#47 - Ed Belfour

Ed Belfour (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #47)

Adjusted Stats

1988-1989  Chi       23 GP, 4-12-3, .289 win%, 1177 min, 62 GA, 3.18 GAA
1990-1991  Chi       76 GP, 44-19-7, .679 win%, 4230 min, 155 GA, 2.20 GAA
1991-1992  Chi       53 GP, 22-18-10, .540 win%, 3001 min, 120 GA, 2.39 GAA
1992-1993  Chi       69 GP, 40-18-11, .659 win%, 4008 min, 147 GA, 2.19 GAA
1993-1994  Chi       68 GP, 36-23-6, .600 win%, 3903 min, 165 GA, 2.54 GAA
1994-1995  Chi       72 GP, 38-26-5, .587 win%, 4185 min, 164 GA, 2.35 GAA
1995-1996  Chi       50 GP, 22-17-10, .551 win%, 2956 min, 132 GA, 2.68 GAA
1996-1997  Chi/SJ  46 GP, 14-24-6, .386 win%, 2723 min, 138 GA, 3.04 GAA
1997-1998  Dal       61 GP, 37-12-10, .712 win%, 3581 min, 130 GA, 2.19 GAA
1998-1999  Dal*     61 GP, 35-15-9, .669 win%, 3536 min, 137 GA, 2.32 GAA
1999-2000  Dal       62 GP, 32-21-7, .592 win%, 3620 min, 142 GA, 2.36 GAA
2000-2001  Dal       63 GP, 35-20-7, .621 win%, 3687 min, 161 GA, 2.62 GAA
2001-2002  Dal       60 GP, 21-27-11, .449 win%, 3467 min, 180 GA, 3.11 GAA
2002-2003  Tor       62 GP, 37-20-5, .637 win%, 3738 min, 163 GA, 2.62 GAA
2003-2004  Tor       59 GP, 34-19-6, .627 win%, 3444 min, 146 GA, 2.54 GAA
2005-2006  Tor       49 GP, 22-22-4, .500 win%, 2897 min, 162 GA, 3.35 GAA
2006-2007  Fla        58 GP, 27-17-10, .593 win%, 3289 min, 162 GA, 2.96 GAA

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1989-1990   Chi       9 GP, 4-2, .667 win%, 409 min, 14 GA, 2.11 GAA
1990-1991   Chi       6 GP, 2-4, .333 win%, 295 min, 17 GA, 3.47 GAA
1991-1992   Chi       18 GP, 12-4, .750 win%, 949 min, 34 GA, 2.16 GAA
1992-1993   Chi       4 GP, 0-4, .000 win%, 249 min, 11 GA, 2.57 GAA
1993-1994   Chi       6 GP, 2-4, .333 win%, 360 min, 15 GA, 2.46 GAA
1994-1995   Chi       16 GP, 9-7, .563 win%, 1014 min, 33 GA, 1.93 GAA
1995-1996   Chi        9 GP, 6-3, .667 win%, 666 min, 22 GA, 1.98 GAA
1997-1998   Dal        17 GP, 10-7, .588 win%, 1039 min, 34 GA, 1.99 GAA
1998-1999   Dal*      23 GP, 16-7, .696 win%, 1544 min, 47 GA, 1.83 GAA
1999-2000   Dal        23 GP, 14-9, .609 win%, 1443 min, 54 GA, 2.25 GAA
2000-2001   Dal        10 GP, 4-6, .400 win%, 671 min, 29 GA, 2.62 GAA
2002-2003   Tor        7 GP, 3-4, .429 win%, 532 min, 29 GA, 3.23 GAA
2003-2004   Tor        13 GP, 6-7, .462 win%, 774 min, 34 GA, 2.67 GAA

Career - 992 GP, 500-330-127, .589 win%, 57442 min, 2466 GA, 2.58 GAA
Career-Highs - 76 GP (90-91); 44 wins (90-91); .712 win% (97-98); 4230 min (90-91); 2.19 GAA (92-93)
Avg. (16 seasons) - 61 GP, 31-20-8, .589 win%, 3517 min, 150 GA, 2.58 GAA
Peak Avg. (97-06) - 60 GP, 32-20-7, .602 win%, 3496 min, 153 GA, 2.63 GAA, 1 Cup

Playoff Career - 161 GP, 88-68, .564 win%, 9945 min, 373 GA, 2.25 GAA
Playoff-Highs - 16 wins (98-99); .750 win% (91-92); 1.83 GAA (98-99)

Accolades - 2 Vezina Trophies, 4 Jennings, Calder
All-Star Teams - 2-time 1st-team, 1-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

Perched at the top of Level 3, we find The Eagle...specifically Eddie "The Eagle" Belfour (who certainly has the coolest nickname of any goaltender on the list...not as convoluted as "The Dominator").

When The Hockey News (my favourite whipping boy for their occasionally far off-base historical rankings) named their 20 greatest goaltenders recently, Belfour barely made the list, checking in at #18, behind non-Murillo-Pyramid goalies George Hainsworth, Georges Vezina, Chuck Gardiner and Clint Benedict. Uh...huh. It's another example of nostalgic overrating of past legends, something that threatens to make younger generations roll their eyes when old-timers stick up for the true greats of the past (Plante, Hall, Durnan). Instead of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, it's the Geriatric who Cried Legend.

But I digress. By any standard, Belfour should have been ranked higher. His 500 adjusted career wins are impressive, as is the fact that he essentially enjoyed two separate peaks...the burst onto the scene early 1990s peak with the Blackhawks (a Calder, two Vezinas), and the late 90s/early 2000s veteran superstar peak with the Stars (two straight trips to the Stanley Cup finals, and one win).

I'd actually take Belfour's late-90s run, when for my money he was the best postseason goaltender from 1999-2001 (yes, even better than Brodeur and Roy). Belfour's 1999 Stars team was a defensive juggernaut, but the 2000 team was a little leakier, and Belfour pretty much singelhandedly stoned the Avalanche in the 2000 Conference finals before almost outdueling Brodeur in the Cup, which would have been a repeat championship for the Eagle. Belfour was also something of a victim of the Yzerman/MacInnis syndrome in that his late 1990s/early 2000s run didn't result in any additional Vezinas or appearances on all-star teams because two guys named Hasek and Brodeur were hogging the spotlight.

Still, I will acknowledge that The Hockey News, and the hockey community in general, may have their reasons for knocking Belfour down a peg or two. Until he finally won the Stanley Cup, Belfour had a reputation for wilting in the playoffs...although that was somewhat unearned considering a mediocre-to-good Blackhawks team made the Cup finals and the conference finals during Belfour's tenure. Granted, there were a few 1st round losses that stuck out on Belfour's resume, but the same could have been said for Brodeur.

There was something else though: like Hasek, Belfour seemed perenially on the verge of imploding on his team. He didn't give off the aura of calmness that Brodeur did. Arguments with coaches and even brushes with the law were the norm for The Eagle. And unlike the goalies above him on the pyramid, Belfour always seemed to lay an egg (pun intended) for an entire season at least once every five or six years, at which point his team at the time was all too happy to get rid of him.

Check out these numbers, which combine Belfour's final season with the Blackhawks, Stars and Maple Leafs, showing the note he went out on with his teams:

Belfour Avg. Final Season - 52 GP, 19-24-7, .450 win%, 3029 min, 160 GA, 3.17 GAA

In a word: ouch. That was the bitter memory that Belfour left fans in Chicago, Dallas and Toronto with before departing. But there was a flip side to Belfour's character, certainly something that contributed to his excellent career: his competitiveness and desire to prove naysayers wrong. So look at what followed those three dreadful years, his first four years with each club (rookie season with Chicago, then debut years with Dallas, Toronto and Florida):

Belfour Avg. First Season - 64 GP, 36-17-8, .656 win%, 3710 min, 153 GA, 2.47 GAA

Those numbers cry out with a big, loud "So you thought I was done, eh? Well fuck you!". And that's how I'll remember Belfour: as a competitor who was written off time after time and kept surprising us. When he went to Dallas, it put the team over the edge. When he went to Toronto, it was to replace fan favourite Curtis Joseph, and Belfour was booed in his first few months (but you know...those Maple Leafs fans are the best in the world, and everyone wants to play in Toronto...wink, wink) before going on to have a two-year run that was better, or at least comparable, to Joseph's. Even for his final season in Florida, Belfour put together a 27-17-10 record, not bad considering it was, you know, the Florida Panthers.

Is he one of the absolute greatest goalies ever? No. But the peaks he reached during the best years of goaltending the NHL has seen (Hasek, Brodeur, Roy, Belfour, Joseph) are enough to put him ahead of goalies who dominated a six-team league when the league was in its infancy. He may have been a prick, but when he was on his game, the Eagle soared. (Yes, I'm closing out the entry on Belfour with a hackneyed pun that has been used a thousand times and anyone could have seen coming. Sue me).