Who are the top 5 defensive defensemen in the NHL?

[MrazeksVengeance]

Looking at the last couple years of numbers with these criteria:

1) faces hard D-zone deployments

2) near the top in xGA/60 Rel (relative to teammates).

3) near the top in GA/60 Rel

These players look really good:

Alex Vlasic
Chris Tanev

A surprising name close to them is Juuso Valimaki. Another is Jake McCabe.

Artem Zub and Adam Fox don't have the hardest D zone starts but are much much better than their teammates at limiting xGA and GA.

Slavin surprisingly has team average results with easy zone deployment. Same with Heiskanen. I'm a bit surprised.

Pelech is playing hard minutes and giving up more goals than his teammates.

Radko Gudas is playing easier third pair minutes for the most part, and getting much better results than his teammates - but this is light duty and the other Ducks D he's compared to are largely kids. The raw numbers (not relative) are still good though.

Sanderson's results are relatively good but not too a huge degree, and being better than Chabot isn't saying much. And his raw numbers aren't good.

Ekholm's results are relatively good but it's really hard to tell when his usage is so offensive on the ice with McDavid and company. I'm giving it to him because of the eye test.

Hampus Lindholm is facing hard D zone starts and is still well ahead of his Bruins teammates in both categories, which is hard to do on a team like that.

Forsling's two year numbers don't stand out but he has by far the best raw goals against this year, so he's in.

So after all of that, my top ten (in no order) is:

Forsling
A Vlasic
Lindholm
Zub
Fox
Tanev
Valimaki
McCabe
Gudas
Ekholm

Slavin “suffers” from having competent teammates. Orlov and Chatfield as 3rd pair is insane depth. I don’t care Chatfield is a household name, he’s good enough to be a #4 D.

Skjei has been incredible this season too.

 

[ijuka]

The best offensive defensemen are most likely the best defensive defensemen as well, simply because offense is the best defense.

 

[Sinter Klaas]

If this post came during the late 90's/early 00's, I think many of us would have a hard time narrowing the list to 5.

Currently, I am having a hard time coming up with exactly 5 players.

It shows you how much the game has changed.

 

[DarrylshutzSydor]

Hedmen easily #1.

 

[I am Bettman]

I’m going to shift the discussion a little bit and say that I think Boston has the best d group when only considering defense. Mcavoy, Lindholm, Carlo is a crazy good group defensively.

 

[KingsHockey24]

 

[HabsAddict]

Here is my unbiased, totally neutral list...

Gùhle
Hutson
Reinbacher
Mailloux
Xhekaj

​

 

[Machinehead]

Fox’s defensive metrics are similar to Hughes and Josi.

What????

No the f*** not.

 

[PromisedLand]

The Athletic says:

1. Radko Gudas
2. Alex Vlasic
3. Drew Doughty
4. Jake Sanderson
5. Gustav Forsling

if anyone ever needed another reason to believe that Athletic is absolute trash here it is...

People really spend money on this garbage huh?

 

[Atoyot]

I was waiting for Samberg's name to pop up. Him and Schmidt have some of the best defensive metrics as a pairing for two years running and it probably doesn't have a ton to do with Schmidt.

 

[Bijelo]

Heiskanen
Fox
McAvoy
Seider
Välimäki

 

[LemonSauceD]

That's news to me.

Shouldn’t be

What????

No the f*** not.

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Context matters. PK is the difference in that chart. Canucks have 4 hulking defenseman in the back they use for PK, so Hughes doesn’t need to play. Josi also has Schenn, McDonough, Lauzon, and Carrier for PK.

I mean look at Fox at even strength. His even strength offense is significantly lower than Hughes, Josi, Makar, Heiskanen, etc. and Hughes’s even strength defense is better than Fox’s. Heiskanen’s is better too.

 

[SuperScript29]

Seider gets an HM in my book, and maybe even gets in the top if he wasn’t babysitting Chiarot.

 

[soothsayer]

These sorts of things are why advanced analytics sometimes gets a bad name. The idea that Vincent Desharnais is better defensively than Mattias Ekholm is just a horse laugh. And anyone would know that from literally just watching one game.

 

[Machinehead]

Shouldn’t be

Context matters. PK is the difference in that chart. Canucks have 4 hulking defenseman in the back they use for PK, so Hughes doesn’t need to play. Josi also has Schenn, McDonough, Lauzon, and Carrier for PK.

I mean look at Fox at even strength. His even strength offense is significantly lower than Hughes, Josi, Makar, Heiskanen, etc. and Hughes’s even strength defense is better than Fox’s. Heiskanen’s is better too.

Hughes, if you take out the PK (which is fine), yes.

You said Josi and when I proved you dead wrong about that, you pivoted to 5v5 offense in a discussion that has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Neither of Josi or Makar who you keep bringing up have ever been anywhere near Fox defensively. Are they better at offense? Yes. Are they in the Norris conversation? Yes, although Makar shouldn't be a finalist this year. That being said, their names shouldn't be mentioned in this thread.

You're trying to frame it as Fox being similar defensively to most of the heavy hitters offensively and he's not. When he showed he's not, you made a lame attempt to pivot to "context."

Here's some actual context since you've provided none:

 

[Flair Hay]

I was waiting for Samberg's name to pop up. Him and Schmidt have some of the best defensive metrics as a pairing for two years running and it probably doesn't have a ton to do with Schmidt.

Schmidt is a great defensive dman for 3rd pair, he just gets looked at through the lens of his contract

All the stats point to him being a solid $3-4M dman

Samberg is as well and is cheaper and younger so obviously loomed at a little differently. Their overall impact is pretty similar I think though.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Makar
Josi
Hughes
Heiskanen
Weegar

 

[Bandit]

Doughty so good he gets his partner on the list too.

His offense on the other hand…

 

[KevinFinnerty]

Doughty
McDonagh
Fox
McAvoy
Heiskanen

 

[Bijelo]

Both Heiskanen and Fox are solid defensive and attacking defenseman.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Adam Larsson.

 

[HockeyWooot]

Brodin
Slavin
Forsling
Tanev
Pelech

 

[Coffey]

Makar
Josi
Hughes
Heiskanen
Weegar

This

 

[Ghetty Green]

Doughty and Hedman. Heiskanen not far off.

 

[jetsforever]

Not the best but some underrated guys from Winnipeg are DeMelo and Samberg