I also feel that Luke Schenn and Ryan McDonagh are both overlooked quite a bit for how much they can bring to a team. Both are terrific penalty killers, heavy hitters and can play big minutes. McDonagh is a bit overpaid though. That's just me though.

Vrana is very underated

Good list! Saros was a Vezina finalist though and Girard isn’t on a cap strapped team that’s a false narrative. Personally I think Dahlin is a stud already.

Kerfoot is a defense only winger who can play C. Hes literally one of the worst offensive play drivers in the league.
Girard is an ok play driver who has much better results bc of the system he plays in and bc he plays with elite teammates. Girard is overrated and kerfoot us what he is, a 3.5m 3rd line shutdown guy.

I don't know how non-Pens fans feel about Brian Dumoulin, but he just came off of a down year, so naturally he's always sucked if you ask some people.
The simple fact is that Letang needs a defensively responsible partner to enable his offense safely. Dumo has been that for multiple seasons. He's been a top 4 defenseman for us since the back to back cups (heck, in the '17 playoffs Letang was out and Dumo led all Pens skaters in TOI). Letang has had Norris votes in the last 4 seasons, and Dumo was his partner for all 4 of them.
At this point of his career, he's a steady veteran presence, he's still a top 4 defenseman, and he's an important key to Pittsburgh's success.

McDonough has slowed down. Schenn is what he is. He's okay, good defensive depth. Perhaps underrated by the broad population, but also overrated by those who want grit

Sorry re cap strapped. Avalanche aren't cap strapped, but if they want a big contract then they'll have to move someone and people seem to be moving him like he's nothing. Boggling my mind

Do you watch kerfoot at all? I wouldn't agree with that whatsoever. So when he was a 0.5 ppg+ player on Colorado playing with compher and Jost and Andrighetto, who was doing the play driving?

His scoring is fine for 2 w or 3 c, especially when you consider its essentially all at even strength.

In the 3 years since he got to Toronto he has 92 even strength points.

On the islanders that would tie him for third. Only Barzal (124) and Nelson (116) have more.

From your description he's so underrated I'm not really even aware of him enough. I just don't know much about him other than he seems a decent top 4 guy for a while. Lol

This isn't an original idea of mine, but for good shutdown defensemen, the less you hear about them, the better. Guys like that you hear the most about when they've made a mistake. Guys like Dumoulin, Seiganthaler, Brodin, are good shutdown guys. How often when listening to a broadcast do you hear their names?
Good defensive play isn't flashy or exciting, but it's super important.

The ones you don't hear about are the ones who are good defensively without being overly physical. Everyone here's about Gudas and the like.

It's a good point you raise.

Points can be deceiving pic.twitter.com/h1PAqiiDf0

— Ethan Shuter (@islesforthecup) August 15, 2022

Points arent everything. Im sorry you dont agree with that whatsoever but unfortunately thats the reality.