Country with the Best Starting 5

[mphmiles]

I'm not arguing that he is overall effective; but on 1-on-1 vs the elite players he gets handed his lunch. I watched about half a dozen times last year at least that he got schooled.

Makar, Josi, Slavin, and other premium defenders don't get beat like that in those situations nearly as often.

The OP was about a "best 5" against the "best 5" hypothetical; not how these players rate out against the regular NHL.

This sounds like confirmation bias.

Josi hasn't been a high level defender since about 2021. (He got older and the defensive ability started to fall. Same thing happened with Carlson, and same as is currently happening to Hedman) At this point in his career he's very much an offense-first defenseman- more so than than Quinn.

 

[strattonius]

I'm not arguing that he is overall effective; but on 1-on-1 vs the elite players he gets handed his lunch. I watched about half a dozen times last year at least that he got schooled.

Stop lying.

 

[JackSlater]

Canada has the obvious best five, but I cannot help but think that for some people, intentionally or not, it obscures Canada's deficiencies in goaltending and depth.

 

[SwissFan12]

This sounds like confirmation bias.

Josi hasn't been a high level defender since about 2021. (He got older and the defensive ability started to fall. Same thing happened with Carlson, and same as is currently happening to Hedman) At this point in his career he's very much an offense-first defenseman- more so than than Quinn.

Last year he had defensive metrics as good as Hughes and Makar, I don't know where the narrative "Josi is not an elite D" comes from but it is not supported by the stats

The metrics that made hughes stand out is his possession time

But if you look closely at the defensive metrics, what you will find is that those three are very close, even though Quinn is the one having the puck much more than the other two

Josi is so underrated, what he does, he does it in an objectively lesser team than Vancouver and Colorado and he does it consistently year after year

And I'm not trying to answer who is better between those three, just trying to give Josi the respect he deserves

About the best starting 5, Canada has the best. That being said, I'm pretty happy how this Swiss starting 5 looks, this is by far the best we ever had

 

[Nucks2001]

Last year he had defensive metrics as good as Hughes and Makar, I don't know where the narrative "Josi is not an elite D" comes from but it is not supported by the stats

The metrics that made hughes stand out is his possession time

But if you look closely at the defensive metrics, what you will find is that those three are very close, even though Quinn is the one having the puck much more than the other two

Josi is so underrated, what he does, he does it in an objectively lesser team than Vancouver and Colorado and he does it consistently year after year

And I'm not trying to answer who is better between those three, just trying to give Josi the respect he deserves

About the best starting 5, Canada has the best. That being said, I'm pretty happy how this Swiss starting 5 looks, this is by far the best we ever had

To be fair Josi has had his flowers. Quinn Hughes wasn’t even in a lot of people’s top 7-8 this time last season and is the big reason why the Canucks aren’t a dumpster fire anymore.
Just think about the D-Core Quinn inherited compared to a rich blueline of Weber, Ekholm and Ellis that Josi had to develop his game
Josi is still a top 5 d-man in my books today, but I think he’s received enough credit. Was considered a top 3 D-man for many years and won a Norris