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Hamilton, Giordano drop in NHL Network's rankings of top defensemen

August 13, 2018, 11:37 AM ET [56 Comments]
Todd Cordell
Calgary Flames Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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The NHL Network released its annual rankings for the top-20 defensemen in the league and the Calgary Flames did not have a representative.

They had two players featured in last year's edition. One of them (Dougie Hamilton) was traded earlier this summer while the other (Mark Giordano) fell off the list entirely.



Only Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson have produced 5v5 points at a higher clip than Hamilton over the last two seasons.

Perhaps more impressively, Hamilton's 2017-18 numbers compare favorably to the three Norris finalists in several key categories.



How he can drop from 16 to 18 after having that kind of year is a mystery to me. If anything, he should have moved up.

Giordano slipping was also strange.

In 2016-17, he recorded 39 points while posting a 54.01 Corsi For% and 53.95 Expected Goals For% at 5v5.

This past season Giordano registered 38 points while finishing with a 57.79 Corsi For% and 56.77 Expected Goals For% at 5v5.

He played the exact same role, his numbers improved, and yet it wasn't deemed good enough.

There will always be debates when it comes to rankings – that's the fun of it – but I think the NHL Network was wrong to drop these two.

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