The Career of Brian Leetch 

Arguably?

He's definitely their greatest defenseman ever, not even a debate really.

@@nyrgaming3091 I think the best you could do is make a case for guys like Harry Howell or Brad Park as the 2nd and 3rd greatest

@@jordancivic96 Middleton wasn't a defenseman. I think you mean Brad Park. But Leetch is undeniably #1 all time in NY. Not only the#1 Dman, but arguably the #1 player.

@@keving4408 Yep, that's my bad. Corrected

I like it, i just don't think Hank belongs on that list, in the end we didnt win with him , I feel he gets too much love sometimes

@@ggagoots Dude you're lost

@Alvalanker Richter MVP of the whole tourney!

@@damets Leetch could have been MVP as well, he was AWESOME that tourney!

Kovalev, Teekenen , Richter , Anderson , Larmer , Lowe

adding the great one later on

I guess it had to be Tikkanen getting misspelled 😋

@@pale_saint The language of Teekinese

@Johnny Dong I spelled it wrong on purpose , he speaks the language of teekinese

He didn’t grow up there. Just born in Corpus Christi. He grew up in Connecticut where hockey is pretty common.

And in only 68 games.

also should have circled 91-92, was the last time a d-man scored 100 points in the NHL

Oh ABSOLUTELY and I hate it when he's ranked lower than that. Leetch was truly DOMINANT and extremely underrated.

Yeah he should have, but I'm glad Canada got to witness his greatness for a little bit. To this day Leaf fans still talk about the short time Leetch was on the team and how impressed they were with him, which makes me happy.

Do you remember a couple years later when he promised they would get back to the playoffs, and they didn't? What a leader.

@@brew1116 He didn't make that promise. A reporter asked him to "make a guarantee" and he jokingly said they would make the playoffs. He didn't just come out and say it on his own like he did in 94 against the Devils. Just accept the fact that Messier guaranteed victory and went out and got a hat trick against the Mickey Mouse team in New Jersey!

@@brew1116 butthurt Nucks fan?

@@GooseGumlizzard Nailed it.

Sauer was on his way to becoming a really solid 2nd pairing guy. And Staal was on his way to becoming a monster, but was never the same after the injury.

He is the best New York Ranger for a reason!

What about Messier?

@@b1hockeypodcast391 no its Leetch. Leetch was home-grown and played 17 seasons with them.

@@smithfan22 I guess, but you could also make a case for Hank as the rangers GOAT

@@b1hockeypodcast391 Eddie Giacomin Enters the chat

@@b1hockeypodcast391 messier was overrated. and had most of his success with the oilers besides. the so-called "greatest leader in team sports" captained the last seven seasons of his career to zero playoff games. interesting that vancouver was a playoff team when he arrived, never made the playoffs with him, and was a playoff team immediately after he left. i'm sure messier and his gigantic ego would vote for himself, but leetch was the superior ranger.

Leetch was better than Chelios. Would Chelios have lead the Rangers to a cup in 94? Nope! There's your answer.

I suppose that was a good omen, as he didn't have to worry about the 'Hobey Baker Curse.'

He was the Captain of the Champion World Cup team in 96 too, and he was fantastic!

He's always underrated. I think because he had a thinner frame and didn't throw the body around like a Chelios type, but he could hip check and was an amazing skater! Definitely Top 10 in my book.

@@amazinmets8439 For sure. A bigger factor might be that Brian was always a quiet and somewhat shy guy. Never had the urge to be the center of attention and never sought the spotlight. He was a quiet leader who went to the rink and did his job. Between his on-ice accomplishments and playing in NY, he could have been world famous if he adopted a Jeremy Roenick or PK Subban personality.

LOL trading Leetch for Chelios? No way the Rangers win the Cup in 94 if that happened. No disrespect to Chelios, but he's no Leetch.

@@covidisahoax2438Bourque was good, but from '92 on, Leetch was THE man.

I agree with this. Leetch was the guy you wanted for a run to the Cup in his prime, not Bourque. Leetch was under more pressure than anyone can imagine in 94 and he came through big time. As great as Bourque was, I think he would have crumbled under that pressure.

Zubov, Leetch, Kovalev, Richter, Nemchinov, Karpotsev, were all home grown. And Graves didn't emerge as a star until he came to NY.

@@amazinmets8439 Definitely Richter along with Leetch were one of the few player allowed to play most of their years in New York w/o getting traded for an aging All-Star or win now player. Nemchinov was 28 by the time he got to the NHL, so I wouldn’t say the Rangers developed him. Zubov was nice offensively but prone to odd-man rushes. Rangers traded him after 3 seasons, which was a trend where the Rangers traded away their youth in hopes to squeeze another Cup. I don’t count Graves. Graves was 1/2 of the Adam Smashers (Adam Oates & Adam Graves). While Graves offense skills weren’t there, it was clear he was a hard hitter and good fighter. It was in Edmonton where he really started to show promise. I still thought Graves was a coward when he broke Mario Lemieux’s wrist on a dirty slash when the Rangers were eventually eliminated by the Penguins in 1992 playoffs. The New York Rangers have ONE Stanley Cup over the last 80 years. I prefer the modern Front Office who is more committed to stockpiling talent than hired guns. Exiting times to be a Ranger these days.

@@DrDetfink The Graves slash on Mario wasn't intentional. I think you know that. There is no other instance in Graves career of him being a dirty player. And that slash actually hurt the Rangers more than the Penguins in my opinion. Graves was an instrumental part of that 92 Rangers team. Penguins, even without Mario, still had a ton of firepower and were "motivated" after Lemieux got injured. It also messed up the Rangers lines. Rangers should have won the Cup in 92 but oh well.

@@94champs I was at that game Billy. You can’t convince me after I saw Lemieux carrying the puck, the Rangers were on their way out of the playoffs, you cannot convince me that Graves “accidentally” busted his wrist with an uncalled for slash. You could HEAR the break which stopped the “1940” chants. Saw him as a Detroit Red Wing as well when he was part of the “Adam Smashers” with Adam Oates. While he was no Joey Kocur or Bob Probert, he was always a physical guy and a temperamental one. Sorry. I can’t buy that one even as a Ranger fan.

@@DrDetfink Lemieux was notorious for not wearing padding in his wrist area. It was a normal chop at the stick like you saw 1,000 times a game and happened to hit him in a bad spot. There is no other instance of Graves being "dirty" in his career.

@@matthewdaley746 Disagree - in G6 NJ had them on the ropes at 2-0 and should have been 5-0 if not for Richter. The Devils outshot & outplayed them until the Kovalev late 2nd period goal.

Leetch had 571 PIM over 18 seasons. Coffey had 1800. MacInnis had 1571. Leetch was better than both those guys defensively and his plus/minus isn't very high because he played on bad teams the last 8 years of his career. Stop looking at plus/minus and start watching highlights of the player you're judging before making silly comments.

Using plus/minus as an indicator of good defense? You're a funny guy. Coffey had a high plus/minus and he blew chunks defensively. Leetch was terrific in his own end.

He had more playoff points per game in the 90's than Bourque did. Ray came in 2nd. That's how good Leetch was.

@@amazinmets8439 Ray Bourque started his career with the Bruins in 79. Leetch was an inferior player to Bourque but by the 90s Bourque was in his 30s and had started to slow down a little.

Inferior player? Did Bourque ever win a Conn Smythe? Nope. Leetch did.

Old Avon Farms H.S.

Sather was and still is an idiot.

As far as I know, only one! His name was Vic Lynn. There is a (brief) Wikipedia article on him that you can check out!

@@shanegrant42 thanks!! Now has anybody ever played for the six 1967 expansion teams? Not after they moved or folded, but the actual six expansion teams.

Lidstrom?

Forgetting Lindstrom!

Leetch over Chelios?

@@TheHockeyGuy dang so that's means leetch is top 7 not 5 my bad

@@b1hockeypodcast391 yea I really forgot my bad

Very underrated defensively. One of the best hip checks in the game! Rarely made any mistakes and played smart, positional defense.

He was terrific defensively. 571 career PIM. Almost never took bad penalties or caught out of position. Nasty hip checker too.

Let it stay forgotten , seeing him in Bruins colours made me want to puke

@@Christhegreatbro Leetch as a Bruin = 🤮