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.
The_Cheezman
Man the have such a stupid defense lmao. 3 1D on one team
Bahamas_is_relevant
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.
Firebitez
worst….us!
ScrewOff_
Siegenthaler – Hamilton
Hughes – Marino
Bahl – Miller/Nemec
not so bad.
betweenthecastles
Tbf id be pretty surprised if one of pesce or skjei are in carolina to start the season. Still stacked either way.
Gadzookie2
Friendly reminder that Chatfield looked pretty good on the first line when we had to play him there and he is currently riding pine
BlueBeagle8
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 😬
jarpio
The flyers have the worst blue line in the history of the NHL
thorninmysoul
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.
Perducian
I don’t pay enough detailed attention to others teams rosters to make a judgement like this.
MartysBetter29
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
Vivid_Walk_1405
Avalanche should for sure be in the convo. The canes are probably the deepest rn though
redlion1904
Detroit’s second and third pairings should be switched.
AmeriCanadian98
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
henrique-its-over
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.
MaCauleyCulkin
*corps, not core.
Josefstalion
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)
Kyveido
I’d definitely toss Calgary and Colorado’s Ds. Calgary’s D is pretty stacked honestly especially with Shilly coming back.
astovertop
Wait is Detroit supposed to be the worst?? Arizonas top defenseman is Durzi making 1.7 mil
Tacosrule89
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.
austyV1
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
Straight-Ability
Holy smokes Carolina’s D-core is crazy good
iggyisgoat
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.
lets_kill_time
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.
ManthonyMantha
That Detroit D-core will win a cup before Ottawa’s hahaha
tdbauer97
Vegas is easily the best D core.
maxwellbevan
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.
BoomSalaBim
I think after the EK65 trade the sharks have a pretty terrible defense
The--Will
Worst D in the league? Chicago by a landslide.
Best in the league? Carolina and Colorado.
UncleOrton
Sabres must be the best, they have a #1 draft pick on every pairing!
Sirrebral99
Worst has to be either Chicago, Anaheim or Philly.
NickofSantaCruz
The Sharks’ D corps has not been good and will sadly continue to be so until the current group of prospects are ready for promotion, which is probably 2-3 years away unless the Barracuda make a deep playoff run next season.
Vlasic is the biggest boat anchor; the beginning of his decline was masked by Justin Braun and the team wasn’t/hasn’t been able to find a suitable replacement partner since he was traded. The time to have bought him out was this season, where the Sharks could have opened up ~$5m in additional cap space to weaponize, but it looks like they’ll just be riding the contract out.
Simek started out strong (and we all miss that run of him being the Wookiee Whisperer) but has been undone by injuries. I feel like it would serve his career better to be sent down to the AHL and reshape his game to match the state of his body.
Ferraro is a shot-blocking machine and I think we’ve seen him take some rough ones early in the season that he hasn’t been able to fully heal from, and playing injured through the second half of the season has made it look like he’s lost a step. It’s up to the coaches to work with him on that, help him work on positioning and decision-making so he picks his moments to go down for a shot block better (playing to the score, knowing who’s on the ice taking the shot, trusting his goalie will make the save if the shot gets through). I think he can bounce back this season and be reliable and stable on the second-pairing.
Benning played better than I expected and it feels like Burroughs will fit in the same manner: not too flashy, get taken advantage-of by opposing top-forwards. In that same vein, big hopes for Knyzhov to be fully recovered from his injury.
Karlsson is Karlsson and I think he’ll still be a Shark this coming season. He may not be happy about that but Grier isn’t beholden to take a dogshit trade offer from anyone. He will have the opportunity to show he can stay healthy, thus maintaining/improving his value even if the chances of another 100-point season are abysmally low.
Touching back upon my first point, I look forward to seeing whether Thrun is on the opening night roster or finds himself jockeying with Ohkotiuk, Mukhamadullin, and Pulli to be the first call-up. A sign of better days to come will be if one or more of those four defensemen are playing regular NHL minutes alongside Karlsson (if he’s still a Shark; if not the rumor is it’ll be Tyler Myers as a stopgap replacement), Ferraro, and Knyzhov.
prideneverdie666
Any team with Moritz Seider does not have the worst Dcorps. Kid is elite.
TheDirtyBurger522
Interesting quesiton here OP, and it’s why I think the bruins are not going to fall off the face of the map
The bruins still have an excellent D core with McAvoy, Lindholm,Carlo, Gryz, and a vet addition in Kevin Shattenkirk. We also still have arguably the best goalie tandem in the league. The major concern is coming into the season with Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie as our top 2 centers (coyle is staying on the 3rd line bruins fans).
SpiritBamba
OP you’re an idiot for thinking we have the worst defense in the league. It isn’t good but it’s far from bad. It’s average to below average. There’s probably like close to 10 teams with worse defense.
17justmelted
DeAngelo is not starting over Chatfield in any universe
DevryMedicalGraduate
The Anaheim Ducks allowed 3207 shots on goal last year – that’s 39 shots on goal per game. The previous for shots on goal allowed in an NHL season was 3080 by the 92-93 San Jose Sharks who achieved it in 84 games.
It has to be the Ducks.
friskyjude
Not to be a homer, but for me it’s probably either Vegas, Carolina, or Coloroado. Boston is also lowkey stacked, even with Orlov gone.
Yop_BombNA
I like ours for next year, which feels weird to say.
NeonJaguars
No way Detroit is worst, they’re mid at worst. Walman and Seider are a great first pair, Ghostbear is most teams’ second pair D and while the other 3 are questionable they’re not exactly what I would call bad.
42 Comments
Look at ours before you throw shade at Detroit’s…
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
I think after the EK65 trade the sharks have a pretty terrible defense
Worst D in the league? Chicago by a landslide.
Best in the league? Carolina and Colorado.
Sabres must be the best, they have a #1 draft pick on every pairing!
Worst has to be either Chicago, Anaheim or Philly.
The Sharks’ D corps has not been good and will sadly continue to be so until the current group of prospects are ready for promotion, which is probably 2-3 years away unless the Barracuda make a deep playoff run next season.
Vlasic is the biggest boat anchor; the beginning of his decline was masked by Justin Braun and the team wasn’t/hasn’t been able to find a suitable replacement partner since he was traded. The time to have bought him out was this season, where the Sharks could have opened up ~$5m in additional cap space to weaponize, but it looks like they’ll just be riding the contract out.
Simek started out strong (and we all miss that run of him being the Wookiee Whisperer) but has been undone by injuries. I feel like it would serve his career better to be sent down to the AHL and reshape his game to match the state of his body.
Ferraro is a shot-blocking machine and I think we’ve seen him take some rough ones early in the season that he hasn’t been able to fully heal from, and playing injured through the second half of the season has made it look like he’s lost a step. It’s up to the coaches to work with him on that, help him work on positioning and decision-making so he picks his moments to go down for a shot block better (playing to the score, knowing who’s on the ice taking the shot, trusting his goalie will make the save if the shot gets through). I think he can bounce back this season and be reliable and stable on the second-pairing.
Benning played better than I expected and it feels like Burroughs will fit in the same manner: not too flashy, get taken advantage-of by opposing top-forwards. In that same vein, big hopes for Knyzhov to be fully recovered from his injury.
Karlsson is Karlsson and I think he’ll still be a Shark this coming season. He may not be happy about that but Grier isn’t beholden to take a dogshit trade offer from anyone. He will have the opportunity to show he can stay healthy, thus maintaining/improving his value even if the chances of another 100-point season are abysmally low.
Touching back upon my first point, I look forward to seeing whether Thrun is on the opening night roster or finds himself jockeying with Ohkotiuk, Mukhamadullin, and Pulli to be the first call-up. A sign of better days to come will be if one or more of those four defensemen are playing regular NHL minutes alongside Karlsson (if he’s still a Shark; if not the rumor is it’ll be Tyler Myers as a stopgap replacement), Ferraro, and Knyzhov.
Any team with Moritz Seider does not have the worst Dcorps. Kid is elite.
Interesting quesiton here OP, and it’s why I think the bruins are not going to fall off the face of the map
The bruins still have an excellent D core with McAvoy, Lindholm,Carlo, Gryz, and a vet addition in Kevin Shattenkirk. We also still have arguably the best goalie tandem in the league. The major concern is coming into the season with Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie as our top 2 centers (coyle is staying on the 3rd line bruins fans).
OP you’re an idiot for thinking we have the worst defense in the league. It isn’t good but it’s far from bad. It’s average to below average. There’s probably like close to 10 teams with worse defense.
DeAngelo is not starting over Chatfield in any universe
The Anaheim Ducks allowed 3207 shots on goal last year – that’s 39 shots on goal per game. The previous for shots on goal allowed in an NHL season was 3080 by the 92-93 San Jose Sharks who achieved it in 84 games.
It has to be the Ducks.
Not to be a homer, but for me it’s probably either Vegas, Carolina, or Coloroado. Boston is also lowkey stacked, even with Orlov gone.
I like ours for next year, which feels weird to say.
No way Detroit is worst, they’re mid at worst. Walman and Seider are a great first pair, Ghostbear is most teams’ second pair D and while the other 3 are questionable they’re not exactly what I would call bad.