The evaluation of defensive play throughout NHL history has always been a work in progress, especially when you get outside of the bubble of NHL coaching and management and delve into the media and general public’s opinion on it. While we can go back as far as the start of the NHL in 1917/18 to see offensive statistics like goals, assists and points, in terms of defensive play we’re left to nothing but the word of people at the time who saw them play, and, if we’re lucky, some grainy footage.