Who are your top 10 defenseman next season?

[McVespa99]

Hughes won the Norris and so he is a number 1 D man in the league right now. You guys putting him 5 or 6 or 10 just makes it seem like winning a Norris is nothing. Just because Karlsson won it one time and he did get more than 100 points that season doesnt make this award worthless unless you want to argue against Lidstrom and others winning it. Its only this forum that keeps knocking Hughes down even after a Norris win which i find pathetic. Give credit where credit is due

I think Hughes will keep getting better every year. Look at his trajectory. What does Canucks shooting at same rate or not have anything to do with how Hughes plays?

This may sound crazy but maybe a lower shooting % would result in less goals and therefore less points for Hughes?

 

[McVespa99]

Thats got to be a joke. Bouchard needs to first improve his defense like Hughes before we even talk about him being top 3 nominee for Norris, nevermind winning it or dropping a "Norris" masterclass. So far he is being baby sat by Ekholm in the defensive zone. I want to see how he would play next to Nurse or Kulak. If he is truely is a Norris winning dman, he would carry his own D pair while Ekholm would be on another D pair.

The top 3 in my list is:

1. Hughes
2. Makar
3. Josi
Those 3 could always change rankings in years to come. I would have Fox and Heiskenin rounding out the top 5.

Lets not pretend that Hughes is Nik Lidstrom in his own end... I would like to see how Hughes looks next to Nurse or Kulak also.

 

[McVespa99]

I think Canucks have learned from that and the reason why they got defensemen that can block shots along with some good defensive players. The reason why Bouchard had success against Canucks was due to lack of shot blocking and allowing him a clear lane.

Maybe. Or maybe Bouchard was just good and made them look bad?

We have to see how he does in regular season since Norris trophy is a regular season trophy. Can he consistently put up points like Hughes does in regular season? Can he improve his defense? Otherwise playoff performance is not counted when voting for Norris.

We know. That is why Hughes won...

 

[bucks_oil]

I'll trust the eye test over garbage made up by analytics dweebs who have zero understanding of the sport.

lol… scoring more for your team than the other guys get against you is now “garbage analytics”….

"Dweebs with little understanding of the sport”. I’ll bet you are a real pro alright… so tough in your hockey knowledge you can’t figure out how to keep score… stats being meaningless and all.

I still play three nights a week, coach three others… I trust the eye test as much as most. Those memorable mistakes are teachable moments… and they can lose you a game… but when the stats are skewed so crazily toward literally the top end of the top end… they are telling you something… and that something is that maybe you should stop fixating on the mistakes and take account of what else the player is doing out there.

If you are like me, defensively minded, offensively limited… you may just find that player is bringing something your eye can’t immediately recognize because that player is seeing the game in ways that don’t come naturally to you…

… and then you learn what you were missing had a lot to do with your own shortcomings and hubris.

 

[BruinDust]

In no particular order:

Quinn Hughes
Miro Heiskanen
Cale Makar
Gustav Forsling
Roman Josi
Charlie McAvoy
Evan Bouchard
Rasmus Dahlin
Victor Hedman
Adam Fox

 

[Czechboy]

The original list seems accurate and I am a huge bouch fan. He's my fav Oiler and d in the league. I do get the criticism though. Hedman and Josi are due for declines with age and mileage. I think Makar will be the best d in the league again this year.

Hoping to see some Czech names on a few years as our draught is ridiculous.lol

 

[strattonius]

The original list seems accurate and I am a huge bouch fan. He's my fav Oiler and d in the league. I do get the criticism though. Hedman and Josi are due for declines with age and mileage. I think Makar will be the best d in the league again this year.

Hoping to see some Czech names on a few years as our draught is ridiculous.lol

I think almost every list should have Makar at #1 but saying he was the best dman last year is just flat out denial.

 

[DapperCam]

I'm not going to pretend that I watch enough of every other team to put together a top-10 list. But I will say that you can take any defenseman and put them on the Sabres last year, and I have a hard time believing any of them would perform better than Dahlin did. Some of the other top-D would perform at about the same level.

Last year was just Dahlin stealing the puck in the defensive zone, making a perfect outlet pass, and then the forward fumbling it at the opposing blue line, or dumping it in and not retrieving it. Over and over again. When Dahlin was more selfish and just rushed the puck himself it actually worked out much better.

He's gotta have the least favorable situation of any top D since he's entered the league. Hopefully that changes soon.

 

[Seanaconda]

I don't. Dahlin on Edmonton would be insane. Just like Hughes/Makar/Heiskanen on Edmonton would also be insane. Those guys would be breaking records.

Makar plays with Mac and rantanen . A pool noodle should get points with them

 

[Craig Ludwig]

In no particular order:

Quinn Hughes
Miro Heiskanen
Cale Makar
Gustav Forsling
Roman Josi
Charlie McAvoy
Evan Bouchard
Rasmus Dahlin
Victor Hedman
Adam Fox

How crazy is it to think that Forsling was on waivers after two NHL teams didn't want him...You don't see that in any of the other major sports. Good for him.

 

[BruinDust]

How crazy is it to think that Forsling was on waivers after two NHL teams didn't want him...You don't see that in any of the other major sports. Good for him.

It's awfully rare to see a guy go from an afterthought who bounces around a bit to become an elite player in his sport. You see it a bit in baseball sometimes, not much in the other pro sports. Ability, hard work, perseverance, and an opportunity. What a find for the Panthers.

 

[erzon]

Going purely by stats (and no fancy ones, just good old GP, G, A, P, +/-, PIM, TOI etc), this is what i accumulated:

1. Cale Makar
2. Roman Josi
3. Evan Bouchard
4. Adam Fox
5. Quinn Hughes
6. Noah Dobson
7. MacKenzie Weegar
8. Thomas Harley
9. Rasmus Dahlin
10. Devon Toews

And the following spots, 11-20:

11. Victor Hedman
12. Erik Karlsson
13. Noah Hanifin
14. Brady Skjei
15. Mike Matheson
16. Josh Morrissey
17. Drew Doughty
18. Mattias Ekholm
19. John Carlson
20. Brent Burns

I have attached the Excel file i used to rank potential candidates, it contains 50 names, the cut off being that they needed to be in the top 15 in any of the stats categories used, and have a TOI/GP greater than 19:53.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

I mean McAvoy had been with Gryz for most of his career and carried him to some great metrics until this season. Having a top 9 center group of Coyle (3C), Zacha (2W) and Geekie (4C) just meant the Bruins were defending a lot more out there. Which hurt McAvoy’s numbers and pushed Gryz out the door. When you push the puck to the forwards and it comes right back over and over it’s not playing up to a 5’9” puck movers strengths at all nor did it bring out the best in McAvoy.

Losing Bergeron impacted McAvoy a lot. IMO McAvoy played closer to #15 than top 10. Maybe Lindholm pushes him back to top 10.

 

[JPT]

I'll trust the eye test over garbage made up by analytics dweebs who have zero understanding of the sport.

The importance of the "eye test" was made up by pretentious observers who want to gatekeep who should be taken seriously when analyzing players. I'm not saying advanced stats are the be-all, end -all, nor do I think that no one can accurately judge a player's ability by watching them play, but every single time a person shits on advanced stats and talks about the "eye test" they are just mad that stats don't confirm their bias.

 

[BFLO]

Wouldn't even be in top 15: Dahlin

Dahlin is exceptionally overrated. Morrissey outscored him both 5on5 and overall the past few seasons along with posting better defensive stats. Yes he does play on a better team, but it's not an Oilers level team and Jets actually rely on him and Demelo more in tougher situations as opposed to spreading things out like Dahlin/Power.

Go home Finland! You're drunk!

Dahlin had a down season last year and is still top 10 on most lists.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Guhle
Hutson
Matheson
Mailloux
Savard
Xhekaj
Harris
Makar
Hughes
Fox

 

[Spilot23]

Guhle
Hutson
Matheson
Mailloux
Savard
Xhekaj
Harris
Makar
Hughes
Fox

Harris is way too high. Other than that it's spot on.

 

[Oleksiak]

The importance of the "eye test" was made up by pretentious observers who want to gatekeep who should be taken seriously when analyzing players. I'm not saying advanced stats are the be-all, end -all, nor do I think that no one can accurately judge a player's ability by watching them play, but every single time a person shits on advanced stats and talks about the "eye test" they are just mad that stats don't confirm their bias.

Nah, I just don't think that advanced stats have any value. There is a reason that teams employ actual scouts instead of relying on made up garbage from some clown in a basement who doesn't know a thing about hockey.

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

Bouchard about to drop a Norris masterclass in 24/25. He’ll be competing in the top 3 all season long

Bouchard will be the Kris Letang treatment for the rest of his career. This is already a lived experience for Penguins fans.

 

[JPT]

Nah, I just don't think that advanced stats have any value. There is a reason that teams employ actual scouts instead of relying on made up garbage from some clown in a basement who doesn't know a thing about hockey.

Scouts use stats and advanced stats.

 

[dgibb10]

Nah, I just don't think that advanced stats have any value. There is a reason that teams employ actual scouts instead of relying on made up garbage from some clown in a basement who doesn't know a thing about hockey.

NHL front offices have entire analytics departments lmao

 

[NyQuil]

No. They amusingly were pretty bad together. Mostly because both are defensively minded so they both wanted to do the same thing. They only did the PK together.

Chara and Redden very rarely played together on the Sens, contrary to popular belief.