Rate the players on your team by Defensive ability

[Legionnaire11]

I'm looking for your opinion on the defensive ability of players on your favorite team. Please take a minute or two to slot them into a 1-5 system with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. Try to include every player who appeared in at least 1 NHL game last season, if not at rate get as many players as you can...

5 - The best defensive players in the NHL
4 - Above average defensively
3 - Average
2 - Below average defensively
1 - The worst defensive player in the NHL

Thank you!

Click to read more...

 

[MessierII]

Larsson 5
Sekera 4
Russell 4
Nurse 3
Klefbom 2
Benning 2

Mcdavid 4
Draisaitl 4
Nugent-Hopkins 4
Strome 3
Lucic 3
Kassian 3
Khaira 3
Caguilla 2
Pulijaarvi 3
Aberg 3
Rattie 2

 

[Akrapovince]

Karlsson 4
Chabot 2
Ceci 2
Oduya 2
Everyone else, also 2

Stone 5
Duchene 4.5
Pageau 3
Ryan 3
Hoff maybe 3
Everyone else probably below

 

[tarheelhockey]

5
Slavin
Staal

4
Aho
Lindholm
Pesce

3
Fleury
Hanifin
McGinn
Nordstrom
Rask
Teravainen
TVR
Williams

2
Dahlbeck
Di Giuseppe
Faulk
Skinner
Stempniak

1
Ryan

0
Darling

 

[Lays]

Numbers are a bit vague in OP so I’ll use decimals
Kreider-3.5
Zib-3.5
Buch-2
Chytil-2
Andersson-4 (I think soon he can challenge 5 or at least be 4.5)
Zucc-4
Hayes-4
Spooner-2
Namestnikov-3
Fast-4
Staal-2
Shatty-2-2.5
Skjei-3.5
Pionk-3
Deangelo-2-2.5
Gilmour-1
O Gara-1.5-2
Every dman will bump up by .5 when we get a coach who would have a league worst defensive system if Weight wasn’t a coach, please no more man to man my heart can’t handle it

 

[cgf]

Don’t think anyone on the Avs is quite best in the league good; although EJ & Zadorov are just a step down from that tier and Landy isn’t far off from them. I combined forechecking/NZ-backchecking with dzone-play/PKing for these as more "play against the puck" ratings.


Landeskog - 4.5
(he's not quite on that Selke or near Selke level that I think a 5 needs to be, but he's awesome and did a ton of the dirty work for MacKinnon & Rantanen...often swapping with MacK in the defensive zone to help out the dmen down low, while MacK n Mikko covered the pointmen; where they would be ready to take off once we secured the puck)
Soderberg - 4
(he's come a long way since arriving in Colorado and was absolutely phenomenal as our 4th best forward, facing ridiculously tough minutes every night; not quite on Landy's level though)
Nieto - 3.5/4
(great forechecker & PKer, he's good in his own zone, but not as good as Soda)
Bourque - 3.5/4
(great forechecker & PKer, he's good in his own zone, but not as good as Soda)
MacKinnon - 3.5
(he's a good defensive player, who's burst & speed lets him cover when we get caught going the wrong way, but he's still improving and not a really difference maker on that end of the ice most of the time)
Rantanen - 3.5
(Mikko's still learning, but he's great along the boards, can pick pockets beautifully, and has an uncanny knack for ending up exactly in the right plays for opponents to trip themselves up while running into him, he'll push Landy in this category some day)
Jost 3/3.5
(kid's almost ROR like with his stick defensively; he's still developing physically, his skating needs to get more explosive, and experience will help, but he's above average already and has the potential to be a real difference maker against the puck)
Comeau - 3/3.5
(a bit more effective along the boards than Nieto n Gork, though he's not the forechecking demon they are, all three are exceptional PKer; waffled on giving him & Jost both straight 3.5s)
Compher - 3/3.5
(kid's already a great shot blocker, a plus PKer, and he's sneaky with his stick; think both he & Jost could end up 4/4.5s as they mature)
Toninato - 3/3.5
(kid was a very solid 4C, who was above average in his own end as a rookie & could get some forechecking done)
Wilson - 3
(he’s the common NHLer's Mary Poppins, absolutely average in every single way)
Greer - 2.5/3
(wasn't a liability in his own zone, could do some forechecking; still needs experience to settle in at the NHL level before I give him a clean 3, but he helped against the puck during his NHL stints)
Kerfoot - 2/2.5
(See Andrighetto, but not as much of a liability in his own end & a more useful forechecker)
Andrighetto - 2
(although a bit of a liability in his own zone, he did use his speed nicely on the forecheck to pester teams that way)
Kamenev - Incomplete
(he looked good in his few AHL games, and wasn't a problem in his handful of NHL shifts, but he just didn't play enough because of that brutal arm break in his Avs' debut)


Johnson - 4.5
(not quite best of the best but a beast)
Zadorov - 4.5
(not quite best of the best but a beast)
Nemeth - 3.5/4
(good, especially on the PK, but not as good as Zads/EJ)
Girard - 3.5
(above average against the puck but not as good as Nemeth yet; though I do see Spurgeon potential in the 19yo hobbit)
Barrie - 3/3.5
(above average but not as good as Girard; in large part because the minutes he ate when EJ went down got to him and he stopped moving his feet all the time)
Siemens - 2.5/3
(perfectly decent defensively, especially on the PK...but even in the AHL his hands are bad)
Barberio - 2/2.5
(below average to almost-average; when he was playing well, he was almost not a liability defensively)
Alt - 2
(below average to almost-average; wasn't much of a liability, didn't do much of use though, not quite average)
Lindholm - 2
(below average to almost-average; he can skate & read the play, he has good natural aggression, but he's small...so small that his physicality isn't too effective...and his hands are terrible, so he isn't much good at using his stick to poke at the puck or swipe it)
Warsofsky - 1.5
(so bad that 1.5 might be over-rating his d; but he's an AHLer who's puck-moving skills were almost NHL level, who got PT because of that, since all our third pairing options at the time had hands of stone, so it feels unfair to shit on him too much for not being an NHLer defensively)

 

[Kamiccolo]

Larsson 5
Sekera 4
Russell 4
Nurse 3
Klefbom 2
Benning 2

Mcdavid 4
Draisaitl 4
Nugent-Hopkins 4
Strome 3
Lucic 3
Kassian 3
Khaira 3
Caguilla 2
Pulijaarvi 3
Aberg 3
Rattie 2

So you think the Oilers are an above average defensive team in the NHL?

 

[MessierII]

So you think the Oilers are an above average defensive team in the NHL?

About average overall. Special teams and goaltending sunk them this year. Also a bunch of those players were injured or playing injured. This year Sekera and Klefbom would be 1’s but that’s not indicative of their actual ability.

 

[PensandCaps]

Hagelin- 5
Dumoulin-5
Sheahan-4
Rust-4
Crosby-4
Maatta-4
Malkin-3.5
Brassard-3
Schultz-3
Guenztel-3
Hornqvist-3
Kuhnackel-3
Ruhwedel-2
Oleksiak-2
Letang-2
Hunwick-1
Simon-1
Sheary-0
Kessel-0

 

[Eric Robson]

2.5 Tyler Bozak (A) 3.5 Connor Brown 3 Zach Hyman 2.5 Nazem Kadri 3.5 Kasperi Kapanen 1.5 Leo Komarov (A) 1.5 Josh Leivo 4 Patrick Marleau 2.5 Mitchell Marner 1 Matt Martin 3.5 Auston Matthews 2 Dominic Moore 1.5 William Nylander 4 Tomas Plekanec 1 James van Riemsdyk [TBODY] [/TBODY]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Defense

Player 2 Connor Carrick 1.5 Jake Gardiner 4 Ron Hainsey 2 Roman Polak 3.5 Morgan Rielly (A) 2.5 Nikita Zaitsev [TBODY] [/TBODY] [TBODY] [/TBODY]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[FlyTimmo]

Forwards

5 - Couturier
4 - Giroux, Patrick
3 - Laughton, Lindblom, Raffl, Read, Simmonds
2 - Filppula, Konecny, Lehtera, Leier, Voracek, Weise, Weal, Martel, Goulbourne
1 -

Defenseman:

5 -
4 - Provorov
3 - Gostisbehere, Gudas
2 - MacDonald, Hagg, Sanheim
1 - Manning, Oduya

 

[SotasicA]

Saad - 3 (he used to be a 4, but his defensive effort seemed to be lacking most of the season)
Toews - 5 (the body may give up, but he's got the smarts at least)
Hinostroza - 1
DeBrincat - 1
Schmaltz - 2 (made even worse by the fact he can't buy a faceoff win)
Kane - 1
Sharp - 1 (used to be an excellent two-way forward, but basically just cherry picked his last year)
Anisimov - 4
Jurco - 1
Duclair - 1
Kampf - 2
Hayden - 2
Keith - 4 (better defensively than with the puck... has lost speed, but not stamina)
Oesterle - 1
Gustafsson - 1
Seabrook - 3 (used to be an elite shutdown d-man, is basically terrible at hockey these days but still has some of his d-awareness)
Forsling - 2
Rutta - 3 (only semi-bright spot on D)
Murphy - 3 (came with expectations of being better)
Berube - 1 (can't stop a puck)
Forsberg - 1 (can't stop a puck)
Glass - 1 (can't stop a puck)
Delia - 1 (can't stop a puck)
Crawford - 4 (can stop a puck)

 

[Kcb12345]

5 - Lindell, Faksa


Others are a tier below them defensively.

4 - Seguin, Benn sometimes, Klingberg sometimes (3.5 heading towards a 4), Janmark

3 - Radulov, Johns, Benn sometimes

2 - Benn sometimes



1 - Spezza ainec

 

[NickH8]

I'm looking for your opinion on the defensive ability of players on your favorite team. Please take a minute or two to slot them into a 1-5 system with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. Try to include every player who appeared in at least 1 NHL game last season, if not at rate get as many players as you can...

5 - The best defensive players in the NHL
4 - Above average defensively
3 - Average
2 - Below average defensively
1 - The worst defensive player in the NHL

Thank you!

Forwards:
Abdelkader - 3
Athanasiou - 2
Bertuzzi - 3
Booth - 2
Frk - 2
Glendening - 3
Helm - 4
Larkin - 4
Mantha - 2
Nielsen - 4
Nyquist - 3
Witkowski - 1
Zetterberg - 4

Defensemen:
Daley - 3
DeKeyser - 2
Ericsson - 3
Green - 2
Jensen - 2
Kronwall - 3
Ouellet - 2

 

[olli]

2.5 Tyler Bozak (A) 3.5 Connor Brown 3 Zach Hyman 2.5 Nazem Kadri 3.5 Kasperi Kapanen 1.5 Leo Komarov (A) 1.5 Josh Leivo 4 Patrick Marleau 2.5 Mitchell Marner 1 Matt Martin 3.5 Auston Matthews 2 Dominic Moore 1.5 William Nylander 4 Tomas Plekanec 1 James van Riemsdyk [TBODY] [/TBODY]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Defense

Player 2 Connor Carrick 1.5 Jake Gardiner 4 Ron Hainsey 2 Roman Polak 3.5 Morgan Rielly (A) 2.5 Nikita Zaitsev [TBODY] [/TBODY] [TBODY] [/TBODY]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Don't leaf fans call Kadri a "shutdown C"? Why does he only have a 2.5?

 

[rent free]

Don't leaf fans call Kadri a "shutdown C"? Why does he only have a 2.5?

Because he isn't that good defensively. He misses assignments quite a bit from what I see

 

[olli]

Because he isn't that good defensively. He misses assignments quite a bit from what I see

Didn't realize that.

 

[El Travo]

Because he isn't that good defensively. He misses assignments quite a bit from what I see

From some highlights I've seen he seems to be good at shutting down individual players when given that task. Any truth to that or are those just outliers?

 

[KlefDown]

Larsson 5
Sekera 4
Russell 4
Nurse 3
Klefbom 2
Benning 2

Mcdavid 4
Draisaitl 4
Nugent-Hopkins 4
Strome 3
Lucic 3
Kassian 3
Khaira 3
Caguilla 2
Pulijaarvi 3
Aberg 3
Rattie 2

This is hilariously bad. What are you thinking

 

[WatchfulElm]

Habs

Weber - 5
Danault - 4
Byron - 4
De La Rose - 4
Pacioretty - 3
Shaw - 3
Gallagher - 3
Petry - 3
Hudon - 3
Lehkonen - 3
Benn - 3
Alzner - 2
Mete - 2
Drouin - 2
Galchenyuk - 1

 

[Martin Skoula]

From some highlights I've seen he seems to be good at shutting down individual players when given that task. Any truth to that or are those just outliers?

He'll shut you down in the sense that he'll spend a good chunk of his shifts cycling in your end, and if that fails he'll forecheck and agitate you into taking a penalty hopefully. That one game against McDavid was his very best work, if he can bring that every night he'd be a 5. Looking purely his work in the defensive zone he's probably a 2.5 on average, but on the whole he's probably closer to a 3.5 in terms of limiting how much time his opponent is generating good scoring chances.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

5-Fast
4-Hayes, Andersson, Pionk
3-Zibanejad, Zuccarello, Buchnevich, Skjei
2-Chytil, Namestnikov, Smith, Staal
1-Kreider, Vesey, Spooner, Shattenkirk, O'Gara, Gilmour, DeAngelo

 

[MessierII]

This is hilariously bad. What are you thinking

Do tell me what your thinking

 

[KlefDown]

Do tell me what your thinking

Larsson 4.5
Russell 2.5
Klefbom 3 (last year 4.5)
Nurse 3
Sekera 2 (last year 3.5)
Benning 2.5

McDavid 3.5
RNH 3.5
Drai 3.5
Strome 2.5

Basically just 0.5 less than your rankings.

 

[StatisticsAddict99]

Offence:

Lowry - 4.5
Wheeler - 4
Perreault - 4
Scheifele - 4
Armia - 3.5
Little - 3.5
Copp - 3.5
Tanev - 3.5

- Average or under >

Defence:

Morrissey - 5
Trouba - 4
Enstrom - 4
Kulikov -3.5
Byfuglien - 3.5

- Average or under >