What with the Olympics going on and having the very best players in the world playing on a best-on-best world-stage, I felt like rating some of the very best of the best. Maybe next we can discuss top players at forward or goalie or other more specific positions, but I like looking at defensemen, since it's something that so many people just seem to get wrong.
I started thinking about this when I was talking to friends about the Subban situation, and when I said that he's obviously not going to get in ahead of Weber or Doughty, my friend said "How is he not?! He's the reigning Norris winner!" It was hard not to laugh out louod at this comment. The Norris Trophy is voted on by the PHWA... look at some of the voting members: nobody takes Elliot Friedman or Adrian Dater or anybody from Sportsnet seriously on an individual level, yet when we take their votes, combined with those of a bunch of other (often terrible) hockey writers' (probably some even worse), and then with those of a small minority of very good hockey writers like Bob McKenzie, Kevin Allen and Pierre Lebrun, for some ludicrous, inexplicable, preposterous reason, we tend to take the results dead seriously and are tempted to accept that P.K. Subban is literally the best defenseman in the NHL, and use that as an argument against the fact that some of the very best minds in hockey - like Claude Julien, Mike Babcock, Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock - have Subban ranked behind Weber, Doughty, Pietrangelo. So anyways, with that said, here's my list:
1. Shea Weber - 'Nuff said.
2. Duncan Keith - Two Stanley Cups and on pace to win his second Norris this year (assuming they get it right).
3. Drew Doughty - Will never win a Norris as long as Sutter is coaching L.A., but there's nobody better on the biggest stages: he was one of the best defenseman at the last Olympics, playing a key role in shutting down Ovechkin, was the MVP of the Cup finals in 2012 and has been the top defenseman so far at this Olympics.
4. Erik Karlsson - Before Karlsson's injury I probably would have had him #2, and I think he may get back there, but he's been up and down since, and the others have been consistently outstanding.
5. Ryan Suter - As safe and mistake-free as defensemen come. For a guy who leads the league in ToI with 30 minutes per game and has a pretty impressive 32 points to only have 28 giveaways is simply unreal. Lidstrom-esque.
6. Alex Pietrangelo - Pretty close between him and Subban. I think the big reason he gets the 3rd right spot for Canada over P.K. is his chemistry with J-Bo. The way they hold the line and make smart pinches in the offensive zone, whether it's with St. Louis or with Canada, when they're on the ice together their team often stays in the O-zone for minutes at a time.
7. P.K. Subban - I remember way back in the early days of the Sensforum, somebody, maybe Rayzor, was arguing that Subban would someday be a top seven defenseman in the NHL. All I remember thinking about it was, "seven? why seven, of all numbers?" Anyways, whoever it was, they were right.
8. Oliver Ekman-Larsson - I surprised myself by having him this low, but OEL is still young and needs to improve his consistency in order to move up the list.
9. Niklas Kronwall - The heir apparent to Nick Lidstrom in Detroit, Kronwall may never put up the numbers he showed potential for early in his career, but he's settled in as one of the best all-round defensemen in the league.
10. Brent Seabrook - Yet another right-shooting Canadian defenseman. After seeing how dead serious Canada is about three rights and three lefts by their use of Subban, no wonder Seabrook didn't make the team this year.
I started thinking about this when I was talking to friends about the Subban situation, and when I said that he's obviously not going to get in ahead of Weber or Doughty, my friend said "How is he not?! He's the reigning Norris winner!" It was hard not to laugh out louod at this comment. The Norris Trophy is voted on by the PHWA... look at some of the voting members: nobody takes Elliot Friedman or Adrian Dater or anybody from Sportsnet seriously on an individual level, yet when we take their votes, combined with those of a bunch of other (often terrible) hockey writers' (probably some even worse), and then with those of a small minority of very good hockey writers like Bob McKenzie, Kevin Allen and Pierre Lebrun, for some ludicrous, inexplicable, preposterous reason, we tend to take the results dead seriously and are tempted to accept that P.K. Subban is literally the best defenseman in the NHL, and use that as an argument against the fact that some of the very best minds in hockey - like Claude Julien, Mike Babcock, Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock - have Subban ranked behind Weber, Doughty, Pietrangelo. So anyways, with that said, here's my list:
1. Shea Weber - 'Nuff said.
2. Duncan Keith - Two Stanley Cups and on pace to win his second Norris this year (assuming they get it right).
3. Drew Doughty - Will never win a Norris as long as Sutter is coaching L.A., but there's nobody better on the biggest stages: he was one of the best defenseman at the last Olympics, playing a key role in shutting down Ovechkin, was the MVP of the Cup finals in 2012 and has been the top defenseman so far at this Olympics.
4. Erik Karlsson - Before Karlsson's injury I probably would have had him #2, and I think he may get back there, but he's been up and down since, and the others have been consistently outstanding.
5. Ryan Suter - As safe and mistake-free as defensemen come. For a guy who leads the league in ToI with 30 minutes per game and has a pretty impressive 32 points to only have 28 giveaways is simply unreal. Lidstrom-esque.
6. Alex Pietrangelo - Pretty close between him and Subban. I think the big reason he gets the 3rd right spot for Canada over P.K. is his chemistry with J-Bo. The way they hold the line and make smart pinches in the offensive zone, whether it's with St. Louis or with Canada, when they're on the ice together their team often stays in the O-zone for minutes at a time.
7. P.K. Subban - I remember way back in the early days of the Sensforum, somebody, maybe Rayzor, was arguing that Subban would someday be a top seven defenseman in the NHL. All I remember thinking about it was, "seven? why seven, of all numbers?" Anyways, whoever it was, they were right.
8. Oliver Ekman-Larsson - I surprised myself by having him this low, but OEL is still young and needs to improve his consistency in order to move up the list.
9. Niklas Kronwall - The heir apparent to Nick Lidstrom in Detroit, Kronwall may never put up the numbers he showed potential for early in his career, but he's settled in as one of the best all-round defensemen in the league.
10. Brent Seabrook - Yet another right-shooting Canadian defenseman. After seeing how dead serious Canada is about three rights and three lefts by their use of Subban, no wonder Seabrook didn't make the team this year.
Comment