Guys, Dante Fabbro isn't the bonafied top 4 defenseman we all think he is. Yeah, I get that he plays with Josi and all, but that doesn't really speak to his talents much, as we know Ekholm and Carrier get the tough matchups so that Josi has room to flourish offensively, so where does that leave us with Fabbro? Cause he doesn't produce a ton of offense. As far as I can see, he's just riding shot gun. Nashville's blueline is strong with the McDonagh addition, but I'm hesistant to call it stacked considering how old it is first of all, but more importantly, I think we false assume that Fabbro is something more than he actually is

Over the years so many CF contributors (especially Leaf fans) think all RHD players that aren't on the Leaf roster are All Stars.

And they think that all non-superstar forwards not on the Leafs are a class below their actual paygrade

I wouldn’t call him elite by any means, but he’s a really solid defenseman. I’ve been really impressed by the way his game has grown in the past year. In the Covid seasons, you couldn’t have said he was good at all (who would be, playing with old Dan Hamhuis), but now he’s rounded into a solid defenseman.

For me, the criteria for a top 4 defenseman is that one needs to be capable of at least one of two things: Either be able to put up strong offensively numbers, or capable of holding one's own against tougher competition. Fabbro hasn't shown he's there yet. He doesn't get thrown to the wolves defensively and he has no pressure to produce offensively riding shotgun with Josi