Leaderboard

We could really use Hughes tho

For sure, and I don't disagree. I just think once you get outside the top 5ish players there enough variability to make it meaningless. Like, I doubt anybody would bat an eyelash if I said Alex Pietrangelo or Aaron Ekblad were a 1A defenseman. Those same people were likely the ones saying for years that Kronwall wasn't a top defenseman, despite him being their equal (in the case of Pietrangelo) or better (in the case of Ekblad) across his career. Likewise Karlsson or Burns might reasonable be considered a 1A defenseman, but probably few would say the same of Byfuglien. I spent a good amount of time looking at all the various top defensemen's HERO charts today. One thing I found really interesting was comparing guys who everyone would consider "elite" with guys who most people wouldn't. The numbers just don't support the narrative. You'd be surprised who's better or worse than who when you take perception out of the judgement and just look at the numbers.

I would roughly define a 1A defenseman as a Norris-caliber bus driver and I would say it's brutally difficult to win a Cup without a guy like that -- unless, perhaps, you have Crosby & Malkin at center and/or unreal goaltending. I'm all for being optimistic about our defense and I'm open to the possibility that we already have all the components of a future Cup-winning defense, but at this point it's speculation. Lindstrom hasn't played a single NHL game. McIsaac hasn't played a single NHL game. Cholowski and Hronek have performed pretty well as rookies, but it's early days. If the situation at center looks better at the moment, it's because we have a proven 1C in Larkin and a solid prospect in Veleno and we'll probably be adding a high-end pivot in the upcoming draft. Realistically, if winning Cups is the goal, the centers we currently have in the system probably won't be enough and the defensemen we currently have in the system probably won't be enough. If I had the choice between adding a powerhouse centerman or a powerhouse defenseman, I'd *probably* go with the centerman and hope that our outstanding center depth cancels out any shortcomings we might have on the blue line. Ideally, we get both the C and the D. Though, even then, we're probably still at least one key piece away from being as good as the 2018-19 Lightning.

Based on projected draft position, really seems like we'll pick up a top notch center whether we end up picking 1st or 5t+. Too many really good center options in this draft.