Pelech should make the cut IMO

Devon Toews and Adam Pelech > John Carlson and Thomas Chabot

I haven't watched Chychrun enough to comment. But lot's of good names here and hard to argue.

I didn’t wanna look biased 😭

Alex Pietrangelo definitely makes it on the list, and Darnell
Nurse possibly maybe a honourable mention..

Is it three straight year the bruins have played Carolina in the playoffs, or just two? Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of Carolina. Slavin is their best defenseman. Dougie is flawed and doesn’t belong on this list. Slavin does.

Chabot will be there, but not yet. He hasn’t played an important game in his NHL career, and he’s been quasi one dimensional, although I think he gets more crap than he deserves for the play in his own end. I do think he has trouble dealing with transition and retrieval though. I would stick doughty in for him. He’s having a good year.

Love chychrun. Love his game. He’s taken a big step forward but I’m not sure the sample size is big enough to say, “this is the player he is,” rather than, “he’s playing well right now.” I would put Petro in for him.

Toews is an honorable mention to make the honorable mentions, but I think Girard>Toews. I’m putting Pelech in

Defenceman Wins Above Replacement Leaderboard (April 16) pic.twitter.com/uCwHaLfrrf

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) April 16, 2021

I would put Heiskanen there but that's just me. He isn't a flashy guy with points and he still has 24 points this season. He has a great defensive game and he has the speed and skill.

Heiskanen is one of my favorite players in the league it pained me to leave him out but he’s right there

I think this is really good evidence that the advanced stats geeks having figured out how to evaluate defensemen. They likely never will. Too many variables.

He's more a playoff guy than a regular season guy. He was the best d-man in the playoffs last year and would've won the Conn Smythe if we won the cup last year.

Disagree. You're dismissing analytics but the main reason why teams like TB and Colorado are successful is because they let analytics dictate their decisions.

Pesce 8th on WAR? cmon now, that guy is worth Kerfoot, Bracco, and a 3rd. Maybe a really bad Andsersen if the Canes were gracious enough to retain on pesce.

The main reason TB has been successful (has Colorado really been successful?) is they have the best defensemen in the NHL, who happens to not be on that garbage chart

Hedman has definitely been a top 3 defenseman over the last decade, but he isn’t top 10 this season. Not driving play as well, a lot of his points come on the powerplay.

They use analytics for their drafts, which is how they’ve gotten guys like cirelli, kucherov, point etc...their director of analytics Michael Peterson has influence on players they trade for like Blake Coleman (who is a fringe 1st liner playing on the 3rd line):

Colarado is the best team in the league this season. Joe sakic fleeced Lou lamoriello for Devon toews. Anyone who looked at toews analytics from last season with the isles would know that he’s a top pairing defenseman - trotz gave him 2nd pairing minutes but his impact was that of a #1 D. Now he leads the avs in ATOI and is a top 10 D in the league this season. It’s well known sakic is heavily invested in analytics

I think analytics are great and I agree with everything you've said here except Coleman is by no means a fringe first liner. And I have a hard time leaving Hedman out of the top 10, although I agree his advanved stats show he's definitely had a down year.

Last season Coleman was a fringe 1st liner when TB traded for him

Blake Coleman, apparently on the verge of getting traded, is an extremely effective top six left wing who's elite on the PK, very good at both ends of the ice, and a prolific goal scorer. He's also on a great value contract. #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/cTVD01HED4

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) February 16, 2020

can't believe you left on zaitsev

Oh last season when they traded for him ok, I was just going based off this season. 22 points in 44 games, good analytics. I have a difficult time saying a guy with 0.5 points per game and only a 0.3 WAR is a fringe first liner, more of a solid 2nd liner, very good 3rd liner but based off those stats from last year I agree that's borderline 1st liner.

Uhhhh okay. Sure

I say that the league doesn’t have analytics that work for defensemen, and you tell me how thats not true because the lightning drafted two forwards? That make much sense?
Buddy, no one needed analytics to see that toews was good.

Colorado has had a good regular season in a weird pandemic year involving only intradivision games. Let’s wait until they have sustained success in normal times, or postseason success before we start talking about how awesome they are.

His role changed in Tampa. This season id say he’s a solid 2nd line forward. Look at guys who leave Tampa and get an increased role (Miller, verhaeghe) and thrive.

Fair, he's never had the offensive production for the first line anywhere he's been though. I think he's a solid 2nd liner on any team, and it's deadly for Tampa to be able to play him on the 3rd line. Perhaps with an increased role on another team he could mold himself into a first liner, I just don't think his offensive upside is first line material, super solid 2way 2nd liner though.

The league doesn’t have analytics that work for defenseman? Lol . Pretty sure expected goals against (preventing quality shots) and ca/60 (shot suprression) are pretty accurate metrics to evaluate a defensemans impact.

If most teams believed toews was a top pairing defenseman, then they would have beat sakics offer of two 2nd rd picks. General consensus was that toews was a solid 2nd pairing D, analytics caught on that toews was one of the best play driving defenseman in the league and a legitimate top pairing D.

Eh. I’m still in the camp that has toews as a good second pairing guy, but he’s in a situation in Colorado where he can play more minutes, and has had to given all the injuries they’ve had. He’s like a #2/#3

But ya, advanced stats and analytics for d men are legitimately trash. Not worth the HTML they take up. The charts you’ve posted prove that. So thanks! I really didn’t want to go digging for that junk.