[Discussion] Which team(s) do you think have the best and worst defensive core in the NHL?
August 3, 2023
[Discussion] Which team(s) do you think have the best and worst defensive core in the NHL?
46 comments
Look at ours before you throw shade at Detroit’s…
St Louis
Damn Detroit caught a stray for no reason lol I don’t think their defence is that bad, more so middle of the pack IMO. I’ll say the best are: Carolina, Colorado, Islanders and Vegas. The worst are probably: Montreal, Anaheim, Arizona and Chicago.
Man the have such a stupid defense lmao. 3 1D on one team
A bit of a homer take but Vegas is at least up there.
Hague-Whitecloud would be a top-4 pairing on a lot of other teams and maybe even a top pair on others, and yet they’re our third pair. McNabb-Theodore would be a top pair on a decent handful of teams as well.
worst….us!
Siegenthaler – Hamilton
Hughes – Marino
Bahl – Miller/Nemec
not so bad.
Tbf id be pretty surprised if one of pesce or skjei are in carolina to start the season. Still stacked either way.
I’m not sure what Detroit is trying to accomplish with theirs, but I don’t think it’s as bad as Arizona’s
Friendly reminder that Chatfield looked pretty good on the first line when we had to play him there and he is currently riding pine
Flyers have to be up there for the worst right now. Daily Faceoff has them running:
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Staal – York
Seeler – Walker
I dunno if those pairings are accurate but Risto and Staal in your top 4 is a rough draw. Especially in the Metro 😬
The flyers have the worst blue line in the history of the NHL
Woahhhh man no reason to throw shade at the wings I think we’ve got the deepest defensive prospect pool in the league (Edvinsson, Wallinder, Johansson, ASP, etc) we’re gotta have stop gaps till everyone’s ready. Sure Chiarot and Holl are whipping boys but they are being played too high in the lineup (and in the formers case paid that way too). Ghosty is about to add a strong PP presence with Mo, and Maata is exactly the kind of veteran experience you want to pair with these young guys as they come in.
I don’t pay enough detailed attention to others teams rosters to make a judgement like this.
I like ours when healthy:
Ekblad-Forsling
Montour-Mikkola
OEL-Mahura
We also have Carlsson, Reilly, Kulikov and Kierstead in rotation as well should we need them.
Devils arent top 5 rn but hopefully will be in couple years. Will likely look like some combination of:
Hughes-Marino
Siegenthaler-Nemec
Bahl- Hamilton
Seamus Casey TBD
Avalanche should for sure be in the convo. The canes are probably the deepest rn though
Detroit’s second and third pairings should be switched.
Hey its LonelyGuy, whose only personality trait is that he hates Detroit! I wonder who he has as the worst d core in the league.
Yeah just completely ignore Anaheim, Chicago, San Jose, Philly, and choose the team who had a middle of the league defense analytically because we’re all you can think about
I hope these are just randomly put together pairs because Holl is only good when he has someone who can take a lot of the thinking out of playing defence and Chiarot is absolutely not that. That would be a nightmare pairing.
This is super pedantic but you mean defensive “corps” , not “core”, right? You are talking about their whole defensive personnel, not just their most important core players.
*corps, not core.
Top 5 probably looks something like
Carolina
Colorado
Boston
Vegas
New Jersey
Bottom 5 is the usual suspects
Philly, Chicago, Montreal, San Jose, Arizona
I’m personally excited to see what 4.5 rookies can do on Anaheim’s blue line(Lacombe, Helleson, Mintyukov, Zellweger, Drysdale)
I’d definitely toss Calgary and Colorado’s Ds. Calgary’s D is pretty stacked honestly especially with Shilly coming back.
Between those 2 teams? Are you serious? 🙂
Detroits is lollll
Wait is Detroit supposed to be the worst?? Arizonas top defenseman is Durzi making 1.7 mil
I’m just happy to not be in the bottom 5 anymore. Calgary on paper looks great; with a coaching change that could be a very solid group.
I’m going to be very bold and say the Canes have the best defensive core in the league and the Ducks have the worst. Very brave of me I know
Best are CAR/NYR/NJD/VGK/CGY
Probably ANA/CHI/SJS/ARI/PHI for worst.
Korchinski-SJones
Vlasic-Murphy
Tinordi-Zaitsev
It’ll end up being:
Vlasic-SJones
Phillips-Murphy
Tinordi-Zaitsev
It’s always De-troit sucks but besides the middle pair they’re just fine. Plus without all the added pressure of TOR maybe Justin Holl can tighten his game up.
Holy smokes Carolina’s D-core is crazy good
Despite their disastrous season and current state, the Flames group is elite.
That said Hanifin is probably gone soon but as it stands with Kylington back it’s top 3 in the NHL imo.
We will have Edvinsson at some point this year in the lineup and He will become our Top 4 instantly. Also, we have 2 LD prospects waiting at the door knocking. Say what you want, as the season concludes, we are going to get the last laugh on Sens. And I will remind you of that everyday LonelyGuy.
That Detroit D-core will win a cup before Ottawa’s hahaha
Vegas is easily the best D core.
This feels like a personal attack at Detroit for being on the list of brightest futures instead of Ottawa. Did you really look at the Flyers, Blackhawks, Habs, etc and think Detroit’s is worse? The only way we’re in the conversation for the worst is if you’re talking relative to the amount we’re paying our D corps.
Ducks have arguably the worst in the NHL, but the BEST in the CHL (last year).
Few years from now will be interesting.
Chicago is definitely the worst.
On a related note, not sure why they didn’t qualify Caleb Jones.
I think after the EK65 trade the sharks have a pretty terrible defense
Detroit’s d core is better than Ottawa’s.
Worst D in the league? Chicago by a landslide.
Best in the league? Carolina and Colorado.
Chatfield not Deangelo FWIW
If things stay as they are, I imagine we’ll be playing a lot of 11-7 lineups with Deangelo as the 7th d-man and PP QB for both units, since Burns is more of a shooter anyway.
Without a doubt the Ducks. We gave up by FAR the most shots last year. We had a -129 goal differential. Most of our defensemen lead the league with failed zone exits. Somehow, we managed to do that all with above average goaltending.
I mean there’s two kinds of bad, bad on purpose and bad by accident.
A team with a dogshit defense thats intentionally trying to lose isn’t “the worst defense”, that defense has a value.
Flyers on the other hand, planned to be good, thought they were good, and clearly aren’t. IMO that makes them the worst.
Sabres must be the best, they have a #1 draft pick on every pairing!
Worst has to be either Chicago, Anaheim or Philly.
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46 comments
Look at ours before you throw shade at Detroit’s…
St Louis
Damn Detroit caught a stray for no reason lol I don’t think their defence is that bad, more so middle of the pack IMO. I’ll say the best are: Carolina, Colorado, Islanders and Vegas. The worst are probably: Montreal, Anaheim, Arizona and Chicago.
Man the have such a stupid defense lmao. 3 1D on one team
A bit of a homer take but Vegas is at least up there.
Hague-Whitecloud would be a top-4 pairing on a lot of other teams and maybe even a top pair on others, and yet they’re our third pair. McNabb-Theodore would be a top pair on a decent handful of teams as well.
worst….us!
Siegenthaler – Hamilton
Hughes – Marino
Bahl – Miller/Nemec
not so bad.
Tbf id be pretty surprised if one of pesce or skjei are in carolina to start the season. Still stacked either way.
I’m not sure what Detroit is trying to accomplish with theirs, but I don’t think it’s as bad as Arizona’s
Friendly reminder that Chatfield looked pretty good on the first line when we had to play him there and he is currently riding pine
Flyers have to be up there for the worst right now. Daily Faceoff has them running:
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Staal – York
Seeler – Walker
I dunno if those pairings are accurate but Risto and Staal in your top 4 is a rough draw. Especially in the Metro 😬
The flyers have the worst blue line in the history of the NHL
Woahhhh man no reason to throw shade at the wings I think we’ve got the deepest defensive prospect pool in the league (Edvinsson, Wallinder, Johansson, ASP, etc) we’re gotta have stop gaps till everyone’s ready. Sure Chiarot and Holl are whipping boys but they are being played too high in the lineup (and in the formers case paid that way too). Ghosty is about to add a strong PP presence with Mo, and Maata is exactly the kind of veteran experience you want to pair with these young guys as they come in.
I don’t pay enough detailed attention to others teams rosters to make a judgement like this.
I like ours when healthy:
Ekblad-Forsling
Montour-Mikkola
OEL-Mahura
We also have Carlsson, Reilly, Kulikov and Kierstead in rotation as well should we need them.
Devils arent top 5 rn but hopefully will be in couple years. Will likely look like some combination of:
Hughes-Marino
Siegenthaler-Nemec
Bahl- Hamilton
Seamus Casey TBD
Avalanche should for sure be in the convo. The canes are probably the deepest rn though
Detroit’s second and third pairings should be switched.
Hey its LonelyGuy, whose only personality trait is that he hates Detroit! I wonder who he has as the worst d core in the league.
Yeah just completely ignore Anaheim, Chicago, San Jose, Philly, and choose the team who had a middle of the league defense analytically because we’re all you can think about
I hope these are just randomly put together pairs because Holl is only good when he has someone who can take a lot of the thinking out of playing defence and Chiarot is absolutely not that. That would be a nightmare pairing.
This is super pedantic but you mean defensive “corps” , not “core”, right? You are talking about their whole defensive personnel, not just their most important core players.
*corps, not core.
Top 5 probably looks something like
Carolina
Colorado
Boston
Vegas
New Jersey
Bottom 5 is the usual suspects
Philly, Chicago, Montreal, San Jose, Arizona
I’m personally excited to see what 4.5 rookies can do on Anaheim’s blue line(Lacombe, Helleson, Mintyukov, Zellweger, Drysdale)
I’d definitely toss Calgary and Colorado’s Ds. Calgary’s D is pretty stacked honestly especially with Shilly coming back.
Between those 2 teams? Are you serious? 🙂
Detroits is lollll
Wait is Detroit supposed to be the worst?? Arizonas top defenseman is Durzi making 1.7 mil
I’m just happy to not be in the bottom 5 anymore. Calgary on paper looks great; with a coaching change that could be a very solid group.
I’m going to be very bold and say the Canes have the best defensive core in the league and the Ducks have the worst. Very brave of me I know
Best are CAR/NYR/NJD/VGK/CGY
Probably ANA/CHI/SJS/ARI/PHI for worst.
Korchinski-SJones
Vlasic-Murphy
Tinordi-Zaitsev
It’ll end up being:
Vlasic-SJones
Phillips-Murphy
Tinordi-Zaitsev
It’s always De-troit sucks but besides the middle pair they’re just fine. Plus without all the added pressure of TOR maybe Justin Holl can tighten his game up.
Holy smokes Carolina’s D-core is crazy good
Despite their disastrous season and current state, the Flames group is elite.
Hanifin – Andersson
Weegar – Tanev
Kylington – Zadorov
That said Hanifin is probably gone soon but as it stands with Kylington back it’s top 3 in the NHL imo.
We will have Edvinsson at some point this year in the lineup and He will become our Top 4 instantly. Also, we have 2 LD prospects waiting at the door knocking. Say what you want, as the season concludes, we are going to get the last laugh on Sens. And I will remind you of that everyday LonelyGuy.
That Detroit D-core will win a cup before Ottawa’s hahaha
Vegas is easily the best D core.
This feels like a personal attack at Detroit for being on the list of brightest futures instead of Ottawa. Did you really look at the Flyers, Blackhawks, Habs, etc and think Detroit’s is worse? The only way we’re in the conversation for the worst is if you’re talking relative to the amount we’re paying our D corps.
Ducks have arguably the worst in the NHL, but the BEST in the CHL (last year).
Few years from now will be interesting.
Chicago is definitely the worst.
On a related note, not sure why they didn’t qualify Caleb Jones.
I think after the EK65 trade the sharks have a pretty terrible defense
Detroit’s d core is better than Ottawa’s.
Worst D in the league? Chicago by a landslide.
Best in the league? Carolina and Colorado.
Chatfield not Deangelo FWIW
If things stay as they are, I imagine we’ll be playing a lot of 11-7 lineups with Deangelo as the 7th d-man and PP QB for both units, since Burns is more of a shooter anyway.
Without a doubt the Ducks. We gave up by FAR the most shots last year. We had a -129 goal differential. Most of our defensemen lead the league with failed zone exits. Somehow, we managed to do that all with above average goaltending.
I mean there’s two kinds of bad, bad on purpose and bad by accident.
A team with a dogshit defense thats intentionally trying to lose isn’t “the worst defense”, that defense has a value.
Flyers on the other hand, planned to be good, thought they were good, and clearly aren’t. IMO that makes them the worst.
Sabres must be the best, they have a #1 draft pick on every pairing!
Worst has to be either Chicago, Anaheim or Philly.