As this season has progressed, Dillon has been taking on tougher competition. This started when Vlasic was out and Dillon was paired with Erik Karlsson. But even tonight against a one line team that stacked up Toews/Kane, with Vlasic and without Karlsson in the lineup, Dillon's pairing still took on tougher matchups.
Here is how Dillon has done when he has played heavy minutes at 5-on-5 against big name star forwards this season:
| Game | Opponent | TOI | Shot Attempts Against | High Danger Chances Against | Goals Against | OZFO% |
| 03/03 Vs. CHI* | Jonathan Toews | 8:37 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 60% |
| 03/03 Vs. CHI* | Patrick Kane | 8:09 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 60% |
| 02/24 @ DET* | Dylan Larkin | 8:57 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 14.29% |
| 02/23 @ CBJ** | Artemi Panarin | 6:25 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
| 02/21 @ PIT** | Evgeni Malkin | 6:54 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 02/21 @ PIT** | Phil Kessel | 6:39 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 02/14 Vs. WSH* | Evgeny Kuznetsov | 9:46 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0% |
| 02/14 Vs. WSH* | Alexander Ovechkin | 8:33 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
| 02/11 @ VAN | Elias Petterson | 6:16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 02/09 Vs. EDM* | Leon Draisaitl | 8:58 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 57.14% |
| 02/09 Vs. EDM* | Connor McDavid | 8:13 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 66.67% |
| 02/07 @ CGY* | Sean Monahan | 5:58 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 50% |
| 02/07 @ CGY* | Johnny Gaudreau | 5:52 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 50% |
| 01/21 @ FLA* | Aleksander Barkov | 7:30 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 50% |
| 01/19 @ TBL* | Steven Stamkos | 8:13 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0% |
| 01/15 Vs. PIT | Sidney Crosby | 7:55 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 50% |
| 01/12 @ VGK | William Karlsson | 8:13 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 33.33% |
| 01/12 @ VGK | Jonathan Marchessault | 8:01 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 33.33% |
| 01/08 Vs. EDM | Connor McDavid | 10:43 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 42.86% |
| 01/07 Vs. LAK | Anze Kopitar | 15:30 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 61.54% |
| 01/05 Vs. TBL | Brayden Point | 12:31 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 42.86% |
| 01/05 Vs. TBL | Nikita Kucherov | 12:22 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 42.86% |
| 12/16 @ CHI | Patrick Kane | 6:54 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 50% |
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* Means no Erik Karlsson in the lineup
** Means Erik Karlsson was in the lineup but not Dillon's frequent partner
Basically, he's played a good amount of minutes with heavy d-zone usage against big name star players and generally hasn't given up a lot.
His aggregate totals against each team's best forward (Kane, Larkin, Panarin, Malkin, Ovechkin, Pettersson, McDavid, Gaudreau, Barkov, Stamkos, Crosby, W. Karlsson, Kopitar, and Kucherov):
| TOI | Shot Attempts Against | High Danger Chances Against | Goals Against |
| 136:39 | 105 | 16 | 7 |
| Per 60 | 46.10 | 7.03 | 3.07 |
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If there were an NHL team whose numbers were "Brenden Dillon hard matched against superstar forwards", they would allow far shot attempts and high danger chances at a lower rate than any other team in the league. That's very encouraging, even in a small sample size. The goals against isn't great but it's worth taking in with a grain of salt when considering the small sample size, 5/7 of them coming in blowout losses, and Dillon being unable to control poor goaltending. On top of that, holding these kinds of star players to 3 goals per 60 minutes is still good cause most of them are on the ice for more than 3 per 60.
The last thing to note is that 75 of those 136 minutes came without Erik Karlsson by his side and 62 came without Karlsson even in the lineup. So it's not as if he's riding Karlsson's coat tails by any means.
Honestly, the sample size is still too small to really draw conclusions from. But it's still very cool stuff and worth noting IMO. Dillon has been having an incredible season so far.
