Matthias Ekholm or Justin Faulk?

[GoldiFox]

Nashville

IMO Ekholm is very comparable to Brett Pesce. Both big, steady, two-way D who play reliably on the 1st pair next to a top NHL D.

I think I'd take Faulk easily, but Pesce is a key cog to the 1st pairing which is not a change I'd consider lightly.

 

[Rschmitz]

Much easier to find an Ekholm than a Faulk. I'll take Faulk

 

[one77]

Faulk for me by a fairly big margin. Hope the Leafs make a trade for him.

Young RHD who is already top 20 in the league

 

[maaran]

Faulk

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Nashville

Bingo.

 

[Fugazy]

I would take Faulk in this situation.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Evgeni Malkin isn't a legit #1 Center he doesn't play on his teams 1st line.

Roman Josi
PK Subban
Ryan Ellis

Would he be on Carolina's top pairing? What about most other teams' top pairings? What's more eggregious, to say there are 60 better defenseman than Ekholm or there are only ~15-25 defenseman better than Faulk?

As much as I love Ekholm, Slavin is absolutely better than Ekholm and going forward even more so.

 

[Morgs]

They're different players.

Faulk is great offensively, and average/above-average defensively.
Ekholm is great defenseively, and average/above-average offensively.

Pick your poison, but they're both fantastic players that should be considered Top-pairing guys on almost any team in the league.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

As much as I love Ekholm, Slavin is absolutely better than Ekholm and going forward even more so.

I'd like to know how he's absolutely better right now. After digging into the numbers, I don't see how you can make a case. Unless you are just going more points == better.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I'd like to know how he's absolutely better right now. After digging into the numbers, I don't see how you can make a case. Unless you are just going more points == better.

Carolina fans, the people who see both of them the most and have no bias in the comparison, seem to generally agree that Slavin is better than Faulk.

So unless it's clear that Ekholm is better than Faulk...

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Eh, IMO Faulk>Slavin>Ekholm now but Slavin>>Faulk>>Ekholm moving forward.

 

[TheOllieC]

i would take the #1 defenseman

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Nashville

And Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Montreal, San Jose, LA, St. Louis. Might be a couple more depending on how one feels about Ristolainen, Klingberg and Jones.

 

[Mighty Makar]

Faulk, but Ekholm isn't too shabby.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Eh, IMO Faulk>Slavin>Ekholm now but Slavin>>Faulk>>Ekholm moving forward.

Slavin I can understand but what justification for Faulk being that much better going forward? Ekholm only has one year on Faulk in age and actually fewer NHL seasons. There's reason to believe he probably hasn't hit his peak yet either.

 

[duxfan1101]

As a Ducks fan, I've watched Ekholm over the last 2 postseasons and in both series against Anaheim he was Nashville's best defenseman, which is saying a lot. I can't speak for him the rest of the year, but he is massively underrated.

 

[DougieSmash]

And Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Montreal, San Jose, LA, St. Louis. Might be a couple more depending on how one feels about Ristolainen, Klingberg and Jones.

Klingberg is nothing more than pp specialist. He's not better than Ekholm, Faulk or Slavin.

 

[Critical13]

And Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Montreal, San Jose, LA, St. Louis. Might be a couple more depending on how one feels about Ristolainen, Klingberg and Jones.

What?

Ottawa?
Pitt?
Montreal?
LA?

That's insane. Faulk is definitely top pairing on those teams.

 

[suddeninterest]

What?

Ottawa?
Pitt?
Montreal?
LA?

That's insane. Faulk is definitely top pairing on those teams.

Well I mean depends on how much you value handedness. If you don't care then yeah he's top pair and he's the 2nd best D on those teams. If you do really care about handedness then he's probably 2nd pair because he isn't the best RD on those teams.