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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on the most underrated defensemen in the Western Conference.
Todd Cordell
Josh Manson.
The towering Anaheim Ducks defenseman is one of the league's best shot suppressors and he brings the skating ability and physicality that makes everyone – new school or old school – fall in love with his game. On top of being a high-end defensive player, he has quietly been very productive offensively as only John Klingberg has more 5v5 points (16) than Manson thus far. I very much doubt he'll finish among the defense leaders in 5v5 scoring but that he's making contributions of any kind while providing fantastic defensive play and driving possession is a big plus.
James Tanner
There are a couple.
Hampus Lindholm is an elite superstar in the making, if he's not already. This guy is fantastic and gets very little media attention. He also missed 13 games this year, so his point totals aren't very impressive and the Ducks are a bad team who'd be eliminated already if they played in any other division.
However, he recently got a hattrick, and he has a 53% CF. A Norris Trophy is in his future.
Colin Miller deserves some love He was not protected in the expansion draft, something which deserves to get Cam Neeley fired.
He's 10th in 5v5 possession among D who've played 400 minutes, and 15th in p/60.
Also, somehow when people name the top five NHL defenseman they are not mentioning Dougie Hamilton who continues to make Brian Burke and Peter Chiarelli look bad on a daily basis.
Justin Lowe
The most underrated defenseman in the Western Conference is Colton Parayko.
At 6'6 / 230 lbs, how did St. Louis snag this right-handed shot defender in the 3rd round in the 2012 draft? What a steal.
The first guys you think of when you look at St. Louis' success this season would be Tarasenko, Schwartz, Schenn and on the backend, Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester.
However, you should be adding another name to that list of stars, Colton Parayko. The 24-year old, hulking defenceman might be a household name if you play fantasy hockey. He's 84% owned based on Yahoo! fantasy, and is a top 25 offensive dman in the league with 20 points in 34 games.
However, fantasy-land is just that and it's not just his production that stands out to me when I watch him.
He plays in all situations with 2:19 of PP / TOI and 2:10 with a man-short. He moves really well for a big man and closes the gap on attacking opponents the rush really well.
He's also one of the most durable defenseman in the league with 691+ minutes overall played this year, good for 8th in the entire league.
Parayko plays with an extremely high hockey IQ and is still young. I would take him on my team anytime, even at 5.5M per year for the next 5 years.
You think Doug Armstrong is up for moving him for Brent Seabrook straight up? Yeah, I didn't think so either.
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