Rate the players on your team by Defensive ability

[Rebels57]

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!

Couturier - 5
Provorov - 5

Giroux - 4
Raffl - 4

Gostisbehere - 3
Patrick - 3
Sanheim - 3
Gudas - 3
Lindblom - 3
Laughton - 3
Simmonds - 3
Lehtera - 3
Morin - 3
Read - 3
Oduya - 3
Leier - 3

Filppula - 2
Weal - 2
Hagg - 2
Konecny - 2
Martel - 2
O'Neill - 2
Weise - 2

MacDonald - 1
Manning - 1
Goulbourne - 1

 

[habs03]

This season, he played with Emelin most of the time. That really hurt his numbers. Plus, he had crazy D-zone starts, which also hurt his defensive numbers, compared to his teammates who had easier zone starts. If you look at last year, regular season or playoffs, you'll see his defensive numbers were much better.

As for this year in the playoffs, I think Subban was great defensively overall, except for his bad habit of trying to cover for his teammates when they mess up, and in the process, leaving his man open. I saw that at least 4 or 5 times against the Jets. Don't know if Subban was trying to do too much, or if it was because his teammates messed up more than usual... Probably a bit of both. The fact that Rinne allowed such bad goals probably didn't help the players' confidence too. And the Jets have very dangerous players.

But other than that, he was very solid. His defensive numbers in the playoffs were pretty good too, other than +/-. Scheifele's line had a 45% CF against Ekholm-Subban, and 40% scoring chances for. Against the other pairings, that line had closer to 55-65% CF and SCF.

He was playing with Emelin, getting D-zone starts, but other teams 2-3rd lines.

With Ellis out to start the year, Lavy moved Ekholm who never played RD before, to the top pair with Josi, to play vs other teams top lines, instead of putting Subban in his natural RD spot.

A 5 rating is a joke, an I like his game a lot

 

[Kind Sir]

St. Louis Blues:

Forwards

4 Brodzniak
4 Steen
4 Schenn
3 Schwartz
3 Upshall
3 Berglund
3 Sobotka
3 Jaskin
2 Barbashev
2 Thompson
1 Taresenko

Defence

5 Pietrangelo
4 Paryako
4 Edmundson
3 Dunn
3 Bortuzzo
2 Gunnerson
2 Boumeester

Lots of incompletes on players I didn't actually see, who only played in a few games.

 

[Fixxer]

You're suggesting that Subban is a 5? Laughable.

I'd give him a 5 for the effort, and a 3 for his defensiveness awareness. I'd make it a 4 I don't know about now, but his intensity in Montreal was unmatched!

 

[TheGoldenGod]

Blues have good defenseman and two way forwards. Good structured team but struggles to score consistently plus poor goaltending from Jake Allen.

4.5 Schwartz
4 Brodziak
4 Steen
4 Schenn
3.5 Berglund
3.5 Sobotka
3 Tarasenko
3 Upshall
3 Jaskin
3 Barbashev
3 Sundqvist
3 Soshnikov
2 Thompson

5 Pietrangelo
4.5 Paryako
4 Edmundson
3.5 Bouwmeester
3 Dunn
3 Bortuzzo
3 Gunnarson

 

[Kind Sir]

Blues have good defenseman and two way forwards. Good structured team but struggles to score consistently plus poor goaltending from Jake Allen.

4.5 Schwartz
4 Brodziak
4 Steen
4 Schenn
3.5 Berglund
3.5 Sobotka
3 Tarasenko
3 Upshall
3 Jaskin
3 Barbashev
3 Sundqvist
3 Soshnikov
2 Thompson

5 Pietrangelo
4.5 Paryako
4 Edmundson
3.5 Bouwmeester
3 Dunn
3 Bortuzzo
3 Gunnarson

I would quibble on Tarasenko and Boumeester....but, yeah we seem to be watching the same team.

 

[hirawl]

Great thread. Really shows you how absolutely delusional fans can be. Fantastic.

 

[TGWL]

I like all the posters handing 5's out like it's common to have 1 or more among the best defensive player in the NHL on their team.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I like all the posters handing 5's out like it's common to have 1 or more among the best defensive player in the NHL on their team.

To be fair, the next best is "above average". The rating system in the OP is flawed. If someone thinks a player is "good" defensively, they may just go with 5 instead of 4.

 

[GoldiFox]

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!

5 - Slavin & Jordan Staal
4 - Pesce & Aho
3.5 - TVR & Fleury
3 - Lindholm, Teravainen, Rask & Faulk
2.5 - Hanifin & Williams
2 - Skinner

 

[Bouboumaster]

PK Subban is a goddamn 5.

As for Montreal:

Weber - 4,5 or 5
Danault - 4
Byron - 4
Petry 4 or 3,5

And the rest freaking suxx, man.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

St. Louis Blues:

Forwards

4 Brodzniak
4 Steen
4 Schenn
3 Schwartz
3 Upshall
3 Berglund
3 Sobotka
3 Jaskin
2 Barbashev
2 Thompson
1 Taresenko

Defence

5 Pietrangelo
4 Paryako
4 Edmundson
3 Dunn
3 Bortuzzo
2 Gunnerson
2 Boumeester

Lots of incompletes on players I didn't actually see, who only played in a few games.

Defensively I would absolutely take Berglund and Sobokta over Steen at this point. Schwartz is also a beast defensively. Jaskin is super underrated as well.

 

[Son of Petter]

Tanev 5
Horvat 3.5
Markstrom 2
Gudbranson 1
Nilsson 0

Pretty much sums it up

 

[Kind Sir]

Defensively I would absolutely take Berglund and Sobokta over Steen at this point. Schwartz is also a beast defensively. Jaskin is super underrated as well.

Hmmm. Schwartz should probably get a 4, I'll agree. However, Steen is definately better defensively than Berglund or Sobotka. Jaskin is underrated....lots of people view him as below-average, I don't.

 

[Maukkis]

I like all the posters handing 5's out like it's common to have 1 or more among the best defensive player in the NHL on their team.

Below is a list of all the 5s given out in this thread.

Spoiler

Larsson
Slavin
J. Staal
Hagelin
Dumoulin
Couturier
Toews
Lindell
Faksa
S. Weber
Fast
Morrissey
O'Reilly
Hedman
Stralman
Point
McDonagh
Suter
Spurgeon
Koivu
Brodin
Vlasic
Couture
Hertl
Pavelski
Kopitar
Doughty
Bergeron
Chara
Backstrom
Oshie
Palat
Lowry
Subban
Ekholm
Mark Stone
Giordano
Backlund
Provorov
Pietrangelo
Tanev

41 names, without factoring in every team in the league. I can see the reasoning behind most of the names, but there are some very generous ones too. Wouldn't exactly classify 40+ players as 'the best defensive players'.

 

[Legionnaire11]

To be fair, the next best is "above average". The rating system in the OP is flawed. If someone thinks a player is "good" defensively, they may just go with 5 instead of 4.

I guess I could have done a better job explaining it, but those are the parameters i'm limited to. The majority of players should be in the 2, 3 and 4 categories as Below, Average, Above since most players really are about the same these days, and then the exceptional cases of players who stand out should be in the 1 and 5 categories.

Luckily I have enough prior knowledge and data, plus various defensive metrics pulled for this season that what i'm getting in this thread is more of a last triple check on what i've already put together and I can easily weed out the outlandish answers anyway. But it's a fun exercise for people and the discussion is always good, in years past i've done this operation through PM's on HF, but figured this year i'd open it up publicly. I can post results once the project is complete so everyone can see what comes out of it.

 

[Langdon Alger]

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

How the hell are Pageau and Hoffman the same?

 

[ESH]

Giordano - 5
Backlund - 4.5
Frolik - 4 (maybe 4.5)
Tkachuk - 4
Hamonic - 4
Monahan - 3.5
Hamilton - 3.5
Stone - 3
Brodie - 2 (though when he’s on he can be a solid 4)

Everyone else is below average to maybe around average, not included because they’re not notable.