I think everyone on the Internet would love to see your list of 39 Dmen better than Drew Doughty.
I said 20th to 40th best D
That doesnt mean there are 39D better than him for sure, just the tier of guys he would be alongside. At his best he is higher on that group and at his lowest he is lower on that group
His norris voting last 2 years is higher than I expected: with 18th and 11th place finishes but I feel the below are better players than him:
Makar
Fox
Josi
Hughes
Dobson
Bouchard
Heiskinen
McAvoy
Hedman
Dahlin
Slavin
Hamilton (when healthy)
Weegar
Pietrangelo
Theodore
Hanafin
Ekholm
Sergachev
Toews
Morrissey
He is in a group with guys like
Karlsson, Carlson, Letang, Faber (small sample size), Brodin, Skeji, Rielly, Werenski, Harley (small sample size), Seider, Dunn, H. Lindholm, Andersson
And was going to be falling down with age and decline as guys like
Powers
Sanderson
Luke Hughes
CBJ young D
Ducks yound D
etc
continue to move up those rankings as they get more experienced while he and the older guys on that list fall down as they decline and get closer to retirement.
The elite 1D for the above list ends at Dahlin currently for me, with future listing to change as more young guys get to that level