How Would You Rank The Defensemen This Year?

[notbias]

You can cross your fingers and hope Tanev gets progressively worse over the next few years, but his style of play will age very well.

Tanev doesn’t rely on speed or physicality - - he understands positioning so well and it’s not like he’s going to suddenly get dumber and forget it o er the next few years. And he can get into shoot lanes and block shots until he’s 40 no problem. He’s certainly not going to become fearful of doing that.

He is 35, not 30.

He might not fall off a cliff, but he is likely playing his best hockey right now for us.

For contrast, Tavares is a year younger, had a better season and no one seems to want to sign him for anything more than 2-3 years.

Tavares taking a 6 year contract is the equivalent.

As for McCabe, he’s had some horrifically bad giveaways and ill advised pinches where he gets burned and gives up odd man rushes.

Even novice fans and casual observers should be able recognize that Tanev has been far superior to McCabe this year.

Nothing supports Tanev being far superior to McCabe, but I'd love to see your work.

They've basically been even and I prefer the playing style of McCabe since he can play both sides of the ice.

Will be waiting to see what you can produce to show he is far superior.

 

[steelcurtain6]

Rielly is a legit anchor on this team.

yes, boat anchor

 

[thewave]

He's 35 and signed for 5 more years after this... I am going to assume he gets worse every year... it might be a good signing.

McCabe
Tanev
Carlo
OEL
Rielly
Benoit

Probably the most accurate list though I would swap Tanev and Cabe.

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

You can cross your fingers and hope Tanev gets progressively worse over the next few years, but his style of play will age very well.

Tanev doesn’t rely on speed or physicality - - he understands positioning so well and it’s not like he’s going to suddenly get dumber and forget it o er the next few years. And he can get into shoot lanes and block shots until he’s 40 no problem. He’s certainly not going to become fearful of doing that.

Tanev had quite a few instances early on in the season where he missed intercepting some cross-crease passes that led to goals against, although he improved at that later on. Anyway, relying on smarts alone only gets you so far, you still need to move your legs to get into position especially in transition. He takes a lot of abuse and the Leafs have a culture of making guys return early from injury so it's an open question how long he can keep this up for.