There are lots of lists revolving around best players of all time.  There are limited amounts of discussion as to who are/were the best role players of all time.

Two categories are

A) Best shut down player

canditaes:

1 Bob Gainey
2 Guy Carbonneau
3 Jere Lehtinen
4 Doug Jarvis
5 Craig Ramsay

B) Grittiest Players of all time

1) Dale Hunter
2) Terry O'Reilly
3) Bobby Clarke
4) Cam Neely
5) John Tonelli

I'd especially like to hear about players from the 60s and 50s as you don't hear much about role players from that era.

Feel free to add other types of roles to this thread.