Does Nashville technically have four #1 D?

[OvermanKingGainer]

Subban and Josi are the only #1D on Nashville. Ekholm is an excellent #2, and Ellis is an excellent #3. Weber is a perfect #5.

I was joking . Flames fans overhype their D.

We have two #1D (Giordano and Brodie). Brodie usually has to drag around bottom pairing defensemen in a shutdown role.
We have a #2D/#3D (Hamilton) who is underused on the PP
We have a #4D (Kulak) who has to anchor his own pair as a rookie
We have two #5D(Hamonic, Stone) who are possession black holes. Hamonic at his best is a #3D but he hasn't played at that level in years, even before we acquired him and few of us hyped him up as anything more than "an upgrade on Dennis Wideman"... which he is.
We also have a #8D who plays often (Bartkowski)

Not sure how that's "overhyping".

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Subban and Josi are the only #1D on Nashville. Ekholm is an excellent #2, and Ellis is an excellent #3. Weber is a perfect #5.



We have two #1D (Giordano and Brodie). Brodie usually has to drag around bottom pairing defensemen.
We have a #2D/#3D (Hamilton) who is underused on the PP
We have a #4D (Kulak) who has to anchor his own pair as a rookie
We have two #5D(Hamonic, Stone) who are possession black holes. Hamonic at his best is a #3D but he hasn't played at that level in years, even before we acquired him and few of us hyped him up as anything more than "an upgrade on Dennis Wideman"... which he is.
We also have a #8D who plays often (Bartkowski)

Not sure how that's "overhyping".

Brodie definitely isnt playing like a 1D this year

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Brodie definitely isnt playing like a 1D this year

And Subban definitely wasn't playing like a 1D at the same point last year. Your point?

 

[RickP]

Do you think Ekholm playing like a #1 D this season is more because he doesn't have to worry about Subban and the fact he is paired with Josi?

Also the point was for other teams to look at their top pairing and to see if any of Nashville's top four wouldn't crack it in there.

Ekholm has played like a #1D during the playoffs too IMO. This year, his offensive numbers are slightly better compared to the playoffs, but his defensive numbers are worse. Could be because he's playing on his off side.

But with Subban, they were the best shutdown pairing and they contributed offensively on a regular basis.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Subban and Josi are the only #1D on Nashville. Ekholm is an excellent #2, and Ellis is an excellent #3. Weber is a perfect #5.



We have two #1D (Giordano and Brodie). Brodie usually has to drag around bottom pairing defensemen in a shutdown role.
We have a #2D/#3D (Hamilton) who is underused on the PP
We have a #4D (Kulak) who has to anchor his own pair as a rookie
We have two #5D(Hamonic, Stone) who are possession black holes. Hamonic at his best is a #3D but he hasn't played at that level in years, even before we acquired him and few of us hyped him up as anything more than "an upgrade on Dennis Wideman"... which he is.
We also have a #8D who plays often (Bartkowski)

Not sure how that's "overhyping".

Weber isn't even a #7 lol. Yannick you mean.

 

[glovesave_35]

Also the point was for other teams to look at their top pairing and to see if any of Nashville's top four wouldn't crack it in there.

JMO but there is a difference between top pairing material and #1 D. I don't know if each of the four guys break up every team's top D pair in the league. Seems unlikely.

 

[bottomofthefoodchain]

Calgary is the only team with 4 #1Ds

In the twilight zone

 

[Halla]

Nashville has two top pairing guys (Subban/Josi) a #3 that looks like a #2 this year (Ekholm) and a guy that sometimes plays like a #3 (Ellis)

so no, they don't have 4 #1 dmen. RYan Ellis wouldnt be the top dman on any team in the league not named vegas

 

[ThirdManIn]

And Subban definitely wasn't playing like a 1D at the same point last year. Your point?

Subban was still the new guy on an entirely new team at this point last year. This is not a fair comparison at all. Besides, last season doesn't matter any longer, especially if we're just going to bring up a small portion of last season.

The answer to the OP's question is "no." Josi and Subban are #1D on a lot of teams in the league. Ekholm may be, but a lot of what it takes to be a #1D is consistency and Ekholm, while playing great so far this year, hasn't really cemented himself as that consistent guy yet. He's more of a #2D right now. Ellis is great, but is better as a #2 or #4 instead of being expected to anchor a pairing.

Whoever said Nashville has two top pairings hit it on the head.

 

[Critical13]

Nashville’s D is overrated. If they had 4 #1D, they would be running away with the President's trophy. Their offence is pretty damn good.

Realistically, I'd put them:

1D: Josi - True #1, offensively and defensively

1/2D: Subban - #1 on a lot of teams, needs support of a good partner if facing top lines

2/3D: Ekholm - Has some offence this year to go with stellar defence, but not a guy you would build your defence around. Needs playmakers around him.

3D: Ellis - He's worse at everything when you compare him to true #1s, but could slot into the top pairing on weak defence cores.

 

[PatrikBerglund]

Wait...people actually think that Ellis is a better overall defenceman than Ekholm?

 

[ThirdManIn]

Wait...people actually think that Ellis is a better overall defenceman than Ekholm?

Toward the end of last year Ellis was making a strong argument for being better than Ekholm. We haven't seen Ellis play yet this year, and Ekholm is busy having his best season ever in the NHL. So yeah, some people do think Ellis is better than Ekholm.

 

[Viqsi]

As much as I love the Preds (they're my #2 team) and as much as I appreciate that blueline for showing me how wonderful good defenseman play can be... at this point, I honestly think I'd keep the Werenski-Jones pairing above 'em all, over here.

It's pretty close, though. And the second pairing blows the JJ-Savard pairing away easily, no contest. Bottom pairing, OTOH...