I would have John Carlson over Ekblad at this point but I don't hate this. I'm also super high on Seth Jones, like top 3-4 high.

Being completely biased, I will always argue to see Giordano on this list, he does a lot of things that are top ten worthy but don't stand out as much as goals, points, etc etc, I think the things that he does elevates and shelters his partner to always create elite D pairings, I would say he is a top 10 D pairing no matter who he plays with (obviously within reason). I could see him push Ekblad but obviously hard to bump anyone on that list. I guess my opinion will be like an offside challenge, there is not conclusive evidence to overturn the list, the list stands.

I think Ekblad is better all around than Carlson is, but Carlson is definitely better offensively, though.

Think about it...Ekblad hasn't peaked yet, Carlson has. Imagine what Ekblad will do when he peaks! This guy will be a top 5 in the world d-man in 2 years.

Hedman and Karlsson are both better than Doughty, and Seth Jones and Subban are probably better than Pietrangelo. This list is very inaccurate IMO.

Hahaha I like how you finished your reply! You're totally right that Giordano doesn't and almost never get the credit he deserve. He's an amazing defensemen and yes he does it all...but I would have put him in the top 10 maybe 2 years ago. Guys like Jones and Ekblad stepped their game so much that I think deserve to be there instead of him. Still, he's an incredibly good d-men. Wouldn't have been a bad choice, at all!

There's ABSOLUTELY no one on the planet that is more complete of a d-men than Drew Doughty. CERTAINLY not Erik Karlsson

Hedman is much more complete than Drew Doughty. Erik Karlsson isn't as good defensively as Hedman but is almost just as good as Doughty with way more offence.

Karlsson #1. Also, John Klingberg should be in this

Completely agree, and I read your other comment about Ekblad still hitting his stride at some point which will be insane for that kid. If you were Seattle and picking a D to build around going forward I would agree with this list.

I could understand you prefering Hedman's game over Doughty's and placing him JUST in front of him, but you lost all credibility when you wrote "Hedman is much more complete than Doughty". You proved that you just don't know what you're talking about...AND THEN you dare to say that Karlsson D game is as good as Doughty's! LOL!!!!! Ok, enough time wasted on someone who clearly lacks hockey knowledge...next!

Problem with lists like these is you generally view at most a few teams regularly and the rest you go off numbers, highlights and word of mouth. Getting an accurate top 10 when you are not watching every single team lay is always going to lead to a biased rating. I have no issues with what you presented here as it is your personal list.

Says the guy who put Josi in a top 10 D-man list over OEL and John Carlson lol.

Klingberg wasn't even voted in the top 5 for the Norris candidate, this season : a season in which he finished first in scoring and was the best of his career. Points getters are important, on the backend, but a truly elite d-man must be a complete package...Klingberg is not. He would be on the top 20 list, though.

You know what, that's a very good point you're making here. I never thought of it that way. It's very hard not to be biased, you are right. Still, does your personal opinion think my list is any good?

Yeah. My only issue is Ekblad to me has not cracked the top 10. I like Doughty over Karlsson because of his defensive accumen. Personal opinion. Jones is at best #10 for me but I don't watch CBJ play more than a couple times a year.

This list can never be fair because the team that the player plays on has a huuuuge impact on their individual stats, and you would never really be able to know unless you put them all on the same team in the same situations.

If you look at LAs dcore and how painfully average it is, but yet they seem to always win you can tell how good doughty is.

Ottawa's D-core is about 10 times worse than LA's.

That's great, only problem is Doughty is better than Karlsson

No votes for Byfuglien or Hampus Lindholm? Is Chara too old now?

Kris Letang?

I've never sat down to rank the players and I'm not going to do so now, but after a quick analysis of the numbers here are a few comments.

- Hedman would be my #1 OA right now, easily
- Doughty and Karlsson are in the top-5 for sure
- Byfuglien deserves to be in the top-10 conversation, as does Chara and Ellis.
- I really like guys like Adam Larsson, Anton Stralman and Josh Manson (amazing shutdown guys) but maybe they don't produce enough offense to be in the top-10 convo. +/- puts them squarely in the top-10 though
- FOUR MORE top-10 +/- players (over the past 3 years combined) that nobody ever thought of: Niskanen, McDonough, Schmidt and Orlov
- Klingberg, Gohstisbehere and Brodin are pushing themselves up into consideration based on GF% - a case could be made for McAvoy and Parayko, too.
- Jones and even moreso Ekblad are nowhere near my top-10 - they're riding on reputation / pedigree here
- I don't get the love for Pietrangelo - he isn't top-10 by any metric. Great player but most of his key numbers trailed Esa Lindell's last year, and who the hell is he?
- The best defenseman in a generation hasn't even stepped on the ice yet

Suter is too high. Burns too low.

Hedman at #1 overall for me if I was building a team starting today. I think to do this exercise, each list has to define what "best defenseman" is trying to achieve. "All around best dman" is fine. Puts Doughty ahead of Karlsson for sure. My all around best dmen if *I'm starting a team today to win this year*:

Hedman, Doughty, Karlsson, Jones, Josi, Pietrangelo, Burns, Subban, Giordano, Hamilton

Step 1: https://public.tableau.com/profile/bill.comeau#!/vizhome/SkaterComparisonToolv2/Dashboard1 (go here)

Step 2: Set to "Defensemen", then put Ekman-Larsson on one side and Josi on the other. We're not in the same ballpark here, quality wise.

Step 3: http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?aggregate=1&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20152016&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=2&position=D&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=points,goals,assists

Here again, you'll find all the non-fancy counting stats showing Josi to be better than OEL. Josi is 5th overall in points over the past 3 years; OEL is 18th. Josi only depends on the PP for 38% of his points; OEL 45%. OEL takes way more penalties (those are bad for the team) by a factor of 2.2x. And you could even argue that OEL has been enjoying an above-average shooting percentage for a dman (8.2%) that will likely regress down around the 6-7% average over time.

The advanced stats (see Link 1 above) suggest that OEL isn't as good as many think.

You do realize that OEL plays in the desert while Josi plays with the best D-core in the league.