The 10 Best NHL Defensemen of All Time
I’m 28 and I never saw a single one of these men play live, except the last two – and those only on a stream. But I’ve watched every tape that exists, and I have an opinion. After the best NHL forwards of all time, it’s time for the position that always gets shortchanged in these lists: the defensemen. The men who control the game from the back instead of decorating it from the front.
Three criteria: dominance in their own era, two-way play, and whether the position would be played differently today without this man. If you only put up points, you’re a fourth forward with a number above 60. If you can do both, you’re a defenseman. And if you changed the way defensemen play, you belong on this list.
There’s a highlight video for every player. Watch them – for the older gentlemen it’s worth it twice over, because otherwise you won’t believe how good they were.
10. Chris Pronger
In 2000 Pronger won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player and the Norris as its best defenseman in the same season – the first defenseman to do that since Bobby Orr, 28 years earlier. That alone tells you where he belongs. But the real Pronger story is a different one: within five years he reached the Stanley Cup Final with three different teams. Edmonton 2006, Anaheim 2007 (won), Philadelphia 2010. Three teams that would never have gotten that far without him. Pronger was two metres of reach, nasty along the boards, and the last defenseman who changed a game by his presence alone. That his career ended at 37 because of an eye injury and concussions is, sadly, part of the story.
▶ The Hall of Fame Career of Chris Pronger (YouTube)
9. Chris Chelios
26 seasons. Three Norris Trophies, with Montreal, Chicago and Detroit, spread across ten years. Three Stanley Cups, the first in 1986, the last in 2008 – 22 years apart. Chelios played his last NHL game at 48, and no, it wasn’t a farewell appearance, he was in the regular lineup. 1651 games, only Zdeno Chara has more as a defenseman, and his 266 playoff games are the record for any position. He was never the fastest, never the biggest, never the best in any single category. He was simply very good at everything, and for longer than anyone else. If you want to know what complete two-way hockey looks like, watch Chelios in the 90s.
▶ Chris Chelios: 26 seasons in 5 minutes (NHL) (YouTube)
8. Eddie Shore
Yes, this one is old. Shore played from 1926 to 1940, and the footage looks like a silent film. But four Hart Trophies as MVP – no other defenseman has that to this day. Not Orr, not Lidström, nobody. Shore was the first defenseman who carried the puck up the ice himself instead of getting rid of it, and he was so brutal that the league changed rules because of him. You can argue about whether players from that era can be compared to today’s at all. I think you have to. Anyone who dominated his era so completely that he still comes up in every discussion 90 years later belongs on the list.
▶ Eddie Shore was the Bruins’ first great defenseman (NHL) (YouTube)
7. Paul Coffey
48 goals in one season. As a defenseman. That record from 1986 still stands, and I don’t think it ever falls. Coffey was the fastest skater of his generation, and the Oilers didn’t use him as a defenseman but as a fourth forward who happened to start at the back. 1531 points, three Norris, four Cups – three with Edmonton, one with Pittsburgh alongside Lemieux. Why not higher? Because defensively he wasn’t in the league of the men above him, and because this is not a points list. But nobody, truly nobody, has ever run over the ice from the back like he did.
▶ The Career of Paul Coffey (YouTube)
6. Larry Robinson
“Big Bird” has one stat I look up again every time because I can’t believe it: plus 722 for his career. That’s the best mark in NHL history, and second place is miles away. In 20 seasons Robinson never had a single minus year. Six Stanley Cups with Montreal, two Norris, Conn Smythe in 1978, and 20 straight years in the playoffs. He was two metres tall, could skate, could pass, and when it was necessary he cleaned out the opponent’s dressing room on his own (ask Dave Schultz). Robinson is the defenseman every coach wants and none of them gets anymore.
▶ The Hall of Fame Playing Career of Larry Robinson (YouTube)
5. Denis Potvin
Four straight Stanley Cups, 1980 to 1983, as captain of the New York Islanders. The dynasty is remembered as a team – Bossy, Trottier, Smith – and Potvin often falls off the back of it. That’s wrong. He was the engine. Three Norris, the Calder as a rookie, and the first defenseman ever to reach 1000 points. Potvin could do everything: score, hit, run the power play, block shots on the penalty kill. He was what Pronger became 25 years later, only with four more rings. That Rangers fans still boo him today, though he hasn’t played since 1988, is the greatest compliment you can get in New York.
▶ Denis Potvin – NHL Career Highlights (Islanders) (YouTube)
4. Doug Harvey
Seven Norris Trophies. Six Stanley Cups, five of them in a row with Montreal from 1956 to 1960. Harvey invented something that’s taken for granted today: controlling the tempo of a game from the blue line. He held the puck when everyone else would have gotten rid of it, slowed the game down, sped it up, and made the Canadiens’ power play so dangerous that the league changed the rule: since 1956 a penalized player may leave the box early after a power-play goal. That’s Harvey’s rule. Without him there is no Orr, no Lidström, no Makar. That he had a difficult life after his career changes nothing about what he was on the ice.
▶ Doug Harvey – 100 Greatest NHL Players (YouTube)
3. Ray Bourque
22 seasons. 1579 points, 1169 assists, 410 goals – all three are records for defensemen, and they will stay that way. Five Norris, 13 First-Team All-Star selections, 19 straight years on an All-Star team. Bourque was never spectacular like Coffey and never as big as Robinson, he was simply the best player on the ice for 22 years, no matter the opponent. And then the story everyone knows: in 2000 Boston lets him go to Colorado because at 39 he finally wants a Cup, and in 2001 he lifts it first, before the captain, because Joe Sakic knows whose moment it is. If that picture doesn’t give you goosebumps, you haven’t understood the sport.
▶ Ray Bourque Career Highlights (YouTube)
2. Nicklas Lidström
The perfect defenseman. Not the most spectacular, not the toughest, the perfect one. Seven Norris, four Stanley Cups, 20 seasons in Detroit without a single bad one, and a good 40 games missed in 20 years. Conn Smythe in 2002 as the first European, captain of the 2008 Cup team as the first European. Lidström never flattened an opponent, he simply never let one past him. Perfect stick position, perfect angle, perfect first pass. The Wings players called him “The Perfect Human”, and it was only half a joke. If Orr is the genius, Lidström is the precision. And if you ask me which of the two a young defenseman should study, I say: Lidström. Orr can’t be learned.
▶ Nicklas Lidström’s Career Highlights (YouTube)
1. Bobby Orr
I already put him second on the forwards list, and I stand by it. There’s no debate here. Orr is the only defenseman in history to lead the entire league in scoring twice – not best defenseman, best player, Art Ross Trophy, 1970 and 1975. Eight straight Norris, three Hart, two Conn Smythe, two Cups. Plus 124 in a single season, a record so absurd nobody will ever come close. Before Orr, defensemen were men who got the puck out of their own zone. After Orr, they were players who could decide a game. Everything Coffey, Bourque and Makar do, he did first, on knees that forced him to quit at 30. Ten full seasons. That’s all it took.
▶ Bobby Orr’s Dominance Was Actually Insane (YouTube)
Pending: Cale Makar
I know some of you are scrolling and about to type “Where’s Makar?”. Here he is. Calder, Norris, Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup at 23 – nobody had done that before him. He skates like Coffey, defends better than Coffey, and he’s the only active player I’m certain will be on this list in ten years, probably in the top five. But this list rates careers, not talent, and Makar has only played half of his. So: pending. I’ll update this article when the time comes, and I’m looking forward to it.
▶ 10 Minutes of Cale Makar Domination (Colorado Avalanche) (YouTube)
Honorable Mentions
These were left out, and you can argue with me about every single one:
- Scott Niedermayer – won everything there is to win in hockey: four Cups, Norris, Conn Smythe, Olympic gold, Worlds, World Cup, Memorial Cup, World Juniors. The most elegant skater after Coffey. Missing only because he was never the league’s dominant number one.
- Brian Leetch – Conn Smythe in 1994 as the first American, two Norris, and the reason the Rangers had a Cup again after 54 years.
- Al MacInnis – the hardest shot in history, Conn Smythe 1989, Norris 1999. Goalies were afraid of his slapshot, in the literal sense.
- Zdeno Chara – 2.06 metres, Norris 2009, Cup 2011, and still 20 minutes a night past 40. The biggest player in history, in both senses.
- Red Kelly – eight Stanley Cups, four as a defenseman in Detroit, four as a centre in Toronto. The very first Norris winner, 1954.
- Brad Park – six-time Norris runner-up, never won it, because he played in the Orr era. In any other decade he’d have three.
- Scott Stevens – three Cups with New Jersey, Conn Smythe 2000, and the hardest hits that were ever legal. Forwards ended their careers on his shoulder.
- Victor Hedman – Norris 2018, Conn Smythe 2020, two Cups. The best defenseman of his generation before Makar, and not done yet.
And from Switzerland: Roman Josi
Josi doesn’t belong in the top 10, and he’d be the first to say so. But he belongs in this article, because in 2020 he became the first Swiss player to win the Norris Trophy, has been captain of the Nashville Predators for almost ten years, and put up 96 points in 2021/22 – a number no defenseman had reached in 30 years. Without Mark Streit, the first Swiss defenseman to be given real responsibility in the NHL, Josi’s path would have been harder. And without Josi, no Swiss juniors would be dreaming today of becoming NHL defensemen.
▶ Roman Josi 2021/22 Highlights – the 96-point season (YouTube)
Verdict: Orr, then Lidström, and then the arguing starts
The first two spots are set for me. From third place on you can defend any order, and that’s exactly what makes this list better than the forwards list: with the forwards there’s Gretzky and then everyone else. With defensemen there are two kinds of greatness – those who carry the game forward and those who shut it down at the back – and the best could do both.
Who’s missing for you? Who’s too high? And who’s going to tell me Makar already belongs? Write it in the comments, I read everything.
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