HFBoards Top 32 Defensemen - #9

[LT]

Rank	Player	Votes	Team	GP	G	A	P
1	Cale Makar	85/111 (77%)	Colorado Avalanche	77	28	58	86
2	Victor Hedman	196/269 (73%)	Tampa Bay Lightning	82	20	65	85
3	Roman Josi	121/197 (61%)	Nashville Predators	80	23	73	96
4	Adam Fox	106/175 (61%)	New York Rangers	78	11	63	74
5	Charlie McAvoy	142/224 (63%)	Boston Bruins	78	10	46	56
6	Miro Heiskanen	79/212 (37%)	Dallas Stars	70	5	31	36
7	Aaron Ekblad	62/156 (40%)	Florida Panthers	61	15	42	57
8	Jaccob Slavin	89/160 (56%)	Carolina Hurricanes	79	4	38	42
9
10

To add:
Mackenzie Weegar
Jonas Brodin
Jared Spurgeon
Alex Pietrangelo
Zach Werenski
Dougie Hamilton
John Klingberg
Jakob Chychrun
Brent Burns
Erik Karlsson
Adam Pelech
Noah Dobson

Click to read more...

 

[strattonius]

Heck, what makes Hughes better than Rielly?

In fairness, I think we are in splitting hairs mode for a while and are in a big tier of "the non-elite #1D"

Cause Hughes is a one man breakout. His skating is second to only Makar. His defensive game is under-rated - he's turned Luke Schenn in to a viable big minute d-man. He is an incredible playmaking defenseman. To say he's just 'getting touches' on an average powerplay to inflate his numbers is some of the stupidest crap I've ever read on here.

He's going to clinch the spot and rightfully so. Won't have to hear someone pretend Morgan Reilly is anywhere close in talent. At least its not the Tyson Barrie comparisons Canuck fans had to endure last year.

 

[Ace of Hades]

Miller and Hughes accounted for a lot of the points on an average powerplay. I'm not sure this is the argument in your favor you think it is.

Oh I didn't realize that Hughes was the only D on the list that had a subpar partner! My bad!

No, because you seemingly have shown the inability to comprehend what Hughes did for the powerplay.

Let me know when they had to carry a defensive minded #6-7D for the whole regular season and get ES points.

 

[McJedi]

Hughes, Letang than Toews.

 

[Breakers]

At even strength he had fewer points than guys like Theodore, Forsling, Skjei or Faulk.

So by that logic Faulk > Fox

 

[biturbo19]

It feels like Letang is getting dinged a bit just because he's older. But for one season only, i'd still take him over Hughes for my team. Longer term, obviously it's not even a question. But right now? Letang is similarly productive offensively, and quite a bit better all around defensively.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Hughes. Can’t wait until the team finally finds a higher end partner for him like most of the guys on this list already have. Luke Schenn is a warrior but Hughes numbers would be even better with a legitimate top 4 guy that could create some offense.

 

[4Twenty]

Quinn Hughes is on my favourite team but I wouldn’t choose him in the top 20 because i don’t think he can handle high leverage defensive minutes. I love watching him play hockey but in terms of effectiveness it’s mostly offensively.


Drew Doughty looked like a renaissance man last season before the injury.


It shouldn’t be about only points like it appears to be.

 

[biturbo19]

Quinn Hughes is on my favourite team but I wouldn’t choose him in the top 20 because i don’t think he can handle high leverage defensive minutes. I love watching him play hockey but in terms of effectiveness it’s mostly offensively.


Drew Doughty looked like a renaissance man last season before the injury.


It shouldn’t be about only points like it appears to be.

I agree with the overall premise here completely...but after Slavin and Heiskanen winning two of the last three spots, i don't know that you can say it's just "only about points".

 

[4Twenty]

I agree with the overall premise here completely...but after Slavin and Heiskanen winning two of the last three spots, i don't know that you can say it's just "only about points".

“The current discussion” promoting Hughes is almost all about points and who he’s getting those points with.

I missed the previous 8 threads

 

[Stealth JD]

More it cider or Dahlin for me.

 

[Regal]

Miller and Hughes accounted for a lot of the points on an average powerplay. I'm not sure this is the argument in your favor you think it is.

Oh I didn't realize that Hughes was the only D on the list that had a subpar partner! My bad!

The PP was closer to 5th than it was to 11th. I think you’re really underrating the percentage differences between PPs by calling it average. And if only a handful of teams are good or bad on the PP, and the rest are average, I don’t think this criticism is in your favour the way you think it is. Why would Hughes be held up to have to bring a PP to the level of the Leafs or Edmonton, when they have multiple elite players on their PPs? Hughes came onto a team that was 22nd in the league before his rookie year and immediately made an impact. Meanwhile, Colorado was 0.5% better this year with Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen on it. How good do you expect Vancouver’s PP to be?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

It feels like Letang is getting dinged a bit just because he's older. But for one season only, i'd still take him over Hughes for my team. Longer term, obviously it's not even a question. But right now? Letang is similarly productive offensively, and quite a bit better all around defensively.

Age has nothing to do with it. Letang's been getting underrated on HF for years, even during his prime when he was getting top 5 Norris trophy votes and HF was ranking him outside the top 10.

 

[4Twenty]

Age has nothing to do with it. Letang's been getting underrated on HF for years, even during his prime when he was getting top 5 Norris trophy votes and HF was ranking him outside the top 10.

Crosby overshadows everyone on that team though. Hence Malkin being snubbed on the NHL top 100 list for a guy like Toews who looks toasted at 32.

 

[wintersej]

The PP was closer to 5th than it was to 11th. I think you’re really underrating the percentage differences between PPs by calling it average. And if only a handful of teams are good or bad on the PP, and the rest are average, I don’t think this criticism is in your favour the way you think it is. Why would Hughes be held up to have to bring a PP to the level of the Leafs or Edmonton, when they have multiple elite players on their PPs? Hughes came onto a team that was 22nd in the league before his rookie year and immediately made an impact. Meanwhile, Colorado was 0.5% better this year with Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen on it. How good do you expect Vancouver’s PP to be?

If the Hughes argument is truly hanging its hat on the PP production to argue he is a top 10 all around d-man, I would expect it to be elite.

 

[DrDangles]

I'd love to hear the argument for Hughes over Letang.

 

[wintersej]

Hughes. Can’t wait until the team finally finds a higher end partner for him like most of the guys on this list already have. Luke Schenn is a warrior but Hughes numbers would be even better with a legitimate top 4 guy that could create some offense.

Makar and Ekblad had higher end partners. Who else?

 

[Face Of Bear]

Hughes is so overrated here.

Rielly >>> Hughes in every aspect of the game AINEC

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Hughes is so overrated here.

Rielly >>> Hughes in every aspect of the game AINEC

He's definitely overrated And if you look at the voting, majority of Hughes votes are just Canuck fans which is what always completely invalidates these lists.


That being said... In what world is Rielly better then Hughes Neither guy belongs anywhere near the Top 10 but Hughes certainly belongs higher then Rielly.


Riellly is the one who's extremely overrated.

 

[biturbo19]

Age has nothing to do with it. Letang's been getting underrated on HF for years, even during his prime when he was getting top 5 Norris trophy votes and HF was ranking him outside the top 10.

Fair enough. He's always been one of my favourite players, so it's possible i've always kinda overrated him personally, but it has never really felt like he gets the respect he deserves at large. Spent so many years sorta written off as some sort of "offensive defenceman who just posts points because Le Croz and Geno". Even though that wasn't true. To now...i don't even know what the excuse is.

Felt for years like even a lot of Pens fans didn't really respect Letang's contributions. lol.

 

[Face Of Bear]

He's definitely overrated And if you look at the voting, majority of Hughes votes are just Canuck fans which is what always completely invalidates these lists.


That being said... In what world is Rielly better then Hughes Neither guy belongs anywhere near the Top 10 but Hughes certainly belongs higher then Rielly.


Riellly is the one who's extremely overrated.

Rielly is better at offense and defense

tbh I think Hughes is literally the worst Dman on the list right now

edit: he's even worse than half the D next up on the list good god...

 

[Regal]

If the Hughes argument is truly hanging its hat on the PP production to argue he is a top 10 all around d-man, I would expect it to be elite.

While I didn’t vote for him, I don’t believe his argument is only on the PP. He’s also one of the best transition defensemen in the game, and his ES points are hindered by a weak ES scoring team in general. Regardless, your argument that he’s not elite on the PP is poor. He’s definitely one of the better PP QBs in the game. Your expectations of what one player can do to a team’s PP% are unrealistic, unless you’re just saying he’d have to be superhuman on the PP to justify the ranking. Which I don’t think is necessarily true, though I do agree that his ES play probably isn’t strong enough yet for him to go here

 

[PuckG]

Hughes getting overrated drastically again.

 

[Paul4587]

Quinn Hughes is really f***ing good. It’s him here. I don’t get the criticism about his defensive game. Is he perfect? No but his transition defense is elite and overall he’s above average defensively. His QOC was also at a respectable level last season, he wasn’t as sheltered like he has been in years past.

Pretty good list so far, I think Heiskanen is a bit high but other than that can’t really complain about anything.

 

[Three On Zero]

Hughes getting overrated drastically again.

Don’t worry, once the poll gets to around the 30th spot Nurse might come up

Age has nothing to do with it. Letang's been getting underrated on HF for years, even during his prime when he was getting top 5 Norris trophy votes and HF was ranking him outside the top 10.

Letang has never gotten the respect he’s earned. It’s odd

 

[PuckG]

Don’t worry, once the poll gets to around the 30th spot Nurse might come up


Letang has never gotten the respect he’s earned. It’s odd

I mean I fully acknowledge Hughes is better than Nurse, but the gap between the two isn't what you want it to be, that's for certain. Nice and timely for you to make the comparison after an injury ridden year for Nurse though.

Hughes is maybe top 15. Ranked 9 is ridiculous.