canadian defense corps

[digitalmonkey 929]

Inspired by this thread, I decided to offer up my ranking of the Canadian teams' defenses.1. Ottawa SenatorsWith Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenckov, Greg de Vries and most likely Brian Pothier, the Senators have the best starting 6 out of all the Canadian teams.2. Montreal CanadiensSheldon Souray, Craig Rivest, Andrei Markov, Mathieu Dandenault, Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon provide the Habs with a great balance of size and offensive talent. 3. Calgary FlamesIn terms of depth, this defense is second to none, but not everyone can play at the same time. Jordan Leopold, Roman Hamrlik, Robyn Regehr, Andrew Ference, Dion Phaneuf, Toni Lydman, Rhett Warrener and Steve Montador will put Sutter to the test to decide who sits out on any given night.4. Edmonton OilersThe Oilers have a couple of quality guys at the top in Chris Pronger and Jason Smith, but it quickly drops off after that with Igor Ulanov, Steve Staios, Cory Cross and Alexei Semenov. Note: If Semenov can show some of the offensive talent he showed up here in Sudbury, Oiler fans are in for a treat.5. Toronto Maple LeafsThe Leafs defense, with the exception of the Alexander Khavanov addition, has not changed much. Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe, Aki Berg, Ken Klee and either Karel Pilar or Carlo Colaiacovo are not a bad defensive core, but they don't stand up when compared to Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary or Edmonton.6. Vancouver CanucksBrent Sopel and Marek Malik are gone and the Canucks are left with Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo and ........ Nolan Baumgartner? Good luck with that!

[CoolHandLaw 0]

There's talk of Calgary getting rid of Lydman and his 1.9/yr contract as a result of signing Hamrlik. But still. We there is definitely no lack of defensive skills, strength and and heart back at the blue line here.PS. Can't believe you took the time to link all the player profiles.

[WestcoastCanuck 0]

Inspired by this thread, I decided to offer up my ranking of the Canadian teams' defenses.1. Ottawa SenatorsWith Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenckov, Greg de Vries and most likely Brian Pothier, the Senators have the best starting 6 out of all the Canadian teams.2. Montreal CanadiensSheldon Souray, Craig Rivest, Andrei Markov, Mathieu Dandenault, Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon provide the Habs with a great balance of size and offensive talent. 3. Calgary FlamesIn terms of depth, this defense is second to none, but not everyone can play at the same time. Jordan Leopold, Roman Hamrlik, Robyn Regehr, Andrew Ference, Dion Phaneuf, Toni Lydman, Rhett Warrener and Steve Montador will put Sutter to the test to decide who sits out on any given night.4. Edmonton OilersThe Oilers have a couple of quality guys at the top in Chris Pronger and Jason Smith, but it quickly drops off after that with Igor Ulanov, Steve Staios, Cory Cross and Alexei Semenov. Note: If Semenov can show some of the offensive talent he showed up here in Sudbury, Oiler fans are in for a treat.5. Toronto Maple LeafsThe Leafs defense, with the exception of the Alexander Khavanov addition, has not changed much. Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe, Aki Berg, Ken Klee and either Karel Pilar or Carlo Colaiacovo are not a bad defensive core, but they don't stand up when compared to Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary or Edmonton.6. Vancouver CanucksBrent Sopel and Marek Malik are gone and the Canucks are left with Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo and ........ Nolan Baumgartner? Good luck with that!

Calgary - Stacked to the rafters. Edmonton - Staois is way way better than you are giving him credit for.Ottawa - Great defence.Montreal - Good, not greatToronto - BadVancouver - Way better than you are giving us credit for. Jovo + Ohlund can each play near 30 minutes. Salo is an excellent defender. You completely left Bryan Allen out, who will easily step up into 20 minute territory. Baumgartner isn't great, but he is a decent 6th/7th defencemen. We apperently have a really good prospect who is nhl ready. We have our top 4 defencemen set, all we need to do is sign a veteran 5th defencemen. I would take the Canucks starting 4 on D over almost any team in the league.

[digitalmonkey 929]

Bryan Allen? He of the minus 10? LOLIn 2003-04 Ed Jovanovski played over 25 minutes in a game only 14 times and never over 30 minutes. He ranked 38th in D-men with an average of 23:11 mins per game. Mattias Ohlund actually played more than Eddie. Nevertheless, we'll call them both horses, but they are horses surrounded by a bunch of ponies (Salo excepted). The Canucks need Jovo and Ohlund to maintain their productivity and need a couple of other D-men to step up all the while avoiding injury. I think they are in trouble. They need another defenseman. Even Bryan Marchment would be a plus.Here are Vancouver's D-men from 2003-04 and their average TOI.Mattias Ohlund 25:47Ed Jovanovski 23:11Sami Salo 22:14Brent Sopel 21:55Marek Malik 18:05Bryan Allen 16:51Marc Bergevin 16:01Nolan Baumgartner 14:31Martin Grenier 6:49Wade Brookbank 3:43IMO, the Canucks have 3 quality D-men in Ohlund, Jovanovski and Salo. They lost two quality D-men in Malik and Sopel and have not replaced them. With the lack of initiative shown in signing a free agent D-man, it appears they are relying on some of the others such as Allen, Baumgartner, etc to pick up the slack. I don't think that is going to happen and that is why I ranked them at the bottom. Nothing personal, just my opinion.I'm not saying the Canucks defense is horrible. In fact, I'll take it over a lot of other teams in the league; just not over any of the other Canadian teams.P.S. I love hockey!!

[WestcoastCanuck 0]

Well Allen has a lot more UPSIDE than Sopel or Malik did. I have no problem inserting Allen into Malik's spot in the lineup. He was minus 10, but I can't see that happening again. If he can avoid injuries, he will be a rock solid defencemen for years.Part of the reason Jovo's miutes were a little low was he was injured for part of the season. When he first came back, he played a little less.I completely agree that the Canucks need one more NHL ready defencemen, we just don't need to a star because we have a solid top 4. This is why the Sopel trade made no sense to me. He is pretty much exactly what the Canucks need. Still, if you tried to tell anyone in Vancouver that our Stanley Cup chances are shot because we lost Sopel, they will look at you like you are completely insane.Not signing Malik for 2.5 million a year confirmed to me that our GM isn't completely insane.I'll try to find the name of that defensive prospect I am thinking of.

Nothing Personal, just my opinion

You hint in any way that my Canucks are in trouble, it becomes personal! sw. I enjoy your threads/analysis, keep it up.

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

Morrison, Naslund, Bertuzzi. Do you even need more then 3 good defencemen with these 3 guys scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Plus the Sedins are older and wiser and can put up big numbers (hopefully). I'm sure if defence becomes a problem, Vancouver will pick up a solid defencemen half way through the year from a team looking to dump salary.

[CoolHandLaw 0]

Morrison, Naslund, Bertuzzi. Do you even need more then 3 good defencemen with these 3 guys scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Plus the Sedins are older and wiser and can put up big numbers (hopefully). I'm sure if defence becomes a problem, Vancouver will pick up a solid defencemen half way through the year from a team looking to dump salary.

Fubar, I think you're one sperm your mom should have swallowed.:shock:3 guys scoring 2-3 goals a game? I think you might be giving the Sedin Sisters more credit than they deserve honestly. Maybe you're right, maybe you don't need more than 3 solid defenceman. Here's hoping that you're part of the Canucks management team!

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

Morrison, Naslund, Bertuzzi. Do you even need more then 3 good defencemen with these 3 guys scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Plus the Sedins are older and wiser and can put up big numbers (hopefully). I'm sure if defence becomes a problem, Vancouver will pick up a solid defencemen half way through the year from a team looking to dump salary.

Fubar, I think you're one sperm your mom should have swallowed.:shock:3 guys scoring 2-3 goals a game? I think you might be giving the Sedin Sisters more credit than they deserve honestly. Maybe you're right, maybe you don't need more than 3 solid defenceman. Here's hoping that you're part of the Canucks management team!

Ok, so their line averaged pretty much a goal a game last year but with the new rules this year I would expect them to average slightly more. The Sedin's are 25, Daniel put up 54 points as a 23 year old. They will have 2 solid forward lines. They have 3 defencemen that are good and bryan Allen is also 25 and could have a break out season. Obviously they belive some of the young guys can step up this year or they would have held onto their defencemen they let go or signed a free agent. I think they are stronger then 2 seasons ago and they did lose in 7 games to the eventual Stanely cup finalists without Bertuzzi in the lineup. Besides Ottawa they have the best Canadian team IMO and one of the better teams in the NHL.

[CoolHandLaw 0]

I dont deny that they are a good solid team. I just think you're hopes are too high when you think they'll be hitting 2-3 per game.But who knows, this is the new NHL and anything can happen

[Fubar The Sperm 1]

Well yea 2-3 is way out there. In no way will they even average 2 goals a game (twice the output is just not gonna happen) but I do expect slightly better numbers with some of their younger players putting up better numbers as well. Vancouver has been smart under Bourke, I'm hoping the new GM isn't an idiot and I trust they have all the holes filled before the season starts.

[digitalmonkey 929]

Well Allen has a lot more UPSIDE than Sopel or Malik did. I have no problem inserting Allen into Malik's spot in the lineup. He was minus 10, but I can't see that happening again. If he can avoid injuries, he will be a rock solid defencemen for years.

Malik was +35 while averaging under 20 minutes a game. That's a lot to make up, especially from a guy who was -10.

[digitalmonkey 929]

Karel Pilar has refused the Toronto Maple Leafs qualifying offer (which was the league minimum or close to it) and is now in a holdout position.

[serge 904]

Inspired by this thread, I decided to offer up my ranking of the Canadian teams' defenses.1. Ottawa SenatorsWith Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenckov, Greg de Vries and most likely Brian Pothier, the Senators have the best starting 6 out of all the Canadian teams.2. Montreal CanadiensSheldon Souray, Craig Rivest, Andrei Markov, Mathieu Dandenault, Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon provide the Habs with a great balance of size and offensive talent. 3. Calgary FlamesIn terms of depth, this defense is second to none, but not everyone can play at the same time. Jordan Leopold, Roman Hamrlik, Robyn Regehr, Andrew Ference, Dion Phaneuf, Toni Lydman, Rhett Warrener and Steve Montador will put Sutter to the test to decide who sits out on any given night.4. Edmonton OilersThe Oilers have a couple of quality guys at the top in Chris Pronger and Jason Smith, but it quickly drops off after that with Igor Ulanov, Steve Staios, Cory Cross and Alexei Semenov. Note: If Semenov can show some of the offensive talent he showed up here in Sudbury, Oiler fans are in for a treat.5. Toronto Maple LeafsThe Leafs defense, with the exception of the Alexander Khavanov addition, has not changed much. Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe, Aki Berg, Ken Klee and either Karel Pilar or Carlo Colaiacovo are not a bad defensive core, but they don't stand up when compared to Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary or Edmonton.6. Vancouver CanucksBrent Sopel and Marek Malik are gone and the Canucks are left with Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo and ........ Nolan Baumgartner? Good luck with that!

 

Kaberle

McCabe

Berg

Klee

 

Sick