My list of top-90 NHL defensemen

[TT1]

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

#24 would make Edler a #1 D which hes not, hes a #2 D. I also missed Suter who's extremely high aswell, i consider him a borderline #2 D, he's closer to a #3 D.

 

[bobbyt911]

I try to guess whether they're too high or too low.

26 Dan Girardi - too high
38 Dion Phaneuf - too high
45 Anton Stralman - too low
49 Chris Tanev - too low
60 Niklas Hjalmarsson - too low
64 Jake Muzzin - too low
74 Jacob Trouba - too low
82 Alexei Emelin - too low
86 Carl Gunnarsson - too low
87 Sami Vatanen - too low
88 John Klingberg - too low

I think he is about right

If I coached in the Stanley Cup finals tomorrow and I could add a dman to my roster...

1 Erik Karlsson
2 Duncan Keith
3 Shea Weber
4 Drew Doughty
5 Ryan Suter
6 PK Subban
7 Mark Giordano
8 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
9 Alex Pietrangelo
10 Victor Hedman
11 Kris Letang
12 Roman Josi
13 Cam Fowler
14 Kevin Shattenkirk
15 John Carlson
16 Ryan McDonagh
17 Zdeno Chara
18 Dustin Byfuglien
19 Brent Seabrook
20 Marc-Edouard Vlasic
21 Justin Faulk
22 Niklas Kronwall
23 Brent Burns
24 Alex Edler
25 Hampus Lindholm
26 Dan Girardi
27 TJ Brodie
28 Erik Johnson
29 Jay Bouwmeester
30 Marc Staal
31 Jonas Brodin
32 Aaron Ekblad
33 Travis Hamonic
34 Jack Johnson
35 Dan Hamhuis
36 Keith Yandle
37 Tobias Enstrom
38 Dion Phaneuf
39 Matt Niskanen
40 Kris Russell
41 Brooks Orpik
42 Brian Campbell
43 Tyson Barrie
44 Andrej Sekera
45 Anton Stralman
46 Dougie Hamilton
47 Andrei Markov
48 Olli Maatta
49 Chris Tanev
50 Marco Scandella
51 Willie Mitchell
52 Mike Green
53 Mark Streit
54 Christian Ehrhoff
55 Francois Beauchemin
56 Karl Alzner
57 Tyler Myers
58 Johnny Boychuk
59 Kevin Klein
60 Niklas Hjalmarsson
61 Jared Spurgeon
62 Jeff Petry
63 Nick Leddy
64 Jake Muzzin
65 Alex Goligoski
66 Danny DeKeyser
67 Marc Methot
68 Trevor Daley
69 Fedor Tyutin
70 Braydon Coburn
71 Dennis Wideman
72 Jason Garrison
73 Zach Bogosian
74 Jacob Trouba
75 Jan Hejda
76 Andy Greene
77 Johnny Oduya
78 Paul Martin
79 Kevin Bieksa
80 Marek Zidlicky
81 Seth Jones
82 Alexei Emelin
83 Josh Gorges
84 Roman Polak
85 Dmitri Kulikov
86 Carl Gunnarsson
87 Sami Vatanen
88 John Klingberg
89 Alec Martinez
90 Jonathan Ericsson

you forgot Morgan Rielly.

 

[gasp]

No Ristolainen? I think he's better than Vatanen at least. Not by much though.

 

[Addison Rae]

#24 would make Edler a #1 D which hes not, hes a #2 D. I also missed Suter who's extremely high aswell, i consider him a borderline #2 D, he's closer to a #3 D.

I disagree on edler, guy was easily a top 30 d-man in the league this year, absolutely easily. played the best hockey of his life

agreed that Suter is overrated.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

#24 would make Edler a #1 D which hes not, hes a #2 D. I also missed Suter who's extremely high aswell, i consider him a borderline #2 D, he's closer to a #3 D.

You think Ryan Suter is a borderline #2 Dman, and borderline as in he should be a #3?



If Suter is a #2/3 Dman, Subban is a #4.

 

[NightmanCometh]

You think Ryan Suter is a borderline #2 Dman, and borderline as in he should be a #3?



If Suter is a #2/3 Dman, Subban is a #4.

Subban is clearly better than Suter. Suter really struggled down the stretch and into the playoffs this season... I'm sure he will return to form after spending some time off the ice but I think the days of Suter being a top 10 D are drawing to a close. There is too much young talent and the guys who have been in the league for a few years now are really starting to come into their own. That's not to say that Suter isn't a top D -- he can still easily anchor a top pairing, but he is not significantly better than most other #1D's in the league at this point.

 

[member 202355]

You think Ryan Suter is a borderline #2 Dman, and borderline as in he should be a #3?



If Suter is a #2/3 Dman, Subban is a #4.

Subban is so much better than Suter, it really isn't close.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I really hope those aren't actually in order

 

[dbieon12]

If I coached in the Stanley Cup finals tomorrow and I could add a dman to my roster...

10 Victor Hedman
45 Anton Stralman
70 Braydon Coburn
72 Jason Garrison

The Lightning only have 4 of them.

 

[Wendelstache]

Phaneuf is getting so underrated around here its funny

Said no one ever!

The guy is warm hot crap.

 

[LeafsNation149]

Suter being a borderline #2 LOOOOOOOOOOOOL. He's top 5-10 Dman in the NHL

Said no one ever!

The guy is warm hot crap.

Thank you for proving my point...

 

[swissexpert]

Too high: Karlsson, Suter, Fowler, Chara
Too low: Brodie, Spurgeon, Klingberg

Don't think the list is too bad overall, it actually is really hard to rank different types of defenders..

 

[Devils Trap]

Andy Greene at 76......

I would put him in my Top 30 easily

 

[JIsles]

Nick Leddy at 63. Geez. He finished in the top ten for Norris trophy votes.

 

[JIsles]

I know I'm a homer, but Boychuk at 58. If I'm going into a playoff series there are not 57 defensmen I'm picking before Johnny Boychuk.

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

not a bad list, normally i could care less if morgan rielly wasn't included in a top defenseman list but i mean, having polak, gorges ect.. and not reilly well...

also phaneuf in top 40 isnt bad its about right imo, could even be higher, but had a meh year

 

[Machinehead]

No Dan Boyle? You've got some of his teammates that he's outperformed by a huge margin this year. The guy's still really good.

Meanwhile Rangers fans will come in and be like "but he's old and sux pls" which is just the typical "attack the free agent" mentality. Every once in awhile he makes a mistake and we have to talk about it for 2 weeks. Meanwhile it's the kind of stupid **** Girardi and Staal do 10 times a game that gets swept under the rug.

 

[firewagonHOCKEY]

To be fair he asked if you where playing a game tomorrow which defender you would like on your team them. I would definitely then go for Karlsson.

 

[glovesave_35]

Bolded made me laugh a little

My Top 10:

1 Duncan Keith
2 Drew Doughty
3 Erik Karlsson
4 Ryan Suter
5 Shea Weber
6 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
7 Alex Pietrangelo
8 PK Subban
9 Mark Giordano
10 Brent Seabrook

Duncan Keith listed at #2 rather than #1 made you laugh...

 

[choi]

Marc Methot, in my opinion, deserves some credit.

 

[The Jesus*]

You did a really, really great job with this OP. I might have a minor disagreement here or there, but nothing egregious. Great work.

 

[S E P H]

Subban is so much better than Suter, it really isn't close.

No not really, Suter absolutely blows away Subban defensively and that isn't close.

Subban is definitely better offensively, but if you consider all aspects of a defenseman, Suter is the better two-way-er.

You did a really, really great job with this OP. I might have a minor disagreement here or there, but nothing egregious. Great work.

Erik Johnson is at 28th place with Cam Fowler over him, he did not do a good job.

 

[Topkatz]

Kinda funny but depressing that the Oilers don't have a single player in that list

 

[RustyCat]

The fact that so many in your list are in my top 180 defencemen is astounding.

It is like you literally incepted my mind, after I took the red pill, and learned my life was a movie and all my friends were actors.

True story.

 

[Rangediddy]

Really happy to see that so many people are actively watching every team play all year.

I know that there are a lot of people who watch all the games, because I don't watch all the games and I know better than to comment on how bad a list like this is without consistently watching all the players on it. So naturally all the guys crapping all over the list MUST watch every player pretty consistently. Keep it up boys! You are the true sports fans!