HFBoards Top 31 NHL Defenders

[LT]

Rank	Player	Age	Team	Country	GP	G	A	P	%
#1	Victor Hedman	28			70	12	42	54	61.8%
#2	Erik Karlsson	29			53	3	42	45	49.2%
#3	Drew Doughty	29			82	8	37	45	33.8%
#4	Brent Burns	34			82	16	67	83	33.8%
#5	Mark Giordano	35			78	17	57	75	46.5%
#6	Seth Jones	24			75	9	37	46	48.4%
#7	Alex Pietrangelo	29			71	13	28	41	36.1%
#8	Roman Josi	29			82	15	41	56	35.4%
#9	Morgan Rielly	25			82	20	52	72	32.4%
#10	John Carlson	29			80	13	57	70	26.5%
#11	John Klingberg	27			64	10	35	45	19.3%, 65.7% (TB)
#12	P.K. Subban	30			63	9	22	31	19.9%, 34.3% (TB)
#13	Kris Letang	32			65	16	40	56	28.6%
#14	Jaccob Slavin	25			82	8	23	31	30.6%
#15	Hampus Lindholm	25			76	6	22	28	20.0%, 54.1%
#16	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	28			81	14	30	44	20.7%, 45.9%
#17	Shea Weber	34			58	14	19	33	33.8%
#18	Colton Parayko	26			80	10	18	28	30.4%
#19	Ryan Suter	34			82	7	40	47	20.6%
#20	Mattias Ekholm	29			82	8	36	44	23.8%
#21	Thomas Chabot	22			70	14	41	55	27.3%
#22	Rasmus Dahlin	19			82	9	35	44	28.2%
#23	Charlie McAvoy	21			54	7	21	28	28.3%
#24	Ryan McDonagh	30			82	9	37	46	31.6%
#25	Miro Heiskanen	20			82	12	21	33	22.9%
#26	Josh Morrissey	24			59	6	25	31	24.4%
#27	Brett Pesce	24			73	7	22	29	25.2%
#28	Dustin Byfuglien	34			42	4	27	31	22.7%, 62.3% (TB)
#29	Jared Spurgeon	29			82	14	29	43	22.7%, 37.7% (TB)
#30	Torey Krug	28			64	6	47	53	29.6%
#31	Jacob Trouba	25			82	8	42	50	19.7%

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Rank hyperlinks direct to the corresponding voting thread.
Player hyperlinks direct to the corresponding player's hockey-reference.com page.

Honorable Mentions

• Mathew Dumba
• Aaron Ekblad
• Dougie Hamilton
• Marc-Eduoard Vlasic
• Zach Werenski

Click to read more...

 

[Brent Burns Beard]

No Tyson Barrie?

 

[hamzarocks]

Damn rielly feels a bit low. If he repeats the season he had than he should be above 7/8/6 players.

 

[BlueMed]

Damn rielly feels a bit low. If he repeats the season he had than he should be above 7/8/6 players.

Rielly above Pietrangelo? That's a good one.

 

[LT]

No Tyson Barrie?

Was probably in HMs 6-8. A number of good/great players got left off of these polls.

 

[CraigsList]

There are a lot of players that could have very well made this list (especially the HMs).

The top 31 by country:

Sweden (7, 22.6%) - Hedman, Karlsson, Klingberg, H. Lindholm, Ekman-Larsson, Ekholm, Dahlin
Canada (12, 38.7%) - Doughty, Burns, Giordano, Pietrangelo, Rielly, Subban, Letang, Weber, Parayko, Chabot, Morrissey, Spurgeon
USA (10, 32.3%) - Jones, Carlson, Slavin, Suter, McAvoy, McDonagh, Pesce, Byfuglien, Krug, Trouba
Switzerland (1, 3.2%) - Josi
Finland (1, 3.2%)- Heiskanen

Top 31 from each team and total in division:

Pacific Division	#	Central Division	#	Atlantic Division	#	Metro Division	#
ANA Ducks	1 (#15)	CHI Blackhawks	0	BOS Bruins	2 (#23,#30)	CAR Hurricanes	2 (#14,#27)
AZ Coyotes	1 (#16)	COL Avalanche	0	BUF Sabres	1 (#19)	COL Blue Jackets	1 (#6)
CGY Flames	1 (#5)	DAL Stars	2 (#11, #25)	DET Red Wings	0	NJ Devils	1 (#12)
EDM Oilers	0	MIN Wild	2 (#19, #29)	FLA Panthers	0	NY Islanders	0
LA Kings	1 (#3)	NAS Predators	2 (#8, #20)	MON Canadiens	1 (#17)	NY Rangers	1 (#31)
SJ Sharks	2 (#2, #4)	STL Blues	2 (#7, #18)	OTT Senators	1 (#21)	PHI Flyers	0
VAN Canucks	0	WPG Jets	2 (#26, #28)	TB Lightning	2 (#1, #25)	PIT Penguins	1 (#13)
LV Knights	0	---------------	NA	TOR Maple Leafs	1 (#9)	WSH Capitals	1 (#10)
Total	6	Total	10	Total	8	Total	7

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[CraigsList]

Looking at the table made I find it very interesting that the Central Division has 10 of the 31 top D's and 4 of the top 5 are in the Pacific.

 

[LT]

Looking at the table made I find it very interesting that the Central Division has 10 of the 31 top D's and 4 of the top 5 are in the Pacific.

HFBoards Top Players by Position Polls Results & Analysis

This thread might interest you

 

[CraigsList]

HFBoards Top Players by Position Polls Results & Analysis

This thread might interest you

Lol it sure does!

 

[Evgeny Oliker]

Where is Edler?

 

[CartographerNo611]

Where is Edler?

2011

 

[Get North]

Did posters just look at points and vote based on that? How is somebody going to take Torey Krug over Ekblad, Keith, and Schmidt.

How are #3-4 defencemen getting on this ranking? Does being a steady 20+ minute, all-around (PP + PK) defencemen mean nothing anymore? That's exactly what a #1 is.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'm going to assume Letang's ranking is due to him being an injury risk. Otherwise, based on actual performance when he's healthy, he's too low.

 

[bigdog16]

Did posters just look at points and vote based on that? How is somebody going to take Torey Krug over Ekblad, Keith, and Schmidt.

How are #3-4 defencemen getting on this ranking? Does being a steady 20+ minute, all-around (PP + PK) defencemen mean nothing anymore? That's exactly what a #1 is.

I take Krug over any of those dmen literally any day of the week

 

[Get North]

I take Krug over any of those dmen literally any day of the week

I know, most of this board would, that's why he got voted as a top 31 NHL defender.

Do people think Keith is no longer a #1 D? The defencemen around him are trash and he's doing a decent job of holding it together. I would take my chances with a 35 year old Keith than Krug going into the playoffs. Krug has been in 2 finals, no ring. And we just watched his team lose to the Blues, not much offence on their d-core ironically.

Something has to be said for Hedman, Karlsson, Burns and Josi not being able to win a ring despite being on contenders for several years. Every cup champion has a defencemen they can put out every other shift in the playoffs; Doughty, Keith, and Letang. But also, Chara in 2011, Carlson and Pietrangelo recently.

The guys who get a lot of points usually don't end up winning a chip. A #1 D-man is out there for basically half the game or more in the playoffs. They have significant influence on the outcome of the game, so can Krug play 30 minutes effectively? Never seen it. Keith hasn't declined enough for me to take a 2nd-pairing defencemen over him.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

I know, most of this board would, that's why he got voted as a top 31 NHL defender.

Do people think Keith is no longer a #1 D? The defencemen around him are trash and he's doing a decent job of holding it together. I would take my chances with a 35 year old Keith than Krug going into the playoffs. Krug has been in 2 finals, no ring. And we just watched his team lose to the Blues, not much offence on their d-core ironically.

Something has to be said for Hedman, Karlsson, Burns and Josi not being able to win a ring despite being on contenders for several years. Every cup champion has a defencemen they can put out every other shift in the playoffs; Doughty, Keith, and Letang. But also, Chara in 2011, Carlson and Pietrangelo recently.

The guys who get a lot of points usually don't end up winning a chip. A #1 D-man is out there for basically half the game or more in the playoffs. They have significant influence on the outcome of the game, so can Krug play 30 minutes effectively? Never seen it. Keith hasn't declined enough for me to take a 2nd-pairing defencemen over him.

This is such a stupid argument given what Burns and Karlsson have accomplished in the playoffs.

 

[thedustman]

What are we going off of here to determine the best defenseman?
Points help, but then is it just a bunch of eye examinations and homer considerations?
How are people so sure?
This remains the most mysterious position to rank. Goaltenders have stats that help. Makes sense that this is the worst list so far for hf

 

[Jeti]

Byfuglien should be closer to 10 or 11

Klingberg, Subban, Letang, Weber and McDonagh are all too high.

 

[Stubu]

Slightly OT, but Sweden is so going to murder and mutilate us on the back end in the next nordic track meet. I counted 7 D-men before our kiddo (Miro who doesn't even have a Finnish name) and for good reason too. We need to keep pulling miracles out of our butt.

 

[Merrrlin]

Charlie McAvoy @ 23, while Werenski sits in the HMs.

When will this madness end!

 

[Muikea Bulju]

The sad thing about these polls is that they don't actually produce the correct results. (= They don't really even rank players in the right order, not even in the order HFBoards members would actually rank them)

The worst results come when there are a lot of pretty equal options/choices/players. Then the votes split, and usually the player/team etc with the most blind fanboy-followers wins, even though 75% of the HfBoarders think that someone else is better than them.

For example if 75% of voters rank the remaing players in the order of 1. Personal favorite X 2. Weber 3. Subban, Subban might still win the vote if the rest (25%) rank Subban first - even though 75% still think Weber is better than Subban

That is why - for the credibility of these god damn polls - you should go to a different kind of voting. Rankings, or points to remaining candidates. If that is impossible with the UI of HfBoards, then you should just vote multiple "tie-brakers" or second-rounds on each position in which a player gets less than 50%

For example, if the poll is considering the 10th best D-man, and top vote getters are Carlson 25% - Klingberg 20% - Subban 20%, you should just hold separate polls considering just them

 

[Muikea Bulju]

Charlie McAvoy @ 23, while Werenski sits in the HMs.

When will this madness end!

60% of the HfBoarders might actually think that Werenski is better than him. McAvoy just has a bunch of extra-loyal supporters who rank him high, and thus he goes high in these crappy polls which produce bs results

 

[MAHJ71]

OEL too low

Dahlin and Heiskanen belong in HM for now

Granted I don't watch the Jets often, but its shocking to me Morrissey made the list...I don't think I would even have him in the HM category.

 

[MrThomas]

Sweden is crazy! How come this little land is so good at defending???

 

[Merrrlin]

60% of the HfBoarders might actually think that Werenski is better than him. McAvoy just has a bunch of extra-loyal supporters who rank him high, and thus he goes high in these crappy polls which produce bs results

Agreed - he seems to have a very loyal following around here. Put Werenski on Boston with Bergeron, Marchand, Krecji, Chara, Rask etc and I think he gets a better reputation defensively. Offensively, they aren't even in the same ballpark - Werenski looks like a young John Klingberg out there, he can create plays out of nothing.

Sweden is crazy! How come this little land is so good at defending???

I look at that list and I see players that could have been centermen in different hockey programs. Great skaters, cerebral, good hands, good offensive instincts...It seems like Sweden really embraces defence differently, in a way that discourages defencemen from turning into players that back into their own slot and block shots.

Personally, I love it. I am much more entertained watching Karlsson or Carlson than I am Carlo or McDonagh.