Shea Weber or Ryan Suter?

[SeanMoneyHands]

Who was the better defenseman in their prime?

Click to read more...

 

[Bouboumaster]

It should be unanimous

Sutter was good and stuff, but Weber was clearly the better defenseman overall

Voting Sutter is being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian

 

[centipede2233]

Weber will clean up here

 

[biturbo19]

Weber very clearly.

The only thing Suter really has on him is maybe longevity. Not that Suter wasn't very good as well, and maybe even more consistent in some ways, and probably for longer overall. But peak to peak, it was always pretty darn clear who was the Alpha there, and easy to compare side by side.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Weber has a slight but clear edge IMO. Suter was a top pairing d-man but Weber was just a cut above.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Would be interested in hearing the case for Suter. In four out of his last five seasons in Nashville, Suter averaged more ice time than Weber, and the other year Suter averaged just 7 seconds less while missing 12 games, presumably due to injury. Why was Suter out for longer?

 

[biturbo19]

Would be interested in hearing the case for Suter. In four out of his last five seasons in Nashville, Suter averaged more ice time than Weber, and the other year Suter averaged just 7 seconds less while missing 12 games, presumably due to injury. Why was Suter out for longer?

Biggest thing is, that's a negligible "line change" margin.

But the other factor in Suter's favour is that in his prime, he was just so darn efficient. He could eat minutes like few others. I think that's the one thing he potentially has on Weber. His skating and smarts let him just play literally half the game, mostly on cruise control. Weber always had to work a lot harder for it.

 

[wetcoast]

Would be interested in hearing the case for Suter. In four out of his last five seasons in Nashville, Suter averaged more ice time than Weber, and the other year Suter averaged just 7 seconds less while missing 12 games, presumably due to injury. Why was Suter out for longer?

Suter was the guy holding down the front defensively allowing Weber and his big shot to score points.

I have no problem with people picking Weber but it's not the slam dunk that many are making it out to be here.

I'll also add that the OP is asking prime and many people will peak peak or seasons 10 years apart, for me prime is a consecutive 7 year stretch.

Of course if one wants to argue that Suter had a 17 year stretch of continuous top 4 Dman play compared to 13 for weber there is that but that's more a career argument.

I'm wondering what criteria or timeframe other voters are using here?

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Suter was the guy holding down the front defensively allowing Weber and his big shot to score points.

I have no problem with people picking Weber but it's not the slam dunk that many are making it out to be here.

I'll also add that the OP is asking prime and many people will peak peak or seasons 10 years apart, for me prime is a consecutive 7 year stretch.

Of course if one wants to argue that Suter had a 17 year stretch of continuous top 4 Dman play compared to 13 for weber there is that but that's more a career argument.

I'm wondering what criteria or timeframe other voters are using here?

That’s kind of what I was aiming at. From memory, Suter seemed underrated back then, and Weber perhaps a bit overrated at times. But I haven’t watched them enough to confidently pick one or the other.

 

[BuiumSaveUs]

Suter was a true number 1 but Weber was one of the best of a generation. Different cat all together

 

[Morrison]

Shea Weber AINEFC.

 

[Regal]

Biggest thing is, that's a negligible "line change" margin.

But the other factor in Suter's favour is that in his prime, he was just so darn efficient. He could eat minutes like few others. I think that's the one thing he potentially has on Weber. His skating and smarts let him just play literally half the game, mostly on cruise control. Weber always had to work a lot harder for it.

And we saw that with Minnesota where a couple years he was upwards of 29 minutes a game.

 

[La Bamba]

Shea Weber better price, zero hesitation, but Ryan Suter was an amazing D man in his prime and played basically perfect hockey. I'm shocked he's averaging almost 23 mins a game in St. Louis still

 

[dirtydanglez]

it was close but the consensus was weber was better at the time.

 

[newfy]

It should be unanimous

Sutter was good and stuff, but Weber was clearly the better defenseman overall

Voting Sutter is being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian

He was so clearly better that he often played less minutes on the same team

Would be interested in hearing the case for Suter. In four out of his last five seasons in Nashville, Suter averaged more ice time than Weber, and the other year Suter averaged just 7 seconds less while missing 12 games, presumably due to injury. Why was Suter out for longer?

I'm not going to say Suter was outright better, Weber definitely played the flashier game that got attention... they were very close. It was a little like when Lidstrom lost the norris to Blake. One guy was way flashier and got the attention with a big shot and slapshot, but as far as effectiveness on the ice goes, Suter was very close.

Close enough he actually often played the "number 1" minutes on the same team

 

[Bouboumaster]

He was so clearly better that he often played less minutes on the same team

Yeah, and in the end, was it worth it?

 

[ESH]

He was so clearly better that he often played less minutes on the same team


I'm not going to say Suter was outright better, Weber definitely played the flashier game that got attention... they were very close. It was a little like when Lidstrom lost the norris to Blake. One guy was way flashier and got the attention with a big shot and slapshot, but as far as effectiveness on the ice goes, Suter was very close.

Close enough he actually often played the "number 1" minutes on the same team

Playing more minutes does not mean you’re playing better in those minutes

 

[Regal]

He was so clearly better that he often played less minutes on the same team


I'm not going to say Suter was outright better, Weber definitely played the flashier game that got attention... they were very close. It was a little like when Lidstrom lost the norris to Blake. One guy was way flashier and got the attention with a big shot and slapshot, but as far as effectiveness on the ice goes, Suter was very close.

Close enough he actually often played the "number 1" minutes on the same team

This minutes argument is beyond bad. A handful of minutes here and there that are likely due to shift lengths, penalties, extra time in missed games for the other, etc. They played on the same pairing the majority of the time. The coach isn’t purposefully putting Suter out there an extra 20 seconds for game.

 

[spiny norman]

Lopsided result.