Dmen:
Top Pairing:
Hill and Sweeney are close, though I'd argue an edge to Sweeney due to his better defensive play. That said, both are legit All-Stars at this level, so you're not talking a huge edge between the two either way it goes.
Norton vs Pitkanen call me crazy on this one but I have a feeling that Pitkanen is being underrated here. Norton definitely has an advantage in consistency, which is arguably the biggest issue with Pitkanen's game right now. Norton has a +110 total goals for/against differential on his career, a career that lasted for 15 seasons. That's pretty solid. Pitkanen, in 7 seasons, has exceeded that with a +116 to date. I will say Joni is helped out in that regard by the fact that some of the teams he's been on to date are better then Norton's. The 03-04 Flyers in particular (I wouldn't say the 08-09 Canes as they squeaked in, despite making it to the ECF). Playoff scoring levels are similar between the two.
Edge: none (possible slight edge to Middlebury)
Second Pairing:
Edur is clearly the best offensive dman on either pairing. But talk about a weird one. Breakout season at 23 and then he retires from hockey, and not due to any kind of injury? Odd to say the least. Would he have been able to keep it up? Was he simply a one year wonder?
McLaren is a pretty solid defenseman. By 21 he was a top pairing guy with Boston in terms of ice time, though the year before his trade to San Jose he was the #3 and didn't get any higher then #3 with the Sharks, usually as #4.
Martin doesn't really do anything to really stick out statistically aside from his ice time. But he's a sound two-way defender. He's been a top pairing guy since the end of the lockout, twice being the #1 man in New Jersey and now in Pittsburgh. He's not the strongest offensive presence around but does have 3 30+ point seasons to date. He is also a two-time Olympian with the US, though he's yet to play in a game due to coaching decision in 2006 and injury in 2010. He also was a key penalty killer for the Devils post-lockout.
Evans is probably the least known member of the Middlebury defense, but he's a strong pick for this level. In the decade of the 1930s he's #11 in defenseman scoring (depending on how you define Northcott and Georges Mantha). Along with respectable offensive numbers for his era, he also was top 10 in penalty minutes 5 times during that decade.
Edge: Middlebury
Third Pairing:
Jackman is a pretty solid stay at home/PK specialist type. He's not a #1 defenseman type but guys that are defensive specialists rarely are, since they rarely get powerplay time. Pretty good +14 career +/- to date.
Brisebois is a pretty decent two-way defenseman, has a cup to his name, and has a pretty long career where he logged quite a few minutes. He doesn't really have any standout seasons, rather he's a pretty consistent high 20s-30s point defenseman.
Mantha has the best offensive seasons of any defenseman on either team, although when adjusted for era Pitkanen isn't far behind. He's not an overly strong defensive player but then again those early 80s Jets and especially those mid 80s Penguins teams were pretty horrid. And it was with those teams that he logged the majority of his career minus numbers. As he moved on to better teams his numbers improved in that regard.
Ward is a total late bloomer, but he does have 3 Stanley Cups and one more SCF appearance to his credit. Mind you he was only a key performer in one cup and the SCF runner up with Carolina. Ward and Wesley tended to get the tough PK assignments in 01-02 when the Canes lost to Detroit, Ward was #3 on the team in TOI for that run. In 05-06 he moved up to #2 in TOI with a pretty big advantage over the #3 defender. Again, Ward tended to draw the big PK assignments with the Canes that season.
Edge: none, possible slight New England edge.
7th dmen are a wash and neither would be expected to be much of a factor in his season.
overall: slight edge to Middlebury, but for the most part the units are fairly close. The difference in the 2nd pairings, with the Olympian Martin and the two-way play of Evans is the one place there's a clear distinction IMO.
I'll see what I can get in with the forwards here, but with the way things are going with work I'm not sure I'll get the time.
