My list of top-90 NHL defensemen

[YEGJuniorFan]

Klefbom was better than Petry in Edmonton. No Justin Schultz?

 

[Nashville Transplant]

Hjarlmasson at #60 is a JOKE!

If there's 20-25 better D men in the league in the playoffs I'll eat my hat.

I loathe the Blackhawks, yet couldn't agree more. This list is cute, but has nothing to do with reality.

 

[Cynick]

Excellent list – much better than anything I could come up with. Niklas Hjalmarsson, at 60, is in the ballpark where I'd expect a lot of people would put him but I think that's because he's extremely underrated.

 

[LoiltyAtItsFinest]

This list just proves how bad oilers defense is LOL

 

[Wendelstache]

Phaneuf is too high, the guy is pure crap.

 

[Brodeur]

80 Marek Zidlicky
81 Seth Jones

Tip of the cap for the effort on making the list. Just to nitpick a little, this was the portion that made me pause a bit. While I don't watch a ton of Nashville games, I still feel like I would comfortably take Jones before Zidlicky at this point. Zids can still fire a puck, but he's usually good for a glaring defensive mishap per game. I feel like Jones' offensive abilities are solid, he just doesn't get the same PP time with Josi/Weber on the same blue line. And I'd feel safer using him for 20+ minutes a game whereas I think Zidlicky needs somewhat shielded minutes at his age.

 

[Edmonton East]

No love for Andy Greene...should be higher.

Seeing Zidlicky within 4 spots of Greene made me throw up in my mouth a little

 

[GellMann]

As a Sabres fan, you do not want Josh Gorges anywhere near this list. Risto is miles better already, though I'd be unsure where to rank him in a list like this if at all

 

[Bear of Bad News]

This list is cute, but has nothing to do with reality.

Looking forward to seeing your reality-based list.

 

[capitalsrock]

Alzner is definitely better than Green

 

[LudwigVonKarlsson]

List of players who would be in a very different position on my list.

Agreed, some of these guys wouldn't even make my top 100 personally.

 

[capitalsrock]

Yeah, not even close.

It's close

 

[MKMM]

Both Ellis and Ekholm are better than Jones at the moment, but neither is on the list

 

[FlaPanthers11]

I feel bad for you because this looks like it took a lot of time, but you're gonna get roasted. Klingberg at 88 is laughable, especially when Ekblad is at 32

A common theme is emerging among Stars fans.

 

[Steezer99]

Greene, Stralman, Klingberg, and Vatanen all too low and I'd have Keith at number 1. But still a good list.

 

[Addison Rae]

Too High:
18 Dustin Byfuglien
26 Dan Girardi
37 Tobias Enstrom
49 Chris Tanev
51 Willie Mitchell

Too Low
62 Jeff Petry
76 Andy Greene

what? Tanev is too low, he's better than Hamhuis no questions asked.

 

[member 202355]

Kevin Bieksa over John Klingberg.

I just spat water all over my shirt, thanks.

 

[dechire]

A common theme is emerging among Stars fans.

You mean saying that the player who ranked 17th in PPG among defenseman (26th in total points with only 65 games played) deserves to be higher than 88th ? Yes, that is actually a common theme among Stars fans for very obvious reasons.

 

[Addison Rae]

too high:

13 Cam Fowler
24 Alex Edler
26 Dan Girardi (very bad)
34 Jack Johnson (very bad)
38 Dion Phaneuf (very bad)
40 Kris Russell (extremely bad)
82 Alexei Emelin (very bad)
56 Karl Alzner (very bad)
83 Josh Gorges (very bad)
90 Jonathan Ericsson (bad)
59 Kevin Klein (extremely bad)
77 Johnny Oduya (very bad)
86 Carl Gunnarsson (very bad)
84 Roman Polak (very bad)
71 Dennis Wideman (very bad)
68 Trevor Daley (very bad)

I see you using analytics all the time, how could you possibly suggest that an analytics darling in Edler is too high? you should be consistent in what you post

 

[member 202355]

Nik Hjalmarsson at 60 is way too low.

 

[WesMcCauley]

straalman should be higher. top 2 defensemen in tampa and is very solid. Sucked that we let him go and signed boyle instead. Girardi could be lower but he is very good defensivly so i actually agree with u that he should be that high. PLays first line minutes against the best players every week on the pres trophy winner. Hard to argue him not beeing 26th or better imo..

 

[AvsGuy]

Am I the only one annoyed by a list of 90, when 10 more would've taken 5 minutes and made it an even 100...

Also, a) Let's decide whether Brent Burns is actually a defenseman or not, and b) I know he's young and improving, but on what planet is Hampus Lindholm better than Erik Johnson?

 

[Snippit]

Well done.

 

[traffic cone]

I also have to give credit to the OP. When you're making a 90 player list like this, someone always thinks differently.

Still, this is a solid list. It's a shame people only focus on the parts they DON'T agree with.

 

[JayKing]

I'll try. (not gonna lie, I kind of botched the last 5)


1. Shea Weber
2. Drew Doughty
3. P.K. Subban
4. Erik Karlsson
5. Duncan Keith
6. Mark Giordano
7. Ryan Suter
8. Victor Hedman
9. Oliver Ekman-Larsson
10. Roman Josi

11. Ryan McDonagh
12. Alex Pietrangelo
13. Kris Letang
14. Marc-Edouard Vlasic
15. Erik Johnson
16. Niklas Kronwall
17. John Carlson
18. Justin Faulk
19. Kevin Shattenkirk
20. Johnny Boychuk

21. Cam Fowler
22. Andrei Markov
23. Anton Stralman
24. T.J. Brodie
25. Nick Leddy
26. Dustin Byfuglien
27. Brent Burns
28. Alex Edler
29. Hampus Lindholm
30. Brent Seabrook

31. Keith Yandle
32. Tyson Barrie
33. Niklas Hjalmarsson
34. Jonas Brodin
35. Matt Niskanen (too high?)
36. Chris Tanev
37. Jay Bouwmeester
38. Aaron Ekblad
39. Sami Vatanen
40. Dan Girardi

41. Dougie Hamilton
42. Tyler Myers
43. Marc Staal
44. John Klingberg
45. Tobias Enstrom
46. Zdeno Chara
47. Christian Ehrhoff
48. Marc Methot
49. Olli Määttä
50. Jake Muzzin

51. François Beauchemin
52. Andrej Sekera
53. Travis Hamonic
54. Andy Greene
55. Zach Bogosian
56. Mark Streit
57. Brian Campbell
58. Marco Scandella
59. Kevin Bieksa
60. Jeff Petry

61. Dennis Wideman
62. Dion Phaneuf
63. Braydn Coburn
64. Jacob Trouba
65. Dmitri Kulikov
66. Jack Johnson (too low?)
67. Danny Dekeyser
68. Marek Zidlicky
69. Seth Jones
70. Karl Alzner

71. James Wizniewski
72. Kevin Klein
73. Johnny Oduya
74. Brooks Orpik
75. Mike Green
76. Jason Garrisson
77. Fedor Tyutin (too low?)
78. Justin Braun
79. Alec Martinez
80. Paul Martin

81. David Savard
82. Jason Demers
83. Ryan Ellis (too low?)
84. Jared Spurgeon
85. Brandon Gormley
86. Cody Ceci
87. Mattias Ekholm
88. Morgan Rielly
89. Rasmus Ristolainen
90. Oscar Klefbom