LeClair vs. Kerr
The enduring popularity among Flyers fans of Legion of Doom left winger John LeClair was evident yesterday in readers' voting tallies in selecting the top six wingers for the Flyers Team of the 2000s series on HockeyBuzz. LeClair finished second in the voting to Simon Gagne, garnering a vote among 87 percent of the 1,600-plus voters.
I expected LeClair to get one of the top six spots but I did not expect it be such a landslide. The John LeClair of the 2000s was not nearly as effective as he was in the mid-to-late 1990s before he started to break down from all the punishment he took around the net and had to undergo major back surgery in the fall of 2000.
In the 1990s, he was seemingly impossible to knock off the puck or out of the lineup. In those years, LeClair scored in the vicinity of 50 goals a year like clockwork. These were the glory seasons that got LeClair inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and, eventually, will get him a spot in the Flyers Hall of Fame.
Once the back problems took hold and Eric Lindros was gone, LeClair was much less productive and durable. As an aging player in the 2000s, LeClair was more of a 20-25 goal scorer than the machine-like power forward he had been during the Legion of Doom days. In the years that followed after the back surgery, he was set back by a separated shoulder that cost him 47 games in 2002-03 and a foot fracture in 2003-04 that set him back for a month even after his ahead-of-schedule return to the lineup.
When I was growing up, I always enjoyed reading the "Who's Better?" feature in Hockey Digest, in which two NHL stars would be compared in various aspects of their games and the writer would come to a final conclusion as to which player was the superior all-around player. I didn't always agree with which player was given the nod, but it was entertaining reading.
For years, I have toyed with the idea of adapting the same idea to comparing Flyers players head-to-head. However, additional context needs to be added to adjust for era (as best as possible) for players who were not contemporaries. The very best players could be effective in any era given adjustments in their training techniques and the advances in the technology and gear -- such as today's goalie equipment versus the much smaller and less protective equipment of the 1970s to late-1980s.
If I ever do such a series of blogs in a future off-season, the two players with whom I'd start are LeClair and Tim Kerr. I find it nearly impossible to choose which oak tree-like power forward was the "better" player for the Flyers. They were simultaneously very similar and very different players.
Both LeClair and Kerr had tremendous size and strength to bull their way to the slot or set up shop in the crease. Both were generally quiet and stoic sorts who led by example. Both were underrated in their ability to score goals in different ways apart from deflections and rebound put-backs in front. LeClair also had an overpowering slap shot he could unleash from anywhere over the blueline, while Kerr was also deadly from about 25 feet away from the net and could score from his knees or even flat on his belly better than just about any player I've ever seen (including LeClair, who was quite adept in his own right). Both players started out their NHL careers as centers but were better known as wingers. Both could score goals by the bushel and turn the tide of a game that started out poorly.
There were also some notable differences, apart from LeClair shooting left and Kerr shooting right. For instance, Kerr fought quite a bit (and was good at it) early in his NHL career, whereas LeClair only had one fighting major in his Flyers career; and that one wasn't even a bona fide fight. LeClair was deserving of more serious consideration for the Lady Byng Trophy than he ever got. LeClair could get physical -- just a dip of his shoulder often sent would-be checkers tumbling to the ice -- but he was one of the cleanest checkers I ever saw. Fortunately for opponents, LeClair was usually slow to anger. Kerr was peaceful until provoked but could get pretty nasty in his own right if he had to.
Neither LeClair nor Kerr were artistic skaters or Selke Trophy candidates as defensive players but I thought LeClair was the better of the two in that area, especially in his younger years before he slowed down. On the flip side, LeClair sometimes had a tendency to overstay shifts whereas Kerr paced himself a bit better. In terms of even-strength effectiveness, I'd give LeClair the nod over Kerr but no one could touch Kerr when it came to being a power play juggernaut.
Durability-wise, LeClair would get a major edge over Kerr despite the fact that LeClair started to break down physically once he hit his 30s. In his 20s, LeClair was seemingly indestructible. With Kerr, there were major injuries to his knees and, later, his shoulder, that set him back early in his career and cut his prime shorter than it otherwise would have been.
Kerr had an advantage over LeClair of playing in the high-scoring 1980s to early 1990s, whereas LeClair's best seasons came in the mid-to-late 1990s when scoring was decreasing leaguewide amidst rampant clutch-and-grab defense and widespread copycatting of the Jacques Lemaire version of the neutral zone trap. Teams stocked up on huge defensemen specifically to combat players like LeClair and Lindros. That said, a healthy Kerr would still have piled up the goals in any era and I don't think LeClair would have scored more in the 1980s than he did as Lindros' linemate.
Very honestly, even as I try to come up with a final verdict of which player was "better," I still don't know which one I'd pick. I just think I was fortunate to watch both of them play, and that the Flyers were even more fortunate to have had both players on the team. If I had to be pinned down on one or the other, I guess I'd give the narrowest of victories to LeClair on the basis of greater NHL longevity.
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Team of the 2000s: Defensemen
In yesterday's reader poll to select the top six wingers on the Flyers' Team of the 2000s, the winners were Simon Gagne, LeClair, Mark Recchi, Scott Hartnell, Jakub Voracek and Mike Knuble. The non-placers will get a second chance for one of the final two spots in a run-off vote after the other positions and a coach are selected. Sami Kapanen was the top finisher among those who did not get a top-six spot.
Today, we'll pick the top five starting defensemen. The final starting spot and a reserve will be chosen in a run-off. The top four should pretty much be a landslide, but the battle for the lower spot(s) will be interesting.
Just a reminder that the Team of the 2000s series is intended to look only at what Flyers players accomplished from the 2000-01 season to the current day. As noted earlier, LeClair's string of 50-goal seasons in the mid-to-late 1990s -- rather than his performance from 2000 onward -- likely played a huge part in why he was so overwhelmingly selected to a starting wing.
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Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. Apart from competing in the triatholon, Lappy is raising funds for a variety of charitable causes: the IRONMAN Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and Go4theGoal Foundation- Tunes4Teens. Laperriere has set a $10,000 fundraising goal. For more information or to make a donation,
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