Ranking NHL Teams By Defencemen

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

1) San Jose Sharks
2) Tampa Bay Lightning...should be #1
3) Carolina Hurricanes...deep, but too high, below NSH & STL imo
4) St. Louis Blues
5) Nashville Predators
6) Calgary Flames
7) Toronto Maple Leafs
8) Boston Bruins
9) Buffalo Sabres...too high
10) Philadelphia Flyers
11) Columbus Blue Jackets
12) Florida Panthers
13) Dallas Stars...too high
14) Chicago Blackhawks...Maatta & DeHann added, but still too high
15) Washington Capitals
16) Minnesota Wild...too low
17) New Jersey Devils
18) Arizona Coyotes
19) Vancouver Canucks...way too high
20) New York Islanders...best Defensive team ranked too low.
21) Montreal Canadiens
22) Pittsburgh Penguins
23) New York Rangers
24) Anaheim Ducks...too low
25) Colorado Avalanche
26) Winnipeg Jets...ouch, freefall
27) Los Angeles Kings
28) Edmonton Oilers
29) Vegas Golden Knights...agree, always thought their D was over-rated.
30) Ottawa Senators
31) Detroit Red Wings

 

[Chrisinroch]

Expected to see the Wild much higher. Interesting to see what the rest of the hockey world thinks about them.

Dumba did have 12 & 22 through 32 games until an oddball injury.

 

[txpd]

I like Jensen, I don't underrate him at all. In fact, that's the reason I had him anchoring the third pairing with one of the younger D (Djoos/Siegenthaler), to carry that pairing. I think you'd be in more trouble placing an unpredictable Gudas with a young D, but Reirden will probably do some experimenting with his pairings in the preseason. I doubt they are set in stone without having seen Gudas in a Capitals jersey. We shall see how it plays out. Perhaps your pairings will prove true. As mentioned, mine were probably copy and pasted from CapFriendly's depth chart page since that is what I was working off as a base for this project.

The Caps got Jensen to replace Niskanen. That's the role he will be used in.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Not offensively.
It would be great if D could score too.

Other than Cernak/Muzzin... which do you think Tampa would trade their player straight up?

 

[Foxtail]

That's a fair comment. I'm high on the Barrie addition in Toronto and a full season of Muzzin, but depth could be a concern there, though they have some top prospects (first-round picks) just a call away with the Marlies if the vets don't pan out on the bottom pairing. And Dermott will be back long before the playoffs.

You are right about Subban and the Devils, if his back doesn't hold up, New Jersey drops at least a few spots. But if Subban is healthy, the Devils will be a totally different team on the back end. A healthy Vatanen would help a lot too. And if Ty Smith manages to stick, he could really bolster that group IMO. But those are three fairly big "IFs" and time will tell.

I wouldn't be so high on Barrie, all you are considering is points , he is terrible defensively and doesn't skate all that well , carry the puck up the ice all that well or even pass above average. Coming from an Avs fan thankfully he is gone. The more he is on the ice the better chance your team will lose. He put up 59 points playing with the big dogs but was still a team low -3 on a playoff team with a positive goal differential. The Leafs will be in tough to make the playoffs with that D core

 

[alg363636]

Buffalo and Chicago stick out as being too high...Anaheim is probably too low.

Boston absolutely has a better defense than the Leafs. They might not have the big names but the Boston group is much stronger than Toronto's.

 

[Dirty Dog]

There are not 20 teams with a better defense than the Islanders. They don't have any elite guys at the top but their bottom 4 are very underrated.

And Buffalo is too high. Maybe in a year or two but any team that is rolling out Scandella, McCabe, Bogosian and Ristolainen is not top 10.

Agreed on sabres for sure. But they may not be starting 3 of those 4.

 

[X66]

Only a Leaf fan would put them ahead of Boston. Lol.

The Bruins defense was insanely hurt all year and they were 3rd in goals against. This year they're even better. They're #1 in a walk.

Meh, what does it matter.

At the end of the day, Rielly, Barrie, Muzzin and Dermott are a high end group of Dmen(combined together)

Plus, now there is no DJ Smith who was awful with the Defence, and two less anchors in Zaitsev and Hainsey. Ceci may very will be that, but 1 is still better than 2 in that regard.

 

[X66]

In his dreams. Muzzin had more goals against in 7 playoff games than Carlo did in the entire playoffs. McAvoy has already passed Rielly and will lap him soon. Take any two defensemen off the Bruins and they're still ahead of the Leafs. Protecting a lead I'll take Chara with literally any of the Bruins top-10 defensemen over any two Leafs. The Bruins just humiliated the Leafs PK and Toronto got rid of two of the only guys on their team who know how to PK.

C'mon, Hainsey, Zaitsev and Brown have been staple on the Leafs PK since they've been on the team and it's always been awful in the playoffs.

Those guys are trash(although Brown I think bounces back).

McAvoy is not better than Rielly today, he might be one day but it ain't today.

Rielly had to play with Hainsey the last two years, McAvoy wouldn't be as shiny with Hainsey anchored to him.

 

[X66]

Buffalo and Chicago stick out as being too high...Anaheim is probably too low.

Boston absolutely has a better defense than the Leafs. They might not have the big names but the Boston group is much stronger than Toronto's.

Maybe, maybe not.

People don't really understand how garbage DJ Smith, Zaitsev and Hainsey are.

 

[Nashology]

They had karlsson and burns last year and finished 11th worst in goals against.

This year will be more of the same.

Karlsson is garbage in his own end.

As other posters have gladly mentioned.. Dmen play offense too.

Just thought you should know that, considering SJ was the 2nd best offence in the NHL last year, led by their star dmen.

They made the final 4 with that team. Meaning, their offense > their defense

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

Does he really think Ceci is a first pairing ? lmao an other Leaf homer

 

[alg363636]

Maybe, maybe not.

People don't really understand how garbage DJ Smith, Zaitsev and Hainsey are.

That's fine but Boston's D group was significantly better than Leafs last year and adding Barrie, while good, definitely doesn't change that. At least not on paper which is all this is based on.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Vegas' D is a product of their play. Judging them on individual merits will cause rankings like this despite them playing a lot better than 29th as a unit.

 

[The Tourist]

Am I crazy for thinking Florida is about 10 spots too high?

 

[Just Linda]

I think the Flames defense is getting slept on here. The Flames finished tops in shots against per game and 9th in goals against despite having a goaltending duo that had a paltry .905 Sv%. Everyone in the top 5 other than the Sharks (I'll get to them next) had significantly better goaltending than Calgary did last year to help their defense out.

Also, San Jose's defense is too high, no way are they #1, sure they have great offensive potential in EK and Burns, but when it comes to actually playing defense, the Sharks as a team struggled and were 21st in goals against.

The Islanders and Golden Knights should be significantly higher IMO.

One would think actual defensive play has to count for more than big names and offensive output in a list ranking DEFENSE, but no, that's clearly not the case.

I get what you are saying about Calgary but even with bad goaltending, the defense didn't exactly make it easy on them. Flames were bottom 5 in allowing high danger shots, I blame Peters for that but yeah

 

[Larry Fisher]

You're acting as though Nutivaara is a #6 and Savard is a #4-5, with no basis I can see beyond ATOI. How does one explain to someone "no, Evgeni Malkin is not a #2C on most teams"?

Do you really think Savard is a No. 3 or top-pairing defender on other teams? Is Nutivaara more than a No. 4 on other teams, which he will be for Columbus again if/when Murray gets hurt? I honestly think you are overrating your team's players and maybe don't watch the rest of the league enough to comment unbiasedly.

 

[Larry Fisher]

I don’t hate the list overall, just a few spots that made me scratch my head. I do like Toronto’s new defence group, but I think their placement is a little to high. Likewise with Buffalo, it’s improved but not top ten worthy in my eyes. Maybe to much emphasis on depth? It’s nice that Buffalo has 12 NHL quality defencemen, but they are only going to play 6 of them.

Thanks for the rationale comment. I am admittedly bullish on Toronto and Buffalo with their new-look defences, so I can see how those rankings would appear high to some readers or higher than the consensus for those teams. That said, I do think Buffalo's starting six will impress. It looks good on paper but, as always, we'll have to see how it looks on the ice.

 

[Larry Fisher]

Does he really think Ceci is a first pairing ? lmao an other Leaf homer

No, but I think if anybody can carry Ceci, it is Rielly. I'd rather have Rielly carrying a pairing with Ceci than have Ceci struggling to stay afloat on the third pairing with a journeyman/rookie partner. Ceci isn't on the top pairing because of his ability but rather because of Rielly's ability to carry him. Hope that makes sense. I could see Babcock trying that pairing in camp.

 

[Larry Fisher]

Vegas' D is a product of their play. Judging them on individual merits will cause rankings like this despite them playing a lot better than 29th as a unit.

Exactly and precisely. These rankings were heavily weighted on talent level and Vegas was negatively impacted by that. As were the Islanders. Those groups get the job done, but they don't jump off the page at you.

 

[Viqsi]

Do you really think Savard is a No. 3 or top-pairing defender on other teams?

No. 3? Easily. Top-pairing? On teams that are lacking at the position, he can play there, but he's not the best choice for same.

Is Nutivaara more than a No. 4 on other teams, which he will be for Columbus again if/when Murray gets hurt?

Yes. Easily. He's not the shutdown type Savard is, but he's much better with the puck, and it shows up in his possession stats. On an understrength team he could be a serviceable fill-in next to a top quality shutdown guy - one such as, say, Seth Jones, which he's done and done really well. (He doesn't play there regularly because Murray and Werenski are still better overall, but at one point when Werenski was getting paired with Savard in an attempt to spread out talent and Murray was injured again, he slotted in there and didn't look a bit out of place.)

I honestly think you are overrating your team's players and maybe don't watch the rest of the league enough to comment unbiasedly.

The Preds became my #2 team in part because I couldn't bear to watch the Jackets defense in the aughts and wanted to be able to see what good defense looks like. I follow Carolina almost exclusively due to an infatuation with Jaccob Slavin. Used to do the same thing with Atlanta and Tobias Enstrom, and so I got a lot more tied up in that team's relocation than one might expect for someone who's never been to the city.

And I honestly think you've done little or no research and instead have gone with the lazy narrative of "the Jackets were no good until Bobrovsky and later Panarin arrived, and now that they're gone the team will suck again", without actually paying any attention to everyone else. It's borne out by the fact that the only Blue Jackets you've given significant or fair recognition to are the ones who didn't start out in Columbus, but were instead traded for or signed as UFAs - Bobrovsky in the goaltending article, Panarin and Duchene and Nyquist in the forwards article, and a vague mention of "the top pairing" and a picture of Jones in the defense article. And everyone else is largely dismissed as "a contributor" or "unproven" - if they get any mention whatsoever.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

No, but I think if anybody can carry Ceci, it is Rielly. I'd rather have Rielly carrying a pairing with Ceci than have Ceci struggling to stay afloat on the third pairing with a journeyman/rookie partner. Ceci isn't on the top pairing because of his ability but rather because of Rielly's ability to carry him. Hope that makes sense. I could see Babcock trying that pairing in camp.

I can't see this working out, we tried that in MTL with a lot of bottom line players, and look at us. It won't work, it never did.

 

[Larry Fisher]

No. 3? Easily. Top-pairing? On teams that are lacking at the position, he can play there, but he's not the best choice for same.


Yes. Easily. He's not the shutdown type Savard is, but he's much better with the puck, and it shows up in his possession stats. On an understrength team he could be a serviceable fill-in next to a top quality shutdown guy - one such as, say, Seth Jones, which he's done and done really well. (He doesn't play there regularly because Murray and Werenski are still better overall, but at one point when Werenski was getting paired with Savard in an attempt to spread out talent and Murray was injured again, he slotted in there and didn't look a bit out of place.)


The Preds became my #2 team in part because I couldn't bear to watch the Jackets defense in the aughts and wanted to be able to see what good defense looks like. I follow Carolina almost exclusively due to an infatuation with Jaccob Slavin. Used to do the same thing with Atlanta and Tobias Enstrom, and so I got a lot more tied up in that team's relocation than one might expect for someone who's never been to the city.

And I honestly think you've done little or no research and instead have gone with the lazy narrative of "the Jackets were no good until Bobrovsky and later Panarin arrived, and now that they're gone the team will suck again", without actually paying any attention to everyone else. It's borne out by the fact that the only Blue Jackets you've given significant or fair recognition to are the ones who didn't start out in Columbus, but were instead traded for or signed as UFAs - Bobrovsky in the goaltending article, Panarin and Duchene and Nyquist in the forwards article, and a vague mention of "the top pairing" and a picture of Jones in the defense article. And everyone else is largely dismissed as "a contributor" or "unproven" - if they get any mention whatsoever.

I think you are underrating the losses of Bobrovsky and Panarin, while overrating those who remain on the roster. We all know Columbus has two studs on defence. Beyond that, who is going to score up front and more importantly who is going to stop the puck? Those are huge question marks and are reflected in these rankings. Time will tell.

 

[easton117]

Exactly and precisely. These rankings were heavily weighted on talent level and Vegas was negatively impacted by that. As were the Islanders. Those groups get the job done, but they don't jump off the page at you.

I’d rather a team be solid as a unit personally. Boston, St Louis, etc. have developed systems that work. Guys buy in to that (or get shown the door). The Isles seemed to have figured it out. I’d bet Montreal will soon too.

Think a lot of younger fans see the names on the back of the jerseys sometimes and forget it’s a team game.

I could care less if a Bruin ever wins the Norris again (or idiotic polls putting Toronto, with 3 pairings who have never played together ahead of them...like c’mon).

As long as they play their system they’ll be fine most nights. Can’t ask for much more.

 

[Viqsi]

I think you are underrating the losses of Bobrovsky and Panarin

And there it is, right there. The core of the lazy analysis. "I know these two guys who left and I don't know the rest, therefore you're doomed." As though Panarin was the only good thing about the offense and Bobrovsky propped up everything else - and this in spite of Bob having an awful year last year. Thank you for coming out and finally admitting to it.