Wut?Okay, so let’s filter out the list and look at only defensemen that were established superstar #1Ds and the #1Cs of the same caliber at the time they changed teams.
#1D:
Chris Pronger
Zdeno Chara
Scott Niedermayer
Ryan Suter
Shea Weber
PK Subban
Dougie Hamilton
Dan Boyle
#1C:
Joe Thornton
John Tavares
Still a much longer list of #1 defensemen. Even if you consider Dougie Hamilton not to meet the bill (or Brent Burns, who was an all star at the time he was traded, but not a Norris guy), you’ve still got 7 Norris level defensemen who changed hands via trade. (I’m a Sharks fan and I forgot Boyle as one of the #1D who were traded in that time frame lol)
Wut?
1D for sure.. you almost have to draft one to have one. 1C change teams yearly
Great points. For better context I'll rank my top 15 C and D side by sideThis is a difficult question; because if your version of #1 defensmen is Prime Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Suter or Niklas Lidstrom; then you are talking about some of the best defensmen in there generation that played upwards of 26-28 minutes a night (literally almost half the game) and were just completely dominant; and yes; very rare. In this scenario you are going to almost always chose the defensmen unless it's Crosby or McDavid. If you are talking about a #1 D like OEL, Alex Pitreangelo; these guys are also awesome; but don't impact the game on that level.
If you ask Kings fans who is better Doughty or Kopitar; they will be conflicted but the answer is probably Doughty because he is the best # 1 d-man on the planet (arguably)
If you take the 3rd best NHL d-man; which in my opinion is Victor Hedman; and you take the third best Center; which in my opinion is Nate Mackinnon; who would you rather have? It's pretty unanswerable isn't it.
Most teams that contend for cups have both. These are some of the most recent non Pittsburgh penguins Stanley cup contending winners. I didn't use the Penguins because having Crosby and Maklin (the 2 best c's in the NHL) is not a normal scenario.
Toews, Keith
Kopitar, Doughty
Bergeron, Chara
Getzlaf, Niedermayer
Backstrom, Carlson
Yzerman, Lidstorm
What is interesting; out of all of those Stanley cup winners; the defensmen on all of the cup winners seem to be the best NHL defensmen in the entire NHL. It's not like they are the 8th or 11th best d-man in the league. They were literally the best or second best d-man in the NHL that year.
Why haven't Leafs acquired one then.
Do you have to be so antagonistic over a simple difference of opinion?
Burns is not even remotely near Pietrangelo when it comes to shutting down team's star players. A true #1D requires this ability. I've always found Pietrangelo disgustingly underrated on HFBoards, Shattenkirk stole his spot on the #1 PP for many years which artificially kept Piet's production down. The guy's easily a 55-65 point D-men with some of the best defensive play in the league, on top of being an incredible puck mover. Feel free to back me up here Blues fans, I know you guys have lived with him being underrated on here for a long time.
Is captain intangibles "elite"?Name the last team to win a cup without an elite center?
Teams have won Cups without 1Ds. They've also won them without 1Cs. I think I'd take a 1C if I had to choose.