NHL

EP Rinkside Top 20 defencemen rankings for the 2022-23 season

Everyone, from the most hardened old-stock scout to the most data-savvy stats nerd, can agree that defencemen are more difficult to evaluate than forwards. It's one of the few areas where those two camps can find common ground.

The things a forward does to help his team win are measured with relative ease. Does he help his team put the puck in the net, set his teammates up to put the puck in the net, and prevent the other team from putting the puck in the net? For all their flaws, points are generally somewhat representative of the first two aspects, and we can use other tools to estimate the latter. The ultimate result is that even a relatively analytics-tilted ranking will look fairly similar to one made by your average fan, assuming you don't get too excited about a fourth-line play-driv

Access this article by registering

FREE account required to access
this article

Register as a free user at eliteprospects.com to get access to this article and more quality, in-depth coverage at EP Rinkside.

(only name and email address are required)

This article is about:
NHL Boston Bruins Carolina Hurricanes Colorado Avalanche Columbus Blue Jackets Dallas Stars Detroit Red Wings Florida Panthers Minnesota Wild New Jersey Devils New York Rangers Ottawa Senators Tampa Bay Lightning Vancouver Canucks Vegas Golden Knights Washington Capitals NHL John Carlson Thomas Chabot Aaron Ekblad Adam Fox Dougie Hamilton Victor Hedman Miro Heiskanen Quinn Hughes Cale Makar Charlie McAvoy Adam Pelech Moritz Seider Jaccob Slavin Jared Spurgeon Shea Theodore Devon Toews MacKenzie Weegar Zach Werenski
Scoring Leaders