Modifié 20 déc. 2021 à 13 h 17
Quoting: PuckLuck_77
... that's interesting logic. If you play on the top-pair, you are by definition, a "top pairing defenseman". So I disagree completely.
If you had said just because you're on the top pair doesn't make you a likely Norris defenseman, then I'd agree. Anderson will never be a #1 defenseman. But teams need guys like Rutta and Anderson. They help steady out and give room for their partners to open up offensively. There cap hits aren't ever going to be outrageous, so you can build solid teams. Plus other benefits like the ability to provide 22+ minutes a night, PK a ton, and shut down other teams in crunch time.
I look back at the Cup winning years for the Kings. You know who the "top-pairing defenseman" were with Doughty? It wasn't Muzzin or Voynov. It was Scuderi and then it was Mitchell. That's who I liken Anderson to.
Neither Anderson nor Rutta are averaging 22+ minutes a night this year. And yeah, I wouldn't describe either Mitchell or Scuderi as top pairing guys during their tenure with the Kings -- again, just because you're playing on the top pair doesn't mean you should be described as a top-pairing defenseman.
Rutta gets the ice time of a 3rd pairing guy and Anderson that of a 2nd pairing guy. Anderson may be playing on the top pair with Doughty, but he's not getting the minutes of a top-pairing defenseman. And you don't have to be a Norris finalist to be a top pairing defenseman -- but Anderson is neither of those. And ice time isn't the only thing that goes into determining whether a guy is a top-pairing defenseman or not -- it's really more nuanced than that. But the minutes do have to be there.
Just to give an example from my team -- Fabbro is a young defenseman playing on the top pair with Josi averaging similar minutes to Anderson. But I would not call Fabbro a "top-pairing defenseman". I would call him a top 4 defenseman. And just because Ekholm is playing on the second pair, doesn't make him a "second pairing defenseman". NSH has two top pairing LHD in Josi and Ekholm, so Ekholm plays on the 2nd pair because of that. That's just depth.
If a team is paying for a "top-pairing defenseman" as you say, they are expecting a better player than Anderson (or Rutta or Fabbro). It's all semantics, but it feels a bit disingenuous to me to describe Anderson as a top-pairing defenseman. You may not see it that way and that's fine, but it's just the way I look at it.
edit: typo