Lehtinen is not a checking line player, he's one of the best players in general, not a specific checking line player. Just because he's played on the Stars 3rd line last season, doesn't make him a checking line player.
My personal top would include Draper, Ricci, Thornton and Cooke, with Barnes and Dimaio as my nominations from the Stars.
Maybe it's just me, but when I hear checking line player I think player with little or no offensive ability.... meaning that I wouldn't include players like Ricci or Cooke.
When I think Checking Line players, I think defensive specialists. Ala, Ricci, Cooke, Draper, Maltby and some others.
I really liked San Jose's checking line of Ricci, Thornton, Sundstrom when it was together. All 3 are very good defensively.
Stephan Yelle is very underrated as a checking line player.
Scatchard has always been one of my favorites. He reminds me a lot of Joel Otto.
Aaron Asham.
Curtis Brown.
Ian Laperriere. Very underrated defensively and gritty as hell.
Scatchard gets my vote for the best one (well my favorite anyway).
I also like Mike Grier, but I'm not sure he can be considered one of the best, and he's having a horrid year on top of that.
I like Draper, Moreau, Cooke, Brown, Rolston and Thornton as well, and Stoll is going to become an elite one too IMO.
And one of the best if not the best in the game two years ago IMO (before getting his ridiculous UFA contract and being misused ever since) is Bobby Holik.
Peca does no longer look like the amazing checking center he was in Buffalo but he's still a pretty good choice.
And that Madden - Pandolfo - Langenbrunner line is altogether probably the best checking line in the NHL so they're all good choices too.
And finally Bulis is IMO also a very good speedy/high energy checking line winger but he's being used in an offensive role in Montreal for now as there's not a whole lot of talent up front after Koivu and Zednik. Still, I think he fits the checking liner description perfectly and will likely go back to that role once some more offensive touch is brought up (either from a trade or within the system).
Stephane Yelle has been surprisingly good in Calgary. He's got no offence, but if we're talking a guy who plays defence and does the little things right, he's great. Like Flames assistant coach Jim Playfair said the other night "when Yelle's on the ice you only have to worry about 4 players doing their job"
if you ignore his recent goalscoring outburst, Shean Donovan is a good one also
thought I would mention Linden here, since he's done a great job playing the shutdown role for us this season, and still managed to put up some offense at the same time..
he's also been our best faceoff man this year (and we're finally a top 10 faceoff team), and been key on our PK which has been between 3rd and 7th all season.
Cooke and Linden seem to have very solid chemistry together as well... too bad that Arvedson seems to be a step behind those two this year.
pj axelsson- innate sense of where the puck was/is/will be. stick is always in the right place, he uses his angles superbly, and last year he even chipped in some offense. excellent checking line player.
Primeau has played great since centering the Flyers checking line. After his offense stopped a few years ago we were basically paying him for nothing but now he is playing with heart every night and shutting down the top players in the league.
Brashear-Primeau-Kapanen is a very underrated checking line.
Primeau has played great since centering the Flyers checking line. After his offense stopped a few years ago we were basically paying him for nothing but now he is playing with heart every night and shutting down the top players in the league.
Brashear-Primeau-Kapanen is a very underrated checking line.
