Best defensemen in the NHL

[BeeRYCE 2]

LOL at Wade Redden not on that list... He goes from being the one of the NHL's top 5 d-men, and getting chosen over Chara to not even making a TOP 50 D list.

[p_diddy_datsyuk_13 2]

This is spun off of the Toews thread to provide a separate thread to discuss defensemen in.

Re-posting my top-15 post:

How I would rank the NHL's top 15 defensemen, based on last season, is:

1) Lidstrom

2) Keith

3) Chara

4) Niedermayer

5) Weber

6) Boyle

7) Zubov

8) Markov

9) Bouwmeester

10) Wideman

11) Phaneuf

12) Green

13) Pronger

14) Rafalski

15) Kaberle

The thing is, Keith is an extremely solid defensive defenseman with offensive skill, and he has a physical game. Admittedly, he's not perfect, but IMHO he outplayed the rest of these guys (sans Nick) and most of these guys either have yet to reach the level Keith displayed or have been below it and declining for years now. A healthy Zubov, Niedermayer, or Pronger who was in prime form would have beaten Keith out. Chara is the only defenseman on the list who really challenged Keith for the second slot, and his tendency to just happen to pick up points when he did very little to actually produce the offensive play was a disadvantage when compared to Keith, who is a major factor in a lot of Chicago's offensive rushes and their power play setup. Chara is an excellent defensive defenseman, but he's not that much better defensively than Keith to offset the offensive advantage that Keith holds.

Somebody's been huffin' the crack pipe a bit... I will spare you the embarrassment of even beginning to explain everything that is wrong with this list.

[cap20066 0]

48. Kyle Quincey- LAK

did i miss something?

[Lidstrom for Norris 0]

LOL at Wade Redden not on that list... He goes from being the one of the NHL's top 5 d-men, and getting chosen over Chara to not even making a TOP 50 D list.

Im sorry, but IMHO Wade Redden is not a good defensman. He is overated offensively and coughs up the puck more than any other D on the Rangers. He has not lived up to his name since the Sens cup run a few years back. Since then he has no drive in his game. The Rangers made a terrible signing 2 summers ago (6 mil per), and i believe Redden is the most overpaid and worst "#1" D man in the NHL.

[Lidstrom for Norris 0]

did i miss something?

Quincey had a great breakthrough season last year. He proved to the Kings and to the league that he could be a top-tier D man. His point production and team contribution to the Kings earned him a new level of respect this past season. By mid-season he was the Kings go-to-guy on the blue line in all situations..

34 points in 72 games played. 32nd in defensive regular season points in the league.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

Far too based on offense IMHO, with some players ranked well below where they belong even though they performed well offensively. Questionable ranks:

Sheldon Souray #12

Ed Jovanovski #15

Bryan McCabe #32

Robyn Regehr #37

I wonder how you ranked any of those defensemen so highly. I understand they all have quite a bit of hype around them, but none are terribly effective defensively and both Jovo and Regehr posted offensive numbers well below those ranks. McCabe and Souray rank slightly higher than that, but as two of the most one-dimensional defensemen in the league they can't simply hold onto that spot based on offense alone.

I'm not even going to get into the other problems I see with your list based on players who are completely one-dimensional being ranked too high, and defensemen who are strong in both ends being ranked far too low. For example, I wouldn't blame anyone for considering Duncan Keith, Shea Weber, or Sergei Zubov outside the top three or four. But outside the top ten is very questionable for any of those three, especially when Green is in the top ten, and a guy like Gonchar who is no better offensively and not nearly as good defensively is ranked well above them. Most of the top 30 I would agree with, although not necessarily in the same order obviously.

This is Eva's way of saying that the only way your list could have any merit to it is if it mirrored his list.

For the record, I think these lists are dumb once you get past #3 or #4. The rest is completely unscientific and amounts to nothing more than data interpretation and opinion.

So don't listen to Eva my friend. You can rank your players anyway you want and if Eva has "problems with it"......well, who cares. It doesn't amount to the mountain of problems people have with his list.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

Quincey had a great breakthrough season last year. He proved to the Kings and to the league that he could be a top-tier D man. His point production and team contribution to the Kings earned him a new level of respect this past season. By mid-season he was the Kings go-to-guy on the blue line in all situations..

34 points in 72 games played. 32nd in defensive regular season points in the league.

I missed the boat on Quincey last year. That said, I think it was a fluke brought on more by the fact that Jack Johnson was not healthy all season and Drew Doughty, even at age 18 already shows more promise offensively than Quincey, although he still needs time developing his defensive game. Understandable for a teenager.

Either way, with a healthy Doughty and Johnson and stay at home guys like Greene and O'Donnell, I don't foresee Quincey being able to repeat his gains from last year.

Perhaps he'll prove me wrong again.

[Echolalia 2,961]

This is Eva's way of saying that the only way your list could have any merit to it is if it mirrored his list.

For the record, I think these lists are dumb once you get past #3 or #4. The rest is completely unscientific and amounts to nothing more than data interpretation and opinion.

So don't listen to Eva my friend. You can rank your players anyway you want and if Eva has "problems with it"......well, who cares. It doesn't amount to the mountain of problems people have with his list.

Awesome! In that case I'll post my list, which up to this point I was self-conscious about

1. Jeff Finger

2. Nick Lidstrom

3. Bob Rouse

4. Jiri Hudler

5. Echolalia

6. Eva Unit Zero

7. Scott Niedermayer

8. 55Fan

9. Danny Markov

10. Darren Pang

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Awesome! In that case I'll post my list, which up to this point I was self-conscious about

1. Jeff Finger

2. Nick Lidstrom

3. Bob Rouse

4. Jiri Hudler

5. Echolalia

6. Eva Unit Zero

7. Scott Niedermayer

8. 55Fan

9. Danny Markov

10. Darren Pang

[Lidstrom for Norris 0]

I missed the boat on Quincey last year. That said, I think it was a fluke brought on more by the fact that Jack Johnson was not healthy all season and Drew Doughty, even at age 18 already shows more promise offensively than Quincey, although he still needs time developing his defensive game. Understandable for a teenager.

Either way, with a healthy Doughty and Johnson and stay at home guys like Greene and O'Donnell, I don't foresee Quincey being able to repeat his gains from last year.

Perhaps he'll prove me wrong again.

I have a feeling that he just may do that

[titanium2 867]

Awesome! In that case I'll post my list, which up to this point I was self-conscious about

1. Jeff Finger

2. Nick Lidstrom

3. Bob Rouse

4. Jiri Hudler

5. Echolalia

6. Eva Unit Zero

7. Scott Niedermayer

8. 55Fan

9. Danny Markov

10. Darren Pang

Are you kidding? Echolalia only played 60 games due to a knee injury. If you adjusted his numbers to an 82 game season he'd have a 70 point season easy; not to mention if he had the same kind of talent in his partners along the blue line that 55fan does. Plus, he can be an enforcer when they need him to be. All in all, he's should be #1.

[eva unit zero 271]

This is Eva's way of saying that the only way your list could have any merit to it is if it mirrored his list.

For the record, I think these lists are dumb once you get past #3 or #4. The rest is completely unscientific and amounts to nothing more than data interpretation and opinion.

So don't listen to Eva my friend. You can rank your players anyway you want and if Eva has "problems with it"......well, who cares. It doesn't amount to the mountain of problems people have with his list.

For the record GST, these sort of lists are all opinion. Some people like to let what other people think decide how they rank their top few, and then just use stats to decide the rest. Others actually watch players and decide based on that. And even after that, not everybody thinks the same things have the same importance.

My comment about the list having problems was more about the list, which was clearly based primarily on offense, ranking dmen whose only ability was offense above defensemen who have shown that they are similarly capable offensively and also have other skills. It was not so much an "I disagree with your list" a statement questioning what made certain defensemen better than others, and justified their position on the list. This has been asked about my list, and I have responded with logical analysis about it. If I'm the only one willing to defend what I post, so be it.

[eva unit zero 271]

I missed the boat on Quincey last year. That said, I think it was a fluke brought on more by the fact that Jack Johnson was not healthy all season and Drew Doughty, even at age 18 already shows more promise offensively than Quincey, although he still needs time developing his defensive game. Understandable for a teenager.

Either way, with a healthy Doughty and Johnson and stay at home guys like Greene and O'Donnell, I don't foresee Quincey being able to repeat his gains from last year.

Perhaps he'll prove me wrong again.

Why would a healthy Doughty or Johnson affect Quincey?

COLORADO AVALANCHE defenseman Kyle Quincey will probably be playing with Scott Hannan, so why wouldn't he be able to reproduce his results from last season?

[BeeRYCE 2]

Why would a healthy Doughty or Johnson affect Quincey?

COLORADO AVALANCHE defenseman Kyle Quincey will probably be playing with Scott Hannan, so why wouldn't he be able to reproduce his results from last season?

Oh s***, I forgot Quincey was traded to the Avs, and also forgot about Smyth going to LA. Quincey is going to be a BEAST in Colorado, IMO.