#75 - Brian Leetch

Brian Leetch (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #75)

Adjusted Stats

1987-1988   NYR        17 GP   2 goals     10 assists   12 points     0.68 PPG
1988-1989   NYR        70 GP   19 goals   40 assists   60 points     0.86 PPG
1989-1990   NYR        74 GP   9 goals     38 assists   48 points     0.65 PPG
1990-1991   NYR        82 GP   15 goals   66 assists   81 points     0.98 PPG
1991-1992   NYR        82 GP   20 goals   72 assists   92 points     1.13 PPG
1992-1993   NYR        35 GP   5 goals     25 assists   30 points     0.85 PPG
1993-1994   NYR*      82 GP   21 goals   52 assists   73 points     0.89 PPG
1994-1995   NYR        82 GP   16 goals   56 assists   72 points     0.88 PPG
1995-1996   NYR        82 GP   15 goals   68 assists   83 points     1.01 PPG
1996-1997   NYR        82 GP   21 goals   61 assists   82 points     1.00 PPG
1997-1998   NYR        76 GP   20 goals   38 assists   58 points     0.77 PPG
1998-1999   NYR        82 GP   15 goals   49 assists   64 points     0.78 PPG
1999-2000   NYR        50 GP   8 goals     21 assists   29 points     0.58 PPG
2000-2001   NYR        82 GP   23 goals   65 assists   88 points     1.08 PPG
2001-2002   NYR        82 GP   12 goals   53 assists   65 points     0.79 PPG
2002-2003   NYR        51 GP   14 goals   21 assists   35 points     0.68 PPG
2003-2004   NYR/Tor   72 GP  18 goals   43 assists   61 points     0.85 PPG
2005-2006   Bos         61 GP  5 goals     27 assists   33 points     0.53 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1988-1989   NYR         4 GP     3 goals    2 assists      4 points      1.07 PPG
1990-1991   NYR         6 GP     1 goal     3 assists      3 points       0.57 PPG
1991-1992   NYR         13 GP   3 goals   10 assists    13 points     1.01 PPG
1993-1994   NYR*       23 GP   11 goals 23 assists    33 points     1.45 PPG
1994-1995   NYR         10 GP   5 goals    7 assists     12 points     1.24 PPG
1995-1996   NYR         11 GP   1 goal      6 assists     7 points       0.61 PPG
1996-1997   NYR         15 GP   2 goals    8 assists     11 points     0.70 PPG
2003-2004   Tor          13 GP   0 goals    10 assists   10 points     0.79 PPG

Career - 1244 GP, 258 goals, 805 assists, 1066 points, 0.86 PPG
Career-Highs - 23 goals (00-01); 72 assists (91-92); 92 points (91-92); 1.13 PPG (91-92)
Avg. (17 seasons) - 72 GP, 15 goals, 47 assists, 62 points, 0.86 PPG
Peak Avg. (90-98) - 75 GP, 17 goals, 55 assists, 71 points, 0.95 PPG, 1 Cup

Playoff Career - 95 GP, 26 goals, 69 assists, 93 points, 0.98 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 11 goals (93-94); 23 assists (93-94); 33 points (93-94); 1.45 PPG (93-94)

Accolades - 2 Norris Trophies, Calder, Conn Smythe
All-Star Teams - 2-time 1st-team, 3-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

There is a case to be made that Brian Leetch deserves to be higher on the pyramid than his current standing. He won two Norris trophies, a Stanley Cup (in which he was the Conn Smythe winner, not Messier, despite Messier's legend), was one of the best offensive defencemen of the 1990s, and made multiple year-end all-star teams. How does that make Leetch any different than, say, Al MacInnis?

Well, for the final six or seven seasons of Leetch's career, the New York Rangers struggled mightily, and some of the blame (fairly or unfairly) fell on Leetch's shoulders, since his defensive game began to soften. He was never known as a great defensive player (Leetch was sort-of the Mike Green of his era), but for the stretch from 1997 to 2001, Leetch, despite amassing 239 adjusted points in 290 games, was a brutal -77 combined. Now, the Rangers were a mess from top to bottom, but Leetch's defensive shortcomings certainly contributed somewhat to their failure.

That doesn't mean that Leetch's impact should be forgotten or undervalued. He was part of the American team that upset Canada in the 1996 World Cup, and he was the exciting backbone of a New York Rangers team that was a perennial contender from about 1990 to 1997, as well as, as mentioned before, the Conn Smythe winner for the only Rangers' championship in the past seventy-one seasons. Leetch's peak offensive numbers are actually better than those of Lidstrom and MacInnis, establishing him as one of the better puckmoving defencemen of the post-Orr era. And given the fact that in five seasons, Leetch was considered one of the top two or top four defencemen in the league, his career has to be counted as an immense success, even if the final years left something of a sour taste.

Leetch was finally traded from the New York Rangers in 2004, joining a reasonably talented Maple Leafs team and playing quite well...although, as usual with the Maple Leafs, it was part of a strategy of trading future prospects for a short-term fix. He closed out his career with the Bruins, but by that point, it was clear that Leetch's best years were behind him. Somewhat strangely for Leetch, he perenially seemed to be an aging defenceman but was only 37 when he retired...for comparison's sake, Lidstrom is currently forty and still tearing up the league.

Leetch currently stands near the cutoff point for Level 3. For eight seasons, he was an elite player at his position, for the remaining nine, his game left something to be desired, and he morphed into a strict power-play specialist. His final career +/- of +25 is underwhelming to say the least, especially considering that, like Messier, he was one of the key members of a Rangers team that underachieved to such a degree from 1997 to 2004 that they should all be ashamed of themselves. Yet his 1,066 career points and average of 0.86 PPG speak to a defenceman with huge offensive talent. It's a mixed bag with Leetch, but in the end, like a poor man's Paul Coffey, he'll be remembered for the strengths that he brought to the table, not the weaknesses that came with them.