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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our choices for the most underrated defenseman in the NHL.
Todd Cordell
Josh Morrissey.
Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba seem to get all the attention in Winnipeg but Morrissey is just as important, if not more so. Over the last two years, he leads their defense in Evolving-Hockey's Goals Above Replacement metric.
I think Morrissey is their best defenseman in terms of breaking out of the defensive zone *and* defending the blueline. Very important traits in a game built around puck possession.
Morrissey is a fluid skater, he's capable of chipping in offensively, and he's really sound without the puck. His absence is a big reason – perhaps the biggest – Winnipeg limped to the finish line and I don't think he gets enough credit for how good he is.
Honorable mention goes to Lawrence Pilut, who put up really encouraging underlying numbers on a bad Buffalo Sabres team and still couldn't get into the lineup on a regular basis.
Adam French
Erik Cernak for me. In my Calder discussion blog I wrote in more elongated terms about why I think he's great. He's a piece of a giant puzzle and has no doubt been helped by the insulation of playing on such a fantastic team, but he has already cut back veterans Girardi, Cobourn and Stralman, while also icing Koekoek's career with the Lightning. Not bad for a rookie season.
He's big, he's mean, he's solid defensively, he's right-handed and he can play the safe player to risky players already at such a young age. Has there ever been a 21-year-old defenseman starting 61.5% of his starts in the defensive zone? That's nuts.
His Corsi isn't great and I'm sure people will ding him for it, but I really love his play. For a rookie to play such tough minutes is really impressive. To not get much recognition for it makes him underrated.
Also...16 points in 58 games ain't half bad for a guy with zero PP time.
James Tanner
If I told you there was a player who was one of only 16 players in the NHL top put up 50 points last year, and if I could prove that of those 16 players, player X had some of the better defensive impacts on the list, you'd have to choice but to agree that that player was an elite, or near elite player.
But no, that player is Jake Gardiner and fans of his own team hate and despise him for no reason.
He is objectively one of the best defenseman in the history of the Original Six Franchise known as the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he's a fantastic top pairing, amazingly consistent, defenseman who deserves to be mentioned among the best in the game.
But his reputation is so bad that even people who know better are afraid to talk about how good he is, because all doing so does is expose you to trolls.
Actually, Jake Gardiner would be a good case study for the way in which the internet works to push all writers towards a non-confrontational, conformist centre that isn't really the objective centre, but just the centre between what is correct and what is really dumb.
By far, Jake Gardiner is the most underrated defenseman in the NHL. Also the most underrated player. And that isn't just now, that goes for all time. And not just hockey either, but all sports, throughout history.
In fact, Jake Gardiner might even be the most underrated thing in the universe.
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