how they performed as Leafs, Leaf fans would be able to answer that a bit better.

 

[Stephen]

It's interesting to me that the departure of both Lefebvre and Rouse in the summer of 1994 was always seen blamed as the reason why the Leafs under Burns started to decline sharply. Potvin's game destabilized to some degree and the team wasn't as tight as it had been after the lockout. Interesting that cup winning teams would pick up those two as well. Having watched some of the games back in 1993 and 1994 recently, I'm reminded of how quick Macoun was and his tendency to rush the puck out of his end, something he wasn't doing by the end of his tenure in Toronto.

 

[tony d]

All 3 played a key role on those Leaf teams of the mid 90's, I'd rank them as follows:

Macoun
Lefebvre
Rouse

 

[gifted88]

Macoun had no hockey sense. He always took the worst penalties at the worst moments in the game and he couldn't cover anyone 1 on 1 by his 3rd season in Toronto. He was still a serviceable shutdown guy but his best hockey was behind him. I rank him above Rouse cause of the 2 years he was actually good.

Lefebvre
Macoun
Rouse

 

[Hasbro]

It would be hybolic to say Lefebvre played defense like Lidstrom played defense, but it was the same kind of game.