When I think of policeman I think of a guy who doesn't start trouble , but keeps the goons in line. For me that's
Clark Gillies. He would throw his weight around but never bullied much -in fact was a little absent on many occasions . You had to rile him up , but most left him alone. When a serious abuse took place (ie: Bossy -Hoyda ) Gillies took care of business.
I also have to say Fotiu - although he ran around like a derailed train ...he would rather intimidate than actually fight. He did this very effectively, better than just about anyone. The strange thing about Fotiu is he was a crappy player ( most policeman were good players ) -hard to protect a guy when you never play. But somehow he managed to keep the peace.
Guys like Porbert , Plett , Holmgren were both goons AND policeman ..depends on their mood... they'd bully, hit goalies, cause trouble...but other times they just kept teams honest.
All of these guys made their teammates bigger. I would say the original policeman was
John Ferguson ...an excellent player but in a league that no one was protected ...the NHL had someone valuable that could also straighten things out if need be.
Battleship Kelly in PGH had that ability of making the teammates bigger, as did O'Reilly (leading by example) , and Playfair ...who almost everyone left alone or paid a damaging price. Like Gillies I don't think LP liked fighting ..just got mad real quick.
Other policemen:
Schoenfeld ( young)
Beck
Larry Robinson
Orland Kurtenbach