Defenseman Rankings: Banger Leagues

Defenseman Rankings: Banger Leagues

10 years ago
Norm Hall / National Hockey League / Getty

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Rankings
Top 200 | C | LW | RW | D | G

Here are the top defensemen ranked in descending order based on their value in 10 or 12 team "Banger Leagues". A typical banger league consists of goals, assists, plus/minus, penalty minutes, power-play points, shots on goal, hits and blocked shots for skaters.

Rank Player Team
1 Erik Karlsson OTT
2 Brent Burns SJ
3 P.K. Subban NAS
4 Kris Letang PIT
5 Dustin Byfuglien WPG

Karlsson's floor is pretty much 15 goals and 65 points at this point. You can't say that about any other defensemen, and very few forwards for that matter. He should be a top-five pick.

After a four-year stretch where injury and medical issues never allowed him to play 70 games, Letang got back on track last season, tallying 67 points in 71 games. The injury history is always a concern, but his upside makes him worthy of a late first or early second-round pick.

Rank Player Team
6 Roman Josi NAS
7 Mark Giordano CGY
8 Oliver Ekman-Larsson ARI
9 Shayne Gostisbehere PHI
10 John Carlson WAS
11 Shea Weber MTL
12 Victor Hedman TB
13 Drew Doughty LA
14 Rasmus Ristolainen BUF
15 Justin Faulk CAR
16 John Klingberg DAL
17 Kevin Shattenkirk STL
18 Seth Jones CLB
19 Dougie Hamilton CGY
20 Tyson Barrie COL

Doughty is arguably the best defenseman in the entire league, and he's often drafted too early because of it. He was exceptional last year, but the five previous seasons were nothing out of the ordinary offensively.

Expect a breakout year from Jones. He received a much larger role once being dealt to Columbus, playing nearly five more minutes per game. A full season logging plenty of ice time could lead to 50 points, 100 hits and 150 blocks.

Rank Player Team
21 T.J. Brodie CGY
22 Aaron Ekblad FLA
23 Ryan Suter MIN
24 Duncan Keith CHI
25 Jake Muzzin LA
26 Torey Krug BOS
27 Brent Seabrook CHI
28 Ryan McDonagh NYR
29 Alex Pietrangelo STL
30 Morgan Rielly TOR
31 Sami Vatanen ANA
32 Dion Phaneuf OTT
33 Erik Johnson COL
34 Alex Goligoski ARI
35 Marc-Edouard Vlasic SJ
36 Hampus Lindholm ANA
37 Matt Niskanen WAS
38 Alec Martinez LA
39 Colton Parayko STL
40 Radko Gudas PHI
41 Keith Yandle FLA
42 Zdeno Chara BOS
43 Mattias Ekholm NAS
44 Adam Larsson EDM
45 Andrei Markov MTL
46 Michael Stone ARI
47 Francois Beauchemin COL
48 Dan Girardi NYR
49 Johnny Boychuk NYI
50 Jacob Trouba WPG
51 Ryan Ellis NAS
52 Matt Dumba MIN
53 Connor Murphy ARI
54 Roman Polak TOR
55 Anton Stralman TB
56 Andrej Sekera EDM
57 Tyler Myers WPG
58 Cody Ceci OTT
59 Travis Hamonic NYI
60 Dmitry Orlov WAS

While he will contribute nearly nothing offensively, Gudas is great to have has your final D-man. He will be among the league leaders in PIMs, hits and blocks every season.

While he still provides value in the blocked shot category, don't expect another 34-point season from Beauchemin. Of his 26 assists, 20 were secondary assists, so expect regression to come.

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