Best D man from this years draft?

[buffalo GM]

Who do you think will be the best D man to come out of the 2012 draft? If you could rank your top 10, with a short evaluation, it would be great. Thanks.

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[Marc the Habs Fan]

Morgan Rielly will be the best defenceman. Has the unique combination of very high end offensive skills, excellent hockey IQ, decent enough size and very good skating ability. All the other ones are lacking 1 of them.

 

[Haatley]

Murray and its not close.

 

[Badger25]

Morgan Rielly will be the best defenceman. Has the unique combination of very high end offensive skills, excellent hockey IQ, decent enough size and very good skating ability. All the other ones are lacking 1 of them.

you know it's true cause it's coming from a Habs fan. It's really a toss up between Rielly and Murray. Though I think Rielly will be a big impact player for the leafs, Murray will be more valuable to the Jackets and I personally think he will be their next long term captain

 

[Montecristo]

I like lindholm

 

[theboss*]

Reinhart
Rielly
Murray

 

[keppel146]

1. rielly
2. murray
3. dumba

 

[R S]

Murray
Reinhart
Rielly

 

[untouchable21]

I think it's a toss up between Reilly and Lindholm. Reilly may be better right now, but down the road, Lindholm is going to be very good as well.

Something like this ...

1) Lindholm/Reilly

3) Murray

4) Trouba - gets underrated a bit because he like Lindholm did not play in the CHL.

5) Reinhart/Dumba - Dumba is more of a game breaker, but can he do it at the NHL level. Boom or Bust type of player.

7) Ceci



When all is said and done I wouldn't be surprised if all 7 of these guys become top pairing d-men and definitely wouldn't be surprised if Trouba(biased) winds up being more valued than even Reilly. I see a lot of Rob Blake and Scott Stevens in him.

 

[DKQ]

1. Morgan Rielly (Comparable: Duncan Keith) Great offensive ability combined with an good defensive instinct and great skating
2. Ryan Murray (Comparable: Jay Bouwmeester) Very solid all-round game. Probably the best shutdown D in the group, great skating and still has offensive potential. Great leadership qualities as well
3. Mathew Dumba (Comparable: Dion Phaneuf) Explosive in terms of skating and throwing open ice hits. Has a cannon of a shot and can skate like the wind.
4. Jacob Trouba (Comparable: Shea Weber) The most physical defenseman overall in the draft, has a booming shot and underrated playmaking
5. Griffin Reinhart (Comparable: Brent Seabrook) Great size and defensive ability. Offensive potential, but just how much is questionable
6. Cody Ceci (Comparable: Dan Boyle) Big offensive defenseman with a huge shot and pretty good defensive abilities
7. Olli Maatta (Comparable: Ryan Suter) Phenomenal skating, decent offensive ability and strong shutdown ability. Does a lot of things right but not the best in any field.
8. Hampus Lindholm (Comparable: Tobias Enstrom ) Standard "pass-first" two-way defenseman. Great stamina and skating, and good passing ability as well.
9. Slater Koekkoek (Comparable: Zach Bogosian) Physical defenseman with good skating and a hard, accurate shot. Likely to be more of a shutdown D who can play the point on the PP than a puck-mover
10. Derick Pouliot (Comparable: Brian Campbell) One of the better pure offensive D in the class. Smooth skating and great vision to make the pass, questionable defensive consitency

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

He's certainly not the best but man some of you will be surprised by Brady Skjei soon enough...

 

[Haatley]

How is it that over the summer morgan rielly went from being a 6-10 pick in the draft to the best d available.

 

[HanSolo]

Morgan Rielly will be the best defenceman. Has the unique combination of very high end offensive skills, excellent hockey IQ, decent enough size and very good skating ability. All the other ones are lacking 1 of them.

Okay. I'll bite. In which of these areas is, say, Lindholm lacking? He's a very fast and smooth skater, he's got great offensive instincts and tools, he's big and the one thing our entire coaching staff raved about was how smart a player he was at our prospect camp.

I'm not saying Rielly is better or even that Lindholm is one of the best defensemen, but come on.

 

[Fearless Leaf*]

Ryan Murray, I still think he doesn't get enough praise for his quite but solid offensive game, and all the tools are there for him to easily turn into 35-40 point d-man at worst And when you top it off with his exceptional defensive play, then it's not really difficult to see him turning into a best d-man from the draft. IMO, he is going to end up like Ryan Suter, maybe not nearly as good as Suter, though.

I had a pleasure of watching both Rielly and Murray go head-to-head in yesterday's game, and while both of them played great, I found Murray a tad more impressive and thought had a better game overall.

After him, I think it's a toss up between Reinhart/Rielly.

 

[HockeyGuruPitka]

How is it that over the summer morgan rielly went from being a 6-10 pick in the draft to the best d available.

Well im not going to act like i know anything about the other defense in the draft... but Rielly who's detraction was his defensive play is leading his team in +/-. Hes incredibly fast and smart, can use these assets to take more risk in the offensive zone. Overal for a kid that missed the majority of last season... hes absolutely on fire thus far.

 

[Jayevs]

Murray, he is like a Suter/McDonagh/Hamhuis/Alzner type and will be the glue of the CBJs D

 

[WilderPegasus*]

We can't even get consensus out of the 2008 draft where some players have played 4 seasons. Who is the best D Man out of:

Doughty
Bogosian
Pietrangelo
Schenn
Myers
Teubert
Karlsson
Gardiner
Sbisa
Del Zotto
Carlson

Or even try ranking them and coming up with a consensus. It won't happen.

 

[ChillyPalmer]

2 man race between Murray Rielly.

 

[CupofOil]

I know that a lot here will say Rielly because HF loves flashy players but Murray has just as much upside as Rielly IMO and a higher floor. Murray is one of the most underrated players in this draft.
He is the protoypical pro 2 way defenseman, i could see him being a Suter type before long while Rielly is a bigger question mark.

 

[That]

I'm going to say Ryan Murray. Followed by Morgan Rielly. Both will be studs in the future.

I'm also going to say Slater Koekkoek will be a top 5 defenceman to come out of this draft. Maybe not right away, but in 5-10 years.

 

[conway902]

How is it that over the summer morgan rielly went from being a 6-10 pick in the draft to the best d available.

Could be the 18 points in the 14 games he has played?

 

[Kamal007]

I think its way to early to put change the order that was determined by professional scouts just 4 months ago. I will stick with Murray as number 1, Reinhart at 2 and Rielly at 3. If Rielly can do what hes doing for a full year (or maybe half a year + world juniors), then we can talk about moving him up. For now, 10-12 games just isn't enough for me to vault him to the best or even the 2nd best.

Not to say that I haven't been impressed by Rielly's play so far. He has been a monster thus far, just not big enough sample size as of yet. Give all 3 D men, with maybe even Lindholm, Trouba and Dumba thrown in, until after the WJC and we will see who rises to the top.

 

[YEGJuniorFan]

For me I think it will be Reilly followed by Murray. Through Ceci and Lindholm in after them.

 

[Victorious Secret]

Murray
Reinhart
Rielly

Renegade Stylings is right again. Color me surprised.

 

[YEGJuniorFan]

We can't even get consensus out of the 2008 draft where some players have played 4 seasons. Who is the best D Man out of:

Doughty
Bogosian
Pietrangelo
Schenn
Myers
Teubert
Karlsson
Gardiner
Sbisa
Del Zotto
Carlson

Or even try ranking them and coming up with a consensus. It won't happen.

Doughty
Pietrangelo
Karlsson
Myers
Gardiner
Carlson
Del Zotto
Sbisa
Bogosian
Schenn
Teubert