Fox has more defensive zone starts 5v5 than Miller. He starts a greater percentage of his starts in the offensive zone because he’s also great offensively, but by any objective measure, the Fox-Lindgren pairing takes harder matchups than the Trouba-Miller pairing. Using the eye test for that is one of the worst things to use it for, because we simply can’t keep track of matchups with any regularity. Preferring Dahlin for his more dynamic and physical skills is fair, but the entire premise of Fox being an Ehrhoff type who benefits more from those around him than they do him, as if he’s not a clear cut top 5 defenseman, is absurd.
He may have more D zone starts by volume. But even then, at even strength, Miller plays as many or more minutes than Fox over the last couple years. So i'm not sure where you're getting that idea from. Trouba and Miller have a noticeably lower OZone start% than Fox and Lindgren.
You're saying the "eye test" is a bad way of measuring things, but to me...that remains the gold standard of actually "watching hockey". It's literally "watching hockey". And every time i watch the Rangers (which is a lot tbh), i see Trouba getting thrown out in his own zone for those critical defensive matchups.
The whole Ehrhoff thing is maybe hyperbole. But the reality with Ehrhoff, is that he was a badass. He completely transformed a lot of the way the Canucks could play during that era. He turned them from a team, to a contender. But the underlying reality was...he got tissue soft minutes. He absolutely crushed them, as Fox does. But i don't think you can just overlook the way that every big DZone faceoff where it's feasible...the coach is throwing somebody else over the boards. Fox isn't
nearly as skewed as Ehrhoff was. But i was trying to use it as an illustrative point.
In that sense, i don't think Fox "benefits more from those around him" per se. He's a top tier offensive defenceman, and he's really not bad defensively. It's just that symbioses of being able to kill his minutes in his role, because there are others around him that are also very good in different ways.