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***luke*** · 03-15-2024, 06:46 AM

Alonzo Garbanzo
@ArGarBarGar

There have been a lot of defensemen who have played in the SHL. There are a lot of defensemen in this top 75 list. There are even a few who were his contemporaries from the S20’s and S30’s who have made this list. But there is only one defenseman who is the clear cut best who ever played, and that is Alonzo Garbanzo.

He wasn’t one of those defenders who had a couple of good seasons to win a couple of awards. He had a 2 decade stretch of dominance which ended up leaving him as the top scoring defender of all time, winner of 5 Scott Stevens awards and an additional 5 nominations, 9 times a first team all-star with 3 additional mentions, winner of the Ron Mexico award for Most Valuable Player in the league once and nominated for a second - his accomplishments transcend being just a Hall of Fame player. What he was able to do had never been done before, and has never been duplicated since. Let’s break down his career to see what exactly makes him the undisputed champion of SHL blueliners.

Garbanzo’s story begins in the S21 Entry Draft when he was selected 2nd Overall by the Minnesota Chiefs (now Monarchs). Obviously an excellent selection as he would play his entire career with the team (his user ArGarBarGar was also GM of MInnesota from S26-S32). He was immediately called up to the main squad to play his first season. He made an immediate impact as the 4th highest scorer on the team, notching 28 points as a rookie defender. The Chiefs were not a great team when he joined, and struggled to just 16 wins on the season. But with Garbanzo as a core piece, they had something to build around for the future. Within a couple seasons they were back to being a winning team, with Garbanzo playing consistently, and adding a new physical element to his game, going above 100 hits for the first time in S23 - which he would then do for 14 seasons straight!

In S24 he had his first breakout season to let the league know he was becoming one of the elite players. It was his first time breaking the 40-point plateau, finishing with 5 goals and 37 assists. He also added 161 hits and 69 blocked shots. This season got him recognition from the awards voters, being named as a 2nd Team All-Star, winning the Aidan Richan award for breakout player of the year, and receiving his first nomination for the Scott Stevens award. Just a sign of what was ahead for his career.

S26 was his next big season, scoring 48 points and adding 188 hits (a career high) despite Minnesota having a losing record. His season was good enough though to see him named as a 1st Team All-Star, and receiving his second nomination for the Stevens award.

S27 saw him finally break through to have a truly outstanding season - his 16 goals and 45 points led all defensemen in scoring and with 160 hits and 81 shots blocked he had shown he was a two-way threat. He led the Chiefs in scoring that season, a rare feat for a defenseman to outscore all the forwards on the team. His efforts earned him not only a 1st team All-Star, but he finally won his first Stevens award. But not only that, he was recognized by the committee as the winner of the Ron Mexico award for league MVP! He was just the 3rd defenseman to ever do so after Jason Due and Chris Partlow. This season cemented him already as one of the all-time greats, and he was only 7 seasons into his career.

S28 was a bit of a down year after that, with Garbanzo only managing a 34 point season, but S29 was a resurgent one, seeing Garbanzo collect 45 points again as Minnesota won the President’s Cup with the best record in the regular season. Garbanzo earned a 3rd Team All Star nod for his efforts.

The Chiefs kept up their strong play in S30, and Garbanzo was a huge part of their success. In this season he had his highest point total of his career with 55 points. He was a strong two-way defender as well, with 172 hits and 104 blocked shots he showed that he was a presence at both ends of the rink. Once again he was a 1st Team All-Star and he received his 4th nomination for the Stevens award.

S31 was another amazing season for Garbanzo. He had his 2nd straight point per game season with 51 points, finishing 2nd in the league for assists (44), and 4th in blocked shots (103). Good enough to earn his 2nd Stevens win and 5th time nominated. He was also nominated once again for the Ron Mexico award, once again joining Due and Partlow as the only 2 defenders to be nominated twice. And once again he was a 1st Team All-Star, the 3rd time he had done so.

At this point, Garbanzo had already established himself as the premier defender in the league. He could have hung his hat on those accomplishments and still be regarded as one of the best of all time, but he was not done yet, not even close.

In S33 he won yet another Stevens award and another 1st Team All-Star as he notched 48 points which was T1st for defensemen but he added 110 blocked shots, which was his career high and 1st in the league. In S34 he had 49 points and a 2nd Team All-Star. S35 he had 48 points - another 1st Team All-Star, another Stevens nom. S36 he had 52 points, another Stevens nom and another 1st Team All-Star.

S37, well more of the same. 3rd in the league in assists, and 47 points. He won the Stevens award for the 4th time on his 9th nomination, and named a 1st Team All-Star for the 8th time. An absolutely dominant career at this point, racking up more hardware than any other player of his era, but the one thing missing was a Challenge Cup.

That changed in S39. Ironically, after so many seasons where Garbanzo carried a sometimes terrible team to earn individual awards without much team success, finally the team propped him up on a rare down season for him. 33 points was his worst season stats wise since way back in S23. But the Chiefs had a great playoff run, going 12-3 to capture their first Cup since S12. Garbanzo had 14 points in the 15 games to prove he wasn’t done yet!

The Cup win seemed to breathe new life into Garbanzo as he had a resurgent season in S40. In his 20th season in the league, he scored 47 points which led all defense. For the 10th time he was nominated for the Stevens award, and for the 5th time he was named the winner! The first defender to ever win 5 Stevens awards, breaking the previous record set by Darian Scherbluk. For the 9th time in his career he was named a 1st Team All-Star.

He had a couple more 40+ point seasons after that, but it was the last awards or all-stars he earned, and when S44 ended with Garbanzo scoring only 23 points, the lowest of his career, he decided to hang up the skates for good.

For his career he played in 1208 games and his stats are something to behold. 208 goals is first place in SHL history. 765 assists is also first, almost 200 more than 2nd place, and his 973 points is 220 more than the next best, The only defenseman to be in the top 40 of all-time scorers even to this day. He played more games than any other defender until Slip McScruff broke that record. To play them all with the same team, through good times and bad, is a testament to his character and loyalty.

More than anything else what makes him so great is that he played at an extremely high level for so many seasons. His first Stevens nomination was in S24, his 10th and final was in S40, a stretch of 17 seasons total. 12 times he was named an all-star. Twice he was nominated for the Ron Mexico, winning it once, showing that he wasn’t just a great defenseman, but one of the best players in the league. It is hard to imagine that anyone will ever break his records, even in the FHM inflation era nobody has ever had that type of consistency to even come close. He was a special player in the Golden Age of the SHL, and he stands above all others as the best defenseman to ever play, and in fact narrowly lost a tie-breaker to be number 1 of all time.

As we get into the top 10, we are also going to be sharing where they got ranked on everyone’s ballots. For Garbanzo he had x1 #3 vote, x5 #2 vote, and x3 #1 vote. Both Visser and Garbanzo tied with 415 votes by the committee. Going into the runoff, Visser won the runoff off of the closest split possible. X5 votes for Visser, and x4 votes for Garbanzo.

Written by @Muerto

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