The most underrated defensemen in the NHL

[Oak]

Devils fans are something else. Good luck with winning a cup with Luke Hughes as your number 1.

I'm not a Devils fan. Luke Hughes has not been that great and quite overrated so far. He is getting hype bc of name recognition only. I expect Nemec to become the superior defenseman, and I would be confident saying he already is.

You guys are like little children behind screens. You don't understand the game, you guys swoon over your players and the jerseys you wear. Study the game and imagine building a roster as a gm and maybe you will understand the sport better.

@Sdevils42 description of Fox was about as excellent as I've seen on this forum.

 

[dgibb10]

I'm not a Devils fan. Luke Hughes has not been that great and quite overrated so far. He is getting hype bc of name recognition only. I expect Nemec to become the superior defenseman, and I would be confident saying he already is.

You guys are like little children behind screens. You don't understand the game, you guys swoon over your players and the jerseys you wear. Study the game and imagine building a roster as a gm and maybe you will understand the sport better.

@Sdevils42 description of Fox was about as excellent as I've seen on this forum.

Luke is both underrated and overrated. He should not have been a calder finalist, and I'd say yes, Nemec was better (although Luke was a lot better the last 10 games or so than Nemec).

However, some are claiming he was bad this year and blaming every devils failure on him (because they look at +/- only)

He had a quality season thrust into 21:30 a night as a rookie. Not elite, but was more than good, especially away from terrorist brendan smith.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Luke Schenn.

Yes, he was drafted 5th overall and was hyped by leaf fans, but he struggled and looked like he wouldn't be in the league much longer after his time with the flyers.

He's a solid bottom pairing dman still who gives everything to his team.

He's been able to carve out a very nice career for himself.

 

[Dotter]

Haha! The most underrated defensemen in the NHL wasn't even mentioned in this thread! And he's been a freaking HORSE!

 

[deca guard]

It's Brent Burns! 17th all time in asssists amongst defensemen, 14th in points and 10th in goals. He's still going pretty strong and will likely climb a few spots in every cagegory before he retires and there's still some jobbers here that argue that he's not going to get into the Hall of fame...

such a power game too , dominates space with size and athleticism like few others . hes gonna play his game and wont be knocked off it like smaller less physical but highly offensively talented dmen can be . a power dman . playing in western time zone has hurt his popularity all these years

for detroits its walman , rugged/athletic/power skater/wicked slapper

 

[Caboose]

Many top defenseman that aren't flashy offensively or put up PPG are underrated.

The most underrated is Ekholm, he is so good defensively, but at the same time his offensive puck movement and instincts are so under rated.

I know people think he's good so he is not traditionally under rated, but he should be a considered a top 5 dman in the NHL.



My second place choice is Fox. It's hard to believe that a guy widely considered a top 10 dman in the NHL to be underrated, but the way this guy is left out of all top DMAN conversations is crazy. He should be right there consistently in the top 3 discussion.

 

[Human]

Fox has finished top 5 in Norris voting every year of his career other than his rookie year. Josi has finished top 5 in the Norris 4 of 11 years other than his rookie year.

Yes, Fox is the better defenseman.

You should be in commercials for Home Depot.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Luke is both underrated and overrated. He should not have been a calder finalist, and I'd say yes, Nemec was better (although Luke was a lot better the last 10 games or so than Nemec).

Nah he was definitely a deserved Calder finalist. Not deserving of a win (or being close to one, Faber was great and Bedard is, well, Bedard), but he drove offense every second he was on the ice, and was totally tolerable defensively (despite what non-watchers would have you think).

And he did it playing a full 82 game season, after two years on the college two games a week schedule. HE clearly hit a wall halfway through the season, played worse, and then pushed through it and was better than ever to close the year. It wasn't a perfect year, but for a 20 year old straight out of college, it has to be considering a rousing success.

And, I would happily try to win a cup with a prime Luke Hughes as my 1D. Funny thing is, the Devils won't even need to, lmao.

 

[Sdevils42]

This is a really good description of Fox imo.

Fox being top 5 in the league is highly subjective. He is definitely not top 2.

I thought it was a pretty fair assessment if you're being objective. He succeeds despite his physical limitations because he's such a smart savvy player.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Ian Cole. See what he does for other teams.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

I think he very well might be the most underrated player in the NHL over the last three seasons
Gets no chatter outside the Panthers thread.
14th in even strength points per 60
signed through 2032 at 5.75 million a year. What a catch in the 5th round.
GUSTAV FORSLING

Weird poem, but aight.

Also, you’re right, he’s very underrated and good.

 

[shaner8989]

Tanev
Zadarov
Forsling
McCabe

All fit imo.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Slavin is a guy that stands out anytime I watch Nashville play Carolina. He's a stud.

 

[madmike77]

Weegar is still underrated after all these years.

I was going to say Weegar. He had an amazing year, but he now plays for the Flames so no one notices or cares.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I'm sorry, but your point makes no sense. I've tried re-reading it a few times and its unintelligible.

McDavid doesn't finish 1st in the Hart every year. Neither does Makar in the Norris. Bergeron in the Selke (when he played). The best or second best at a given time doesn't need to be who literally finished in what spot in the voting. If you look at average finishes in something like the Norris the last 3-4 years, Fox will probably be top 2 with Makar with a gap to whoever is third.

Rookie: Not voted
1st: Norris
2nd: 5th
3rd: 2nd

The last 3-4 years is his whole career...also Hedman has the same number of top 5 finishes since Fox started playing as Fox does, 3. Josi and McAvoy both have 2.

The average placement over that time is 3 for Hedman, 2.6 for Fox, and 2 for Makar if we don't include years they weren't top 5.

If you do include those years, than it becomes Makar at 3.75, Hedman at 6, Fox at 8.25 and the other 2 at 9.25.

So the "gap" between those players is .4. Or at worst 2.25 and 1.

I can see why people think players with more of a history and more team success could prefer them. I mean, Hedman has literally won two cups in this time period, and a Conn Smythe, along with making it to the finals a 3rd time. Only Makar really comes close to that kind of resume since he also won a Smythe and a cup.

Fun fact! Bobby Orr is the only defenseman to win the Smythe twice, and one of only 6 players total to win it more than once, with Patrick Roy having 3 wins, the most, and Gretzky, Parent, Crosby, and Lemieux being the others with 2.

Also, EK received 123 votes for 1st the year he won, so I'm not sure how you can say people didn't think he was the best defenseman that year. If a Norris placement, your main argument, is such a good indicator of who the top d-men in the league are, than shouldn't you also be putting such weight into those same people saying EK was by far the best d-man that year?

I don't really have a bone in this fight, but I think it's hard to argue that Fox isn't universally acknowledged as a very good player, top 5 D-man currently, and potentially a top 2 or top 3 d-man as well, but that he's underrated. I think it's also pretty hard to argue that he's been a *far* better d-man than Hedman

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Rookie: Not voted
1st: Norris
2nd: 5th
3rd: 2nd

The last 3-4 years is his whole career...also Hedman has the same number of top 5 finishes since Fox started playing as Fox does, 3. Josi and McAvoy both have 2.

The average placement over that time is 3 for Hedman, 2.6 for Fox, and 2 for Makar if we don't include years they weren't top 5.

If you do include those years, than it becomes Makar at 3.75, Hedman at 6, Fox at 8.25 and the other 2 at 9.25.

So the "gap" between those players is .4. Or at worst 2.25 and 1.

I can see why people think players with more of a history and more team success could prefer them. I mean, Hedman has literally won two cups in this time period, and a Conn Smythe, along with making it to the finals a 3rd time. Only Makar really comes close to that kind of resume since he also won a Smythe and a cup.

Fun fact! Bobby Orr is the only defenseman to win the Smythe twice, and one of only 6 players total to win it more than once, with Patrick Roy having 3 wins, the most, and Gretzky, Parent, Crosby, and Lemieux being the others with 2.

Also, EK received 123 votes for 1st the year he won, so I'm not sure how you can say people didn't think he was the best defenseman that year. If a Norris placement, your main argument, is such a good indicator of who the top d-men in the league are, than shouldn't you also be putting such weight into those same people saying EK was by far the best d-man that year?

I don't really have a bone in this fight, but I think it's hard to argue that Fox isn't universally acknowledged as a very good player, top 5 D-man currently, and potentially a top 2 or top 3 d-man as well, but that he's underrated. I think it's also pretty hard to argue that he's been a *far* better d-man than Hedman

Hedman over the last 10 years has had a great run, but he's also undoubtedly slowing down. Last year he was 15th in Norris voting. He's 33 years old. I think he's only going in the wrong direction at this point. Not to say he hasn't had a great career, but all players hit that point of decline at some point.

And you kind of proved my point. Fox does have the highest average Norris finish in that span other than Makar and the gap isn't miniscule. Not saying it's ginormous, but it's big enough that he should be acknowledged as the second best defenseman.

 

[HabsAddict]

Kaiden Guhle.

Some of the "smart ones" think that we don't know his value and are suggesting idiocy like trading him for Kakko or late 1st.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

If you get mentioned more than two times in a thread about a player being underrated I'd argue you're properly rated.

 

[kihei]

Adam Larsson has been rock solid for the Kraken for three years. He certainly deserves a mention.

 

[Brookbank]

Filip Hronek. Especially now that the Canuck mob has turned on him and is constantly trashing him.

 

[ESH]

Luke is both underrated and overrated. He should not have been a calder finalist, and I'd say yes, Nemec was better (although Luke was a lot better the last 10 games or so than Nemec).

However, some are claiming he was bad this year and blaming every devils failure on him (because they look at +/- only)

He had a quality season thrust into 21:30 a night as a rookie. Not elite, but was more than good, especially away from terrorist brendan smith.

Who would you have put ahead of Hughes in Calder voting? He was tied for 2nd in scoring for all rookies

 

[JaegerDice]

The guys who were overrated for the longest time like Forsling, Toews, etc are finally getting their flowers.

My picks for the next batch of perpetually underrated guys:

Rasmus Andersson (underrated mostly because nobody pays attention to Calgary, for good reason)

Brady Skjei (underrated cause of who he plays with, on most teams he'd probably be their best or 2nd best D)

Marcus Pettersson (underrated because his coach seems not to like him very much for awhile)

 

[AvroArrow]

Why do people keep saying this like it's true?

Because Erik Karlsson who was arguably one of the worst players at actually defending in the league, won 3 Norris trophies, simply because he put up a lot of points while being dog shit defensively.

Defensive skills, literally AHL level, offensive skills like Cale Makar. He's probably the only one that it actually applies to, the other winners going back over 25 years were all elite defensively, or well above average defensively + elite offensively. He's the only guy that won while being horrendous in his own end and was shoved down our throats by the media.

I don't think it's true for anyone else, just him, but since it was so recent it's still in peoples minds.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Gotta cast my homer vote for Dahlin. So many people seem to think of him as a struggling offensive defenseman? But he’s been a dominant 3-zone 2-way player for 2 straight seasons now, and he’s quite physical. And he’s still only 23. If he played on either a better team or in a bigger market, he’d be a superstar.

 

[YippieKaey]

Probably Fehervary.

Interesting answer. He's not like top 20 in the league or anything but a very solid d-man who is becoming more versatile with maturity and opportunity.