Andrew Berkshire: Ranking the Top 20 Defencemen in the NHL, by the Numbers

[Paul4587]

His centre list was really good but this is awful and I can't agree with much of it. I think evaluating defenseman is by far the hardest thing to do and numbers alone don't come close to telling the full story.

 

[Dbrownss]

Advanced stats strike again.


Shattenkirk@#6... alrighty then. Time to fire up the trade board....he's worth a ton now lolz.

 

[ijuka]

I'm not sure if this list or the one by a Finnish sports magazine(5. Doughty 4. Burns 3. Weber 2. Letang 1. Keith) is worse.

I guess this one's better because at least they got Karlsson at #1 right.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I was thinking this list would favor offensive defensemen but it can't even get that right.

 

[webersshot]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/ranking-top-20-defencemen-nhl-numbers/

1. Karlsson
2. Giordano
3. Subban
4. Hedman
5. Doughty
6. Shattenkirk
7. Burns
8. Campbell
9. Niskanen
10. Lindholm
11. Ekman-Larsson
12. Brodie
13. Keith
14. Stralman
15. Vatanen
16. Muzzin
17. Barrie
18. Klingberg
19. Letang
20. Byfuglien

Ratings for Offence, Defence, Transition (normalized scores out of 100):

Player | Offence | Defence | Transition
Barrie | 68.2 | 45.1 | 62.1
Brodie | 38.3 | 60.3 | 70.4
Burns | 79.4 | 56.5 | 52.8
Byfuglien | 69.0 | 50.3 | 56.4
Campbell | 37.0 | 67.3 | 69.0
Doughty | 49.0 | 49.7 | 80.3
Ekman-Larsson | 52.7 | 66.6 | 56.3
Giordano | 61.8 | 70.4 | 69.3
Hedman | 66.9 | 63.7 | 66.3
Karlsson | 69.4 | 64.5 | 81.2
Keith | 57.1 | 51.6 | 66.0
Klingberg | 70.2 | 43.7 | 62.0
Letang | 56.0 | 53.7 | 62.1
Lindholm | 52.2 | 57.1 | 67.0
Muzzin | 48.3 | 54.9 | 66.2
Niskanen | 49.6 | 63.8 | 63.5
Shattenkirk | 66.8 | 56.0 | 63.5
Stralman | 41.2 | 52.3 | 74.6
Subban | 71.1 | 66.3 | 65.9
Vatanen | 54.7 | 54.6 | 63.2

lmao, hedmans in the right spot perhaps, thats about it. Keith at 13? where the **** is Weber? does he even watch hockey? what the **** is a niskanen?

 

[Bob Cole]

wow that is a bad list but expected from the advanced stat worshippers

 

[InjuredChoker]

he got #1 right. went downhill after that and pretty hard..

well, subban, hedman, brodie, strålman and buff are about where i'd rank them.

 

[57special]

So, Suter isn't as good as Niskanen?

 

[Sideshow Raheem]

It's not a perfect list by any stretch but lol at people complaining about the exclusion of Weber and Suter. It's 2016, not 2011.

 

[aufheben]

lol Niskanen is actually pretty good. Guess his name isn't big enough. Not saying he's better than Weber but I have no doubt the people mocking statistics would probably be ranking them by reputation more than anything.

 

[RedWingzz]

Karlsson gets a rating of 69 out of 100? I'm clearly missing something here, shouldn't he be a 95+ out of 100?

 

[Juicy Pop]

All I've taken from these lists is that the hockey community has a long way to go in terms of modeling the game.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Niskanen that high? He's not awful, but Good God.

 

[Nithoniniel]

All I've taken from these lists is that the hockey community has a long way to go in terms of modeling the game.

That description isn't very accurate though. This isn't "the hockey community... modeling the game," this is one guy gathering a bunch of metrics he likes and asking "What would a list look like if you took these metrics and weighed them according to their position?"

He even says so himself in the articles.

 

[Juicy Pop]

That description isn't very accurate though. This isn't "the hockey community... modeling the game," this is one guy gathering a bunch of metrics he likes and asking "What would a list look like if you took these metrics and weighed them according to their position?"

He even says so himself in the articles.

I wasn't targeting the author of the article. I was merely alluding to the notion that current statistical methodologies don't seem to describe discrete actions within the game well enough to accurately rate particular aspects of a player's game.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

It's not a perfect list by any stretch but lol at people complaining about the exclusion of Weber and Suter. It's 2016, not 2011.

Suter had an excellent season. What about Josi?

 

[NotYou]

I lost it at "open ice dekes" being part of so many player's top 3 skills

 

[tarheelhockey]

Are Giordano and Brian Campbell really the two best in the league in the defense category?

Not nearly enough attention is being given to the fact that Brian Campbell's high rank is based on his excellent performance as a pure defensive defenseman.

 

[Sens Rule]

It's not a perfect list by any stretch but lol at people complaining about the exclusion of Weber and Suter. It's 2016, not 2011.

It also is a top 20 list and not a top 5 list. They do look odd in their absence. Suter isn't even the 20th best defenceman?

 

[izzy]

Niskanen top 10 dman AINEC

 

[Pia8988]

An opinion piece using stats to help anti-stat people to have some ammo. Well done!

 

[Sens Rule]

When did Brian Campbell become a defensive defenceman?

The last couple of years in Florida.

 

[TheMule93]

Karlsson gets a rating of 69 out of 100? I'm clearly missing something here, shouldn't he be a 95+ out of 100?

uhhh no? average his numbers and youll get his overall ranking

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Apparently Doughty sucks at both offense and defense...LOLOL

 

[2advanced4u]

I am an advanced stat user, these are some wierd ass advanced stats. ex. loose puck recoveries/60, means you're chasing the puck more. Like Shattenkirk is not on my top 20 and I mostly use stats tto evaluate people.