Not sure where you're getting this about Tinordi. He was picked in 14 straight ATDs for a reason. Over his 7-season prime he averaged 23.66 minutes per game. #4-5 defenseman? More like #1-2. He earned scattered norris/AS votes in three seasons and made an ASG on merit in a fourth season. If you're talking specifically about his time in Washington, he played the minutes of a #3, on average.
You are right about Reekie. At his best he was just a 20 minute guy. Probably a #4, but was on a deep defense in Washington and probably could have handled being a #3 for a lesser team, given his outstanding results against second tier competition.
Witt, I'm not sure he ever put it together. He always hit hard, he always made bad decisions. Didn't really have any offensive game to him, and was never really relied upon heavily by any team worth anything. If you're referring to the 06-07 season, that was the one season where he played good minutes (but nothing special, just #3/4 minutes) for a good team and in fact posted the best +/- of his career. But aside from that, just a common middle pairing guy who got ventilated at even strength just about everywhere he played. In fact, his possession stats for the Isles in the last 3 years of his career are really something to behold. "Ventilated" doesn't begin to describe it. And in fact, he's 9th last all-time in career adjusted +/- with a -149, because even in Washington, his occasionally good numbers were well below the team's average. He's also ninth last all time on a per-game basis, and this goes back to 1960. He flat out was not good defensively, and was probably the beneficiary of the "physical = good defensively" mindset for far too long.
