Top 25 NHL defensive defensemen in 2011-12: Josh Gorges ranks 3rd

One-third into the 2011-12 season, enough hockey has been played to give us a good idea of the best players so far this season. Now let’s have a look at the best defensive defensemen in the NHL this year. Those rearguards are often forgotten when we look at their team’s overall success, but they are key contributors nonetheless in helping their team make the playoffs.

The formula used for the table below is the following: ((+/- ratio + blocked shots + takeaways – giveaways)*penalty killed ice time per game)*Corsi relative Quality of Competition.

The Corsi relative (or Corsi Rel) is a way to compare players that neutralizes the team effects, Corsi Rel is a player’s Corsi when they are on the ice versus when they are off. If a player has a Corsi/60 of 6.0 (meaning the team directs 5 more shots towards the opposing net than they allow when the player is on the ice), but a Corsi/60 of 5.0 when the player is sitting on the bench, the player’s Corsi Rel is 1.0. Corsi Rel is always per 60 minutes of ice time.

The Quality of Competition is a pro-rated stat for each player, measuring the rating of the opposition per minute of ice time. Higher means tougher competition, zero is average, and negative means inferior competition.

QoC Corsi Rel - A quality of competition metric that uses Corsi Rel rather than rating. Over 1.000 is stiff competition indeed, and 1.500 is insane Dani Girardi and Nicklas Lidstrom territory. Less than -1.000 is extremely sheltered (hello, Jody Shelley and George Parros).

	Name	Team	Plus/Minus Rating	Blocked shots	Takeaways	Giveaways	PK Ice Time/game	Corsi Rel QoC	Total
1	Dan Girardi	NYR	6	79	21	30	3.95	1.958	587.79
2	Ryan McDonagh	NYR	8	58	22	14	3.71	2.011	552.10
3	Josh Gorges	MTL	13	78	8	20	3.37	1.429	380.44
4	Niklas Hjalmarsson	CHI	6	78	11	18	2.65	1.82	371.37
5	Francois Beauchemin	ANA	-3	71	10	14	4.85	1.034	320.95
6	Brent Seabrook	CHI	3	68	11	15	2.67	1.712	306.26
7	Ladislav Smid	EDM	1	77	9	18	3.81	1.105	290.49
8	Rotislav Klesla	PHX	7	52	6	6	3.06	1.429	257.99
9	Kimmo Timonen	PHI	10	58	9	18	3.79	0.888	198.57
10	Duncan Keith	CHI	2	48	19	19	2.27	1.712	194.31
11	David Schlemko	PHX	7	50	10	4	2.22	1.371	191.75
12	Victor Hedman	TB	-9	55	14	14	3.48	1.143	182.97
13	Eric Brewer	TB	-8	63	8	12	3.49	1.010	179.77
14	Ryan Suter	NAS	11	36	12	13	2.63	1.436	173.73
15	Filip Kuba	OTT	3	52	8	22	3.69	1.110	167.93
16	Nicklas Lidstrom	DET	12	25	13	8	2.16	1.832	166.20
17	Paul Martin	PIT	-6	46	19	17	3.25	1.217	166.12
18	Karl Alzner	WAS	12	38	9	12	2.49	1.384	161.97
19	Nicklas Kronwall	DET	-1	73	10	10	3.46	0.645	160.68
20	Tim Gleason	CAR	-1	51	15	18	2.65	1.287	160.30
21	Chris Philipps	OTT	0	62	8	17	3.58	0.800	151.79
22	Douglas Murray	SJ	5	58	7	20	1.99	1.519	151.14
23	Johnny Boychuk	BOS	12	40	5	10	2.35	1.354	149.55
24	Shea Weber	NAS	14	41	13	24	2.45	1.370	147.69
25	Tom Gilbert	EDM	-1	51	16	27	3.68	0.943	135.34

As you can see, most of these rearguards are used more often than not against tougher opponents and log a lot of ice on the penalty kill. These blue liners sacrifice their bodies to block shots and avoid giving away the puck to their opponents by making good decisions while handling the puck. Surprisingly no Zdeno Chara or Keith Yandle among the defensive leaders.

Who do you think is a surprise? For me the biggest surprise is David Schlemko.

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Fred is a freelance sports write and translator, as well as a featured Montreal Canadiens blogger on http://hockeyindependent.com/blog/ and a baseball columnist on http://www.dobberbaseball.com/. Fred also joined HabsAddict.com in time for the 2011-12 season.

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Posted in: 2011-2012 nhl season,defensive defenseman,habs,Josh Gorges,montreal canadiens,nhl defensemen