Gustav Forsling or Noah Hanifin?

[SeanMoneyHands]

Who's better?

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[Felidae]

This is just purely my observations watching both a fair amount this year

Forsling is more solid defensively imo. The rare times he's beat it's usually being outmuscled. He's the Panthers most reliable defenseman. Rarely see him caught out of position.

When Hanifin makes a defensive mistake, it's usually a mental lapse and a bit more egregious. It didnt happen too often this year and id say he was overall pretty reliable. Moreso than Weegar and Andersson who have similar offensive output.

Offensively, Hanifin is more noticeable when he's on. The combination of size and skating ability makes him harder to stop, and it can take over games. You sometimes wish he'd use his skating more offensively and a little bit less content just firing shots from the blueline though.

As for Forsling. He's pretty steady offensively. Doesn't stand out as much physically but he usually makes the smart, safe play. You won't see him giveaway the puck often with a stupid pass or low percentage shot.

Now statistically, Forsling and Hanifin have the same points this year. Forsling outproduced Hanifin last year. Hanifin had him beat in 2021-22 by 11 points, though Forsling didn't play in 11 games.

Hanifin has played on worse teams but Forsling doesn't get as much PP time. Would be interesting to see what Forsling could do QBing the 1st unit for an extended period of time. But until then I think this one is a wash.

Overall id say Forsling. Better defensively and perhaps some untapped potential offensively with how little PP time he gets. But I think it's a bit closer than the poll results suggest

 

[JaegerDice]

Pretty much even.