I kind of miss seeing Paul Coffey doing one of his patented end-to-end runs, but hardly any defenseman has the balls to attempt that anymore (Bobby Orr was a bit before my time). Apparently from what I can gather Coffey was the last guy to get 30 goals, in 1988. Nicky Lidstrom is the prototype of the modern “offensive” defenseman, but his high in goals is 20. Is it because few coaches now would tolerate a D-man taking such chances, that the opposing players are that much bigger and faster than they used to be (on average) such that you can’t skate around them, or because a player with such predilections is quickly shunted to forward at a pretty early age in the youth leagues? I’m sure that the higher goalie save percentages they have now don’t help either.
30-goal defenseman were always a bit outlier though. I think Mike Green is only the seventh or eighth guy in history to do it, after Orr, Coffey, Ray Bourque, Denis Potvin, Kevin Hatcher, Phil Housley, and maybe one more that I can’t think of right now.
Hockey is so defensive-minded right now, though, that even if a forward gets to 30 goals, he’s doing very well. Green’s already impressive 2007-08 (he even missed fourteen games that year) when adjusted to 80s scoring levels is on par with some of Coffey’s Oiler years.
All the links I followed were older than that season. Still, he’s the first one to do it in 20 years. You almost need a forward to cover for the D guy if he is being aggressive, which can lead to all sorts of mayhem (odd man rushes) if the other team gets control of the puck.
First of all, the last defenceman before Green to get 30 goals was Kevin Hatcher, in 1994, with 34.
As to how often we’ll see it in the future, it entirely depends on the scoring conditions of the sport as a whole.
When Paul Coffey scored 48 goals in 1985-86, he did so in a league where the average team scored almost four goals a game. The mid 80’s were, by far, the highest scoring era in NHL history. When Green scored 31 for the Caps last season teams scored about two and a half goals per game. In context, Green’s accomplishment is not much less impressive than Coffey’s.