When I said that Matt Niskanen was one of the NHL's best defenseman, people accused me of being a troll. Even though he's 6th in 5v5 scoring among Defenseman, on pace for 40+ points and has a 53% corsi (top 20 500 min). I personally think you should be allowed to have a non-standard opinion without it being strictly to get attention, but that's the discourse level we're at.
This led to me being asked what I considered a number one defenseman, to which I replied anyone in the top 30 (i.e 30 teams, 30 #1s).
This list uses my observation, my reading of the stats (corsica.hockey), my readings and my biased reputation based personal opinions (unavoidable).
I don't mean it to be the gospel, and I am sure I missed some glaringly obvious players.
I also didn't rank them in order. I bolded the ones who I feel are having the best current seasons.
Obviously Brett Burns point totals are insane, but I think Hamilton deserves real Norris consideration. I also think players like Gardiner and Niskanen, two guys among leaders at CF% and 5v5 scoring deserve to be ranked highly.
Anyways, this should be fun while we wait for the trades to roll in.
32. Krug