Who will be the better player, Faulk or Hanifin?

[TheOllieC]

Just to be clear, we've concluded Hanifin might be a top 5ish all time dman? How likely do you guys think that is if you were pressed to put a % on it?

Personally, if the o/u on Norris trophies for Noah was .5, I'd take the under without hesitation.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I'm bringing up the Norris, because people are saying Noah's ceiling is Scott Neidermayer, who I'd consider in the discussion for top 5 all-time NHL dmen.

Well, there's the problem. Niedermayer might not even be top-5 among guys that played at the same time as himself.

Could Hanifin be something like the 20th best defenseman since 1980? Yeah, he has that kind of upside if everything goes perfectly.

 

[Joe McGrath]

I agree it's not what's being asked. The question is who will be the better player. I don't have a problem with either answer. My uneducated guess is 65% of the time Faulk ends up better. But that could be way off, I don't know.

I'm bringing up the Norris, because people are saying Noah's ceiling is Scott Neidermayer, who I'd consider in the discussion for top 5 all-time NHL dmen. The point I'm making, is the likelihood of Hanifin being top 5 all-time is so low, that it is irrelevant to the discussion, as I think it's unlikely Hanifin will ever even be the best dman in the league for one season.

Even if there were a 1% chance that Hanifin is the greatest dman of all time, that still wouldn't mean there was a greater than 50% chance that he'll be better than Faulk.

So basically, I'm quibbling needlessly about how an unlikely to be reached "ceiling" is being used to argue who is going to be better. I don't have a lot going on.

Scott Neidermeyer isn't even close to being a top 5 D-man all time. Like not even in the discussion. Unless you were talking since the Canes became a franchise? Even then it's close. Lidstrom, Bourque, Chelios, Pronger all had unquestionably better careers.

 

[Ole Gil]

Scott Neidermeyer isn't even close to being a top 5 D-man all time. Like not even in the discussion. Unless you were talking since the Canes became a franchise? Even then it's close. Lidstrom, Bourque, Chelios, Pronger all had unquestionably better careers.

Yeah, that was a weird brain fart on my part. Although, I'd put him in the same class as Pronger and Chelios.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Yeah, that was a weird brain fart on my part. Although, I'd put him in the same class as Pronger and Chelios.

Yeah you could probably make that argument. I think those two had a little more "edge" in an era where that actually mattered.