Puckheads: Defenders

Folks:

For those still reading along this is part 9 of an 11 part series for fantasy hockey owners.

This installment deals with DEFENSE and my rankings

Good teams with good systems have GOOD defenses.

EVERY team has a “quarterback” which is the guy on the #1 power play unit for the team that “organizes” the rush (or attack).

Good teams have better power plays while bad teams usually do not as they are killing penalties more often than scoring on them.

Think Teams like Detroit, Calgary, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, San Jose Boston or even philly for good units

Think Tampa, St louis, Florida, Atlanta Colorado for struggling units

The rest will be clumped in the middle as a team!

As far as INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – again the disclaimer (this is only one man’s opinion).

Go with your gut, watch for trends, read up a bit about a rookie making strides in preseason making a club or a guy coming up from minors.  WATCH JUNIOR PLAYERS as some teams will carry them until ONE GAME BEFORE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO KEEP THEM AND SEND THEM BACK “FOR DEVELOPMENT” TO JUNIORS!!!!!

Defense is a weird animal in fantasy.  You want SOLID guys that can get you at least 3 of the 7 categories for “OFFENSE” production.  Traditionally the defenders don’t travel down deep into the offensive zone which is why goal totals are low for them as they “stay at home” (which means stop at the opposing team blue line (USUALLY).  Some of your more offensive minded defenders are paired with a guy that only stays at home such as Washington with Mike Green or Edmonton with Sheldon Souray and Nashville with Shea Weber.  Those aforementioned guys will ALL bang in 20 goals.. Defenders are lucky if they get 20 goals and MOST YEARS no more than 8 good defenders will do it in the ENTIRE NHL.

Defenders are good for assists though, usually will be among the team leaders for PIMs and ALWAYS will lead the team in TOI.  Most teams employ FOUR offensive lines and only 3 defense pairings.  This “shortens” when the game enters the third period and specialty teams are needed (power play & penalty kill).

Solid defenders will get 24+ mins per game (24 defenders topped this total last season that played in 55 or more games) with some getting as high as 27 (Jay Bouwmeester last year in Fla).

My rankings are as follows:

YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH ANY DETROIT DEFENDER (Rafalski – Lidstrom – Kronwall) are ALL very good and rank as #8 -9 -10 in my book.

Chicago is another team with a quality corps of defenders (Campbell #15 – Barker #25 – Keith #30 – Seabrook #55)

Boston has Chara #11 and Wideman #7 which are strong

Calgary has who many feel is still among the best in Phaneuf #3 for me and the addition of Boumeester #12

Want a sleeper or two?  How about Mark Streit of the Islanders – he’ll be among the point leaders on the whole team just like last year with Okposo

Another “sleeper” Alex Edler of Vancouver or Kevin Bieska of Vancouver – here’s a name to remember LATER (not during the draft as I don’t know if he’ll be on the roster) Zach Bogosian of Atlanta for a deep stretch sleeper.

THE LIST:

#1         Mike Green  (most drafts have him going as one of the top 2 defenders off the board in the late first or early second)

#2         Dan Boyle

#3         Dion Phaneuf  (he has lasted in some drafts until late third and early fourth

#4         Dan Boyle

#5         Sheldon Souray

#6         Sergei Gonchar

#7         Dennis Wideman

#8         Brian Rafalski

#9         Nik Lidstrom    (he will be picked EARLY because of name recognition)

#10       Nick Kronwall

#11       Zdeno Chara

#12       Jay Boumeester

#13       Mark Streit

#14       Shea Weber

#15       Brian Campbell

Go with some of the guys you like.

I am high on Pronger – Niedermeyer – Edler – McCabe – Kaberle as well.

Good luck

Newman