Pretty shocked Parayko is tied for last on this. I think the offensive side is important but defense is the name of the game at that position and to me, he's the best on this list as far as defending goes. I cannot find it but I saw a tweet breaking down his metrics and they are pretty insane (if someone sees please post). The way this guy separates stick from puck and then goes coast to coast with total ease is so impressive. His size, speed, and stick has broken up too many odd man rushes to count.
Not many in STL doubt Parayko can be a #1 defender but STL already has one of the top #1's in Pietrangelo so a lot of the important zone starts go to AP27. If Colton was "the guy" in STL you can expect bigger numbers like you see with Jones.
Jones's stats are impressive but:
Jones offensive zone starts: 58.3%
Parayko offensive zone starts: 46.2%.
Jones has been playing on Columbus' top PP unit with the likes of Panarin, Wennberg, Atkinson, and Dubois.
Parayko playing on the 2nd with players like Berglund, Sobotka, Stastny and/or one of the rookies in the 2nd pairing.
Found this on another forum and stats per 60 minutes are very close and there's a huge gap in terms of zone starts:
CP Goals/60: .0229
SJ Goals/60:. 0487
CP Points/60: 1.220
SJ Points/60: 1.670
CP PIM/60: 0.496
SJ PIM/60: 0.835
CP BLK/60: 4.612
SJ BLK/60: 3.617
CP HIT/60: 3.583
SJ HIT/60: 2.957
I agree stats can be very telling but I think the casual fan relies too much the on basic stats to evaluate players. I don't believe these guys are that much better than Colton because they have a flashier stat sheet and I'd say he's definitely the better defender than at least 3 others on this list.