Here is how I would personnally rank, as of today, the top defensemen in the NHL for the 2018-2019 season:
1. Erik Karlsson, OTT
2. Victor Hedman, TBL
3. Drew Doughty, LAK
4. Roman Josi, NSH
5. Brent Burns, SJS
6. PK Subban, NSH
7. John Klingberg, DAL
8. Alex Pietrangelo, STL
9. Zachary Werenski, CLB
10. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, ARI
11. Ducan Keith, CHI
12. Dustin Byfuglien, WPG
13. John Carlsson, WSH
14. Kristopher Letang, PIT
15. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, SJS
16. Ryan McDonagh, TBL
17. Shayne Gostisbehere, PHI
18. Torey Krug, BOS
19. Dougie Hamilton, CAR
20. Shea Weber, MTL
21. Mark Giordano, CGY
22. Ryan Suter, MIN
23. Aaron Ekblad, FLA
24. Morgan Rielly, TOR
25. Tyson Barrie, COL
... these are all, on top of my head, defensemen I would pick without hesitation over Ellis on my team.
After that, a case could be made with a buch of young up and coming defensemen that I would probably rank higher than him because of their upside (Provorov, Dumba, Ristolainen, Dahlin) and other proven veterans (Yandle, Muzzin, Brodie, Parayko, Shattekirk, Spurgeon).
To put him in the 25-35 range would be a fairer assessment in my opinion.