That far from elite defense! You would probably be in the second tier of the league. Dallas, Nashville, carolina, Calgary, Washington, Philadelphia, tampa bay, Colorado, st louis, Boston have all better defense

but by toronto standards?

most of those teams you mentioned do have better defense, but this is a massive upgrade for toronto and it doesn't kill their bottom six either

Wow Severson is worth a lot more than that

Yeah i'd hardly call adding both Savard and Severson, Making the Leafs D core elite.

I wouldn't say that Dallas has an elite defense core, the team just PLAYS elite defense, if that makes sense. The personnel is nothing all that special, the team just executes fantastically.

I agree that it’s a major upgrade. This years defense is trash, barrie is great with the puck but he is a terrible defensively. If they can replace him buy someone more steady they will already be much more consistent. Muzzin and Reilly must stay healthy to.

I dont think even taking zachas cap hit off their hands makes jersey do that

Hardly elite. But as much as folks think the Leafs defence has been vilified this year,,, they have long periods with their two best Dmen injured Reilly and Muzzin. Dermot missed time and you could say Ceci is a top four Dman has missed time also.

John klingberg, miro heiskanen, esa lindell. That a real top three. Dallas was average defensively and since heiskanen have join them they have been one of the top defense. With sekera and fedun on on the bottom pairing that gave them experience.

Lindell is very mediocre. Klingberg is good, not great. Heiskanen is and will be fantastic. Dallas' D core isn't all that great.

their top 2 is better than most (nearly all) teams, but their bottom 3 is weak. An elite D core should be mostly consistent.

Yes, it should. BTW when you say top two, are you referring to Klingberg and Heiskanen as in their best two or Klingberg Lindell as in their top pair? At least I think that's their top pair, but I don't get to see a ton of Dallas.

Lindell is a good defensive defenseman. Not much offense in is game but he is the one who received most of the defensive attribution on dallas side. Playing top
Minutes against top opposition night after night. Penalty kill as well. He is not a superstar players but he is good in is role. Far from mediocre.

No he's not.

Yes he is! Lindell come in ten place in defensive point share in all the nhl. Point share are to Nhl what Win above replacement are to mlb. That pretty good for a defenseman who is supposedly mediocre

can we get @Random2152 going on this?

You know where the first defenseman in toronto ranks?
Justin holl in 71 place. So maybe it’s normal for you to have difficulty evaluating defenseman since in toronto all you got is scrap.

Heisk and Klingberg are their best two defensemen. They aren't often paired together because the 2nd pair right side needs to be carried. Lindell can't carry a D pairing. I don't see Lindell as much more than a #4 guy boosted by a higher end defenseman in klingberg and a defensive system. He definitely doesn't define an elite defense core.

Dallas gets worse defensively when he is on the ice, relative to his teammates his expected goals against is low. Now he does play top competition, but he does not excel at shutting them down.

Wow you are high on Lindell.
He is Zaitsev 2.0 (or alternatively, a slightly better Ron Hainsey).
BTW that OFF_xG is over 3 standard deviations, which is seen only 0.3% of the time. That is to say he is historically bad.

Thank you, my good sir! Btw... Great profile picture.

@Sebybbq He is not good.

I don’t see any number there that show that he isn’t a good shutdown defenseman. Since you like nice graphic here one stats that is pretty representative of defensive defenseman. That high danger chance allow per defensive zone shift:

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https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.defendingbigd.com/platform/amp/2019/5/21/18632995/esa-lindell-six-year-contract-dallas-stars-defense-defenseman

Maybe you don’t realize but the actual defensive stats are the three at the bottom and he is at the top of the nhl in those categories at 90 pourcentile and 94. So again yes he is very reliable defensively.