Historically, where does Canada's current RHD depth rank?
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JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
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Comfortably the best ever. Most great defencemen in history were left handed.
For instance, the greatest group of defencemen ever at an international tournament (Canada 1976 - Orr, Potvin, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, Vadnais, Watson) was comprised solely of LHD. Park would have made that team if healthy... also a LHD. Harvey was LHD. Coffey and Bourque were LHD. Pronger and Niedermayer were LHD. The most successful defessive pairing ever internationally (Fetisov - Kasatonov) was a combination of LHD.
The recent change to large numbers of elite RHD is very unique historically. That Canada could ice six RHD who are arguably top ten defencemen in the world (plus good ones like Seabrook and Ekblad) is incredibly anomalous.
For instance, the greatest group of defencemen ever at an international tournament (Canada 1976 - Orr, Potvin, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, Vadnais, Watson) was comprised solely of LHD. Park would have made that team if healthy... also a LHD. Harvey was LHD. Coffey and Bourque were LHD. Pronger and Niedermayer were LHD. The most successful defessive pairing ever internationally (Fetisov - Kasatonov) was a combination of LHD.
The recent change to large numbers of elite RHD is very unique historically. That Canada could ice six RHD who are arguably top ten defencemen in the world (plus good ones like Seabrook and Ekblad) is incredibly anomalous.
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Drew Doughty vs Erik Karlsson - Some say Karlsson. Some say Doughty. Tie but the Norris will be a good indicator of where the league wide media pundits stand on this debate.
P.K. Subban vs Victor Hedman - Some say Subban. Some say Hedman. When they went head to head I'd say Subban has come out on top individually but I'll leave this one as a tie as well.
Kris Letang vs Oliver Ekman-Larsson - I give the edge to Letang but it's close enough where OEL could pass him in the near future.
Brent Burns vs John Klingberg - Clear edge to Burns this year.
Alex Pietrangelo & Shea Weber vs Hampus Lindholm & Anton Stralman - I'll take the Canadians.
Brent Seabrook vs Niklas Hjalmarsson - I'll let Hawks fans decide but from what I've seen, Seabrook is the superior d-man.
I'd also take Seabrook (the worse of the Canadians) over all of these below as of right now:
Niklas Kronwall
Mattias Ekholm
Adam Larsson
Jonas Brodin
Johnny Oduya
Alex Edler
themelkman
Always Delivers
As a Hawks fan, I take Hjalmarsson over Seabrook for this scenario. Neither of them would get powerplay time on their respective national teams, but Hjalmarsson would be on the first PK unit I expect, and I'm not sure Seabrook gets any time on the special teams.
As for who is better overall, it changes from game to game. Hjalmarsson is more consistent, Seabrook can be a game changer.
1Gold Standard
Registered User
- Jun 13, 2012
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Seabrook doesn't make Canada's Olympic team or any other version of Team Canada at any Best on Best tournament. Seabrook might not even make Canada's B-Team.
