Why Adam Fox is Rangers best right-shot defenseman all-time
Adam Fox has wasted no time becoming one of the elite defensemen in the NHL and one of the best in New York Rangers history.
At age 26, he’s already won the Norris Trophy as the League’s top defenseman (2020-21), been a First-Team All-Star twice (2020-21 and 2022-23) and a Second-Team All-Star once (2023-24). He’s exceeded 70 points in each of the past three seasons, finished at least plus-18 in each of his five seasons in the League and set NHL career highs in goals in each of the past three seasons, including 17 in 2024-24.
That’s quite a list of accomplishments for a player so young.
But Fox has already raised another interesting question: Is he the best right-shot defenseman in Rangers history?
The competition isn’t as tough as you might think. Of the 50 highest-scoring D-men in franchise history, only 18 (including Fox) are right-handed shooters. All five defensemen who’ve played at least 800 games with the Rangers were left-hand shots, as were nine of the 13 defensemen who’ve played for them on the way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. None of the Rangers’ four right-handed shots in the Hall have played more than 288 games with the team; Fox (357) will pass the 400-game mark midway through the season.
Brian Leetch? Brad Park? Harry Howell? Ron Greschner? Each a left-shot defenseman.
Related: Alexis Lafreniere ranked No. 14 among NHL players/prospects under 23
Ranking Adam Fox against best right-shot defensemen in Rangers history
So, is Fox the best right-shot defenseman ever to play for the Rangers? It’s hard to come to any other verdict. Here’s a look at Fox and five of the other top candidates (Minimum 150 games with the Rangers).
Adam Fox
Seasons: 5 (2019-present)
Games played: 357
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points-Plus/Minus): 53-255-308, Plus-108 (.86 Pt/G)
Here’s a scary thought: Fox is still getting better. His three 70-point seasons are more than any other New York blueliner not named Brian Leetch. His 308 points are already seventh among defensemen in Rangers history. Another 70-point season will push him into the top-four. His peak seasons are still ahead of him.
Fox can do just about everything. He’s effective in his own zone, moves the puck smoothly and quickly in transition, is the best power-play quarterback the Rangers have had since Leetch’s glory days in the 1990s and developed a shooting touch that’s reminiscent of Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom — he doesn’t shoot rockets, but he knows how to get his shots through to the net, where it often goes in or gives teammates the chance to score on tips and rebounds.
The native of Jericho, New York, made it clear while at Harvard that the Rangers were the only team he would play for. They’re lucky he did.
James Patrick
Seasons: 11 (1984-93)
Games played: 671
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points-Plus/Minus): 104-363-467, Plus-66 (.70 Pt/G)
Patrick was a very good defenseman for the Rangers during his 10-plus seasons — in fact, he was arguably the best right-shot defenseman in team history until Fox came along.
He reached double figures in goals and had at least 40 points for seven straight seasons (1985-86 through 1991-92). He’s third all-time in scoring among Rangers defensemen — and the only right-hand shot among the top five. Patrick is also one of just seven Rangers defensemen to score at least 70 points in a season. He finished plus-34 in 1991-92, the best mark by any Rangers defensemen between 1972-73 and 2005-06.
The only unfortunate part of Patrick’s time in New York was that he missed out on the 1994 Stanley Cup run. After a down season in 1992-93 and a slow start in 1993-94, Patrick was traded to the Hartford Whalers on Nov. 2, 1993, as part of the package that brought back Steve Larmer, a two-way forward who played a key role in the quest for the Cup. The Whalers traded him to the Calgary Flames later in 1993-94; he played four more seasons with the Flames and six with the Buffalo Sabres before finishing his 21-season NHL career in 2004 (he played 2005-06 in Germany before hanging up his skates for good).
Patrick was a solid player who compiled good stats over a long career. But he was never selected for the NHL All-Star Game, never made a postseason All-Star team and never finished better than eighth in voting for the Norris Trophy — which leaves him behind Fox.
Sergei Zubov
Seasons: 3 (1992-95)
Games played: 165
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points-Plus/Minus): 30-126-156, Plus-17 (.95 Pt/G)
Zubov started his road to the Hockey Hall of Fame with three seasons in New York after the Rangers snagged him with a fifth-round pick in the 1990 NHL Draft.
There was no question about Zubov’s skills right from the start. He came to North America in the fall of 1992, was in the NHL in early December and a regular before the new year began. The following season, he led the Rangers in scoring with 89 points, including 77 assists, still the second-highest single-season total in team history. He followed that by contributing 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) to help the Rangers win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years.
Zubov put up good numbers in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 regular season (10 goals, 36 points in 38 games), then had three goals and 11 points in 10 playoff games. But the Rangers already had a star offensive defenseman in Leetch and wanted a more physical presence, so they traded Zubov to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the summer of 1995. The Penguins sent him to the Dallas Stars a year later. He excelled in Dallas for more than a decade, helping the Stars win their first Stanley Cup championship in 1999.
Though Zubov averaged nearly a point per game and won the Stanley Cup with the Rangers, his short time in New York leaves him behind Fox among righties.
Reijo Ruotsalainen
Seasons: 5 (1981-86)
Games played: 389
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points-Plus/Minus): 99-217-316, Plus-62 (.82 PT/G)
Few fans who saw Ruotsalainen make his NHL debut at the Garden on Oct. 6, 1981, had any idea who he was. They learned pretty quickly.
The Rangers selected the Finland-born defenseman in the sixth round of the 1980 NHL Draft and came to New York after helping Karpat win the championship in Liiga, Finland’s top league.
At 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, “Rexi” was small even by the standards of the early 1980s. But he could fly — few defensemen in the Rangers’ 98-year history were faster. He also had a tremendous shot, although he wasn’t always on target.
Still, he was accurate enough to score 34 goals in his first two NHL seasons, followed by a 20-goal performance in 1983-84. For an encore, he set a still-standing team record for goals by a defenseman in 1984-85 with 28, as well as an NHL career-high 73 points (though he was also minus-22, the only time in his Rangers career that he finished less than plus-17).
Ruotsalainen’s offensive numbers dropped a bit in 1985-86 (though his plus-minus rebounded to plus-22). But his contract was up and Ruotsalainen opted to play a season in Switzerland; the Rangers traded his NHL rights and he returned with the Edmonton Oilers late in 1986-87 and helped them win the Stanley Cup for the third time in four seasons. After two seasons in Europe, he played with the New Jersey Devils and Oilers in 1989-90, helping the Oilers win their fifth title in seven seasons.
Despite five-season offensive totals that are slightly better than Fox’s, Ruotsalainen never finished higher than 13th in voting for the postseason NHL All-Star teams and was chosen for the All-Star Game just once (1986). He was more exciting than Fox, but not as good a player.
Ott Heller
Seasons: 15 (1931-46)
Games played: 649
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points): 46-176-230 (Plus/Minus not kept) (.35 Pt/G)
Heller played his entire NHL career with the Rangers, signing with the team in 1931 and playing until 1946. He spent three seasons as captain and was the only player who was a member of both the 1933 and 1940 Stanley Cup-winning teams.
To say Heller was durable would be an understatement. He missed all of four games during an eight-season stretch (1933-34 through 1940-41), and his 649 games played are still seventh all-time among Rangers defensemen — but No. 1 among those from the team’s first 25 seasons.
Defensemen weren’t big scorers in Heller’s era, and he broke the 20-point mark just twice in his 15 NHL seasons. His career high was 35 in 1943-44, and his only postseason All-Star selection came in 1940-41, when he was selected to the Second Team after scoring all of 18 points in 48 games. But he was dependable as any team could ask in his own zone, and his offensive numbers would have been a lot higher if he’d played in the expansion era.
It’s hard to compare players from such different eras, but Fox’s abundance of honors puts him ahead of Heller.
Dan Girardi
Seasons: 11 (2007-17)
Games played: 788
Scoring (Goals-Assists-Points-Plus/Minus): 46-184-230, Plus-54 (.29 Pt/G)
No right-shot defenseman in Rangers history has played more games than Girardi, who made a career for himself after signing with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent coming out of junior hockey.
The Rangers called up Girardi midway through 2006-07, his second season in the minors. He turned into one of the most durable Rangers ever, missing a total of five games during his first eight full seasons and averaging 22:15 of ice time with the Rangers. Unlike Fox, Girardi did his best work in his own zone, finishing with at least 123 blocked shots in 10 of his 11 seasons on Broadway, including each of the last nine, and more than 100 hits in all 11.
It’s not that Girardi didn’t produce some offense — he scored 10 goals in his first full NHL season and averaged more than 20 points. That doesn’t look too impressive, until you realize that 57.5 of the face-offs when he was on the ice took place in the defensive zone. He was out there to keep opponents from scoring; his offense was a bonus.
Girardi’s style would have made him an interesting partner for Fox, providing a stay-at-home presence that would let him join the attack.
And the winner is …
By all available measures, Fox is the best right-handed shot the Rangers have ever had on the blue line. Even better for Rangers fans, it looks like there’s a lot more to come. By the time he hangs up his skates, he may well have lapped the field.
More About:New York Rangers Analysis