In this edition of the hotstove, we share our choices for the most underrated defense pairing in the NHL.
Todd Cordell
Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic.
Admittedly, I had my doubts about how well this pairing would hold up. Hanifin has never been used in an unsheltered, top-4 role and Hamonic is coming off a rather disastrous season given what was expected from him. They've erased any doubts I had with their play thus far.
They are controlling 61.73% of the attempts, 63.64% of the chances, and 65.75% of the high-danger opportunities. Those are insane numbers. They've also managed to play even hockey despite an unsustainably low PDO (shooting% + save%) of 93.7. When they inevitably run into some luck, they're going to garner a lot more attention.
James Tanner The most underrated defense pairing in the NHL is Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev.
I don't even really like Zaitsev because he has no imagination and he ices the puck too much, but he's defensively sound and can break up plays in the zone as good as anyone. Gardiner, on the other hand, remains the most underrated player in the history of professional sports. Even though he is supposedly terrible defensively, his coach (the old school stat-hating Mike Babcock) plays him the most on the team and gives him all the tough assignments. Why? Because contrary to popular belief, Gardiner is a great defensive player. He is fast, can skate the puck out of trouble (among the best zone exit players in the NHL) and is extremely calm and cool when he has the puck in coverage. Sure, he makes those famous errors, but so does any defenseman who gets his ice time. With Gardiner, it's almost all confirmation bias anyways - if you expect to see him screw up, you'll remember when he does.
Anyways, he plays the most minutes and the hardest minutes on the best team in the NHL, so it would be pretty ridiculous, given his reputation, to say anyone else qualifies as "the most underrated defense pairing."
Peter Tessier This one is going to make me go off the board a bit but that's what underrated is right?
Pouliot and Stetcher
They have played 172 mins of 5v5 ice time together this season have a CF% of 52.23% and a GF% of 68.75%. Their expected goals for is 50.58% and they sit 18th as a pair with 100 mins played for RealCF. Now they are running a rather ridiculous PDO streak at 107 but hey, that's what makes it fun. The fact is the Canucks could be a good team soon and having some unsung guys like Pouliot and Stetcher who fly under the radar area big help.
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