Top 10 Active Russian Defenders?

[Bluesguru]

Why is it that there's never been a great dominant offensive Russian defenseman? I mean Canada has had a ton of offensive superstar defenseman like Orr, Coffey, Potvin, etc. Even Sweden produces one once in a while like most recently Karlsson of Ottawa Senators. But I can't think of an offensive juggernaut Russian D-Man ever! What gives???

 

[Caser]

Why is it that there's never been a great dominant offensive Russian defenseman? I mean Canada has had a ton of offensive superstar defenseman like Orr, Coffey, Potvin, etc. Even Sweden produces one once in a while like most recently Karlsson of Ottawa Senators. But I can't think of an offensive juggernaut Russian D-Man ever! What gives???

Have you seen Fetisov with the KLM line?

 

[Bluesguru]

Have you seen Fetisov with the KLM line?

I do remember Fetisov, he came to the NHL when he was 31. I looked up his stats in the NHL and his 2 best seasons were 42 points. Great defenseman and he was probably more dynamic in his younger days with the KLM line. I probably should watch the Canada Cup series of 1987 and see that again. Great hockey, probably the best era of hockey talent ever at that time when you consider all the stars playing at that time. When you look up the top 10 scorers during the 9 game Canada Cup Tournament, only 2 defenseman cracked the top 10 scoring - Ray Bourque and Fetisov with 8 and 7 points each respectively. I'm going to guess though that Sergei Gonchar is probably the most successful NHL point producing Russian defenseman ever to date.

 

[MaxV]

Can we update this list a bit now?

I would say Nikulin is on decline but Orlov is on the rise.

 

[Passionis]

Can we update this list a bit now?

I would say Nikulin is on decline but Orlov is on the rise.

Unfortunately the list would be very depressing at the moment...

 

[Caser]

Unfortunately the list would be very depressing at the moment...

Oh, c'mon - it's been depressing for a long long time, not at the moment.

Let's say:

1. Markov
2. Orlov
3. Yemelin
4. Zaytsev
5. Medvedev
6. Marchenko
7. Nesterov
8. Kulikov
9. Belov
10. Provorov (placed him here just as the one for the future )

Also I still didn't give up my hopes on Voynov and Zadorov.

 

[Peter25]

Oh, c'mon - it's been depressing for a long long time, not at the moment.

Let's say:

1. Markov
2. Orlov
3. Yemelin
4. Zaytsev
5. Medvedev
6. Marchenko
7. Nesterov
8. Kulikov
9. Belov
10. Provorov (placed him here just as the one for the future )

Also I still didn't give up my hopes on Voynov and Zadorov.

Man, these guys suck compared to the golden era of Soviet hockey.

Even in the 1990's Russia had far better defensemen than now (mainly thanks to Soviet hockey school though).

 

[MaxV]

The 90s crop of Russian blue-liners was pretty solid. Several made the NHL all-star games.

I think it's very possible that some of the Russian defenders from the 90s that wouldn't make the Russian 'A' team to be among the best of the current corps.