Drew Doughty's amazing performance in the playoffs:
Even Strength:
GF/60: 6th on his team.
GA/60: 13th on his team.
There was a group of 3-5 players at least that were clearly doing better than him. He hung in there but it's not like the kings would have lost with one of Pietrangelo, Karlsson or Letang.
I really like all 4 of these guys, and would love one of them on Vancouver.
tough to rank, but I guess
Petriangelo
Doughty
Karlsson
Letang
And Letang is one of my very favourite dmen in the league. So that just speaks to what elite company he is in here. And he's basically side by side with Karlsson on this list, for me.
These are all very good players, so what one aspect of their play separates one from the rest?
Doughty is the mean one of the group, and would be the most difficult to play against. He is first, because of that quality. The rest all tie for second.
Drew Doughty's amazing performance in the playoffs:
Even Strength:
GF/60: 6th on his team.
GA/60: 13th on his team.
There was a group of 3-5 players at least that were clearly doing better than him. He hung in there but it's not like the kings would have lost with one of Pietrangelo, Karlsson or Letang.
Yeah because looking at a stat sheet tells you more about a player than actually watching him play
Why won't you go ahead and stack him up with defensemen on his team and other defensemen during the playoffs. Oh and better yet, look at his minutes in comparison to those other players as well. He had more of an impact on his team than the stupid little stats you provided prove.
They are all pretty even right now (Pietrangelo might actually be the worst of the four at this precise moment), but if I had to pick one for my team going forward, I'd take Pietrangelo. After him, I'd take Doughty, then Karlsson, and finally Letang in that order.
Based on this past (regular) season alone, I'm going to have to go with:
1. Karlsson-MVP of his team, resurrected a few careers, and had a pretty historic season; won the Norris.
2. Pietrangelo-MVP of his team, all situation defenseman and one of the most complete young defenseman in the game. Not enough Norris votes...many sleepless nights.
3. Letang-Lost in the dust of Karlsson's 78 point swiffer sweeping season, underrated offensive abilities and a bright spot on a team with a d corps in transition. Can't ignore the offensive personnel of the team; even if Letang is out for the year, I think Pens make the post season. Unfortunate concussions, great puck mover.
4. Doughty-Underwhelming throughout the season, Kings were a mess, contract dispute loomed. Quick is the MVP of the team, no thanks to nearly anyone else. Pissed you off watching a guy with near limitless potential play average for most of the season.
Playoffs:
1. Doughty-Took a steaming **** all over opposing forwards in every round. Good stats, even better physical, defensive play.
2. Pietrangelo-Second by default (round 2...shameless I know), was a huge catalyst on the back end against the Sharks. Andy McDonald MVP of round 1 with Pietrangelo as next best player. Big minutes in playoffs, tough time adjusting to King's aggressiveness, no options up front (every forward except Sobotka and McDonald were junk), goes down with injury, team slides into full blown mockery.
3. Karlsson-Weak stat line, big minutes against a deep Ranger team that focused on shutting him down. Letang outpointed EK, but Ottawa as a whole gets brownie points for not being downright shameful on the back end and taking a far deeper team to 7 games.
4. Letang-bipolar performance, indicative of the entire Pens team against Flyers, good stat line, bad team defense of which he is the best defenseman. Holding personally responsible for the 6 mini strokes I suffered watching the series.
Based on this past (regular) season alone, I'm going to have to go with:
1. Karlsson-MVP of his team, resurrected a few careers, and had a pretty historic season; won the Norris.
2. Pietrangelo-MVP of his team, all situation defenseman and one of the most complete young defenseman in the game. Not enough Norris votes...many sleepless nights.
3. Letang-Lost in the dust of Karlsson's 78 point swiffer sweeping season, underrated offensive abilities and a bright spot on a team with a d corps in transition. Can't ignore the offensive personnel of the team; even if Letang is out for the year, I think Pens make the post season. Unfortunate concussions, great puck mover.
4. Doughty-Underwhelming throughout the season, Kings were a mess, contract dispute loomed. Quick is the MVP of the team, no thanks to nearly anyone else. Pissed you off watching a guy with near limitless potential play average for most of the season.
Playoffs:
1. Doughty-Took a steaming **** all over opposing forwards in every round. Good stats, even better physical, defensive play.
2. Pietrangelo-Second by default (round 2...shameless I know), was a huge catalyst on the back end against the Sharks. Andy McDonald MVP of round 1 with Pietrangelo as next best player. Big minutes in playoffs, tough time adjusting to King's aggressiveness, no options up front (every forward except Sobotka and McDonald were junk), goes down with injury, team slides into full blown mockery.
3. Karlsson-Weak stat line, big minutes against a deep Ranger team that focused on shutting him down. Letang outpointed EK, but Ottawa as a whole gets brownie points for not being downright shameful on the back end and taking a far deeper team to 7 games.
4. Letang-bipolar performance, indicative of the entire Pens team against Flyers, good stat line, bad team defense of which he is the best defenseman. Holding personally responsible for the 6 mini strokes I suffered watching the series.
1.) Doughty (Game-breaker on both ends of the puck and a proven winner)
2.) Pietrangelo (Silky smooth two-way defenseman, jack of all trades coming off an outstanding all-around season)
3.) Karlsson (Largely a one-dimensional (offensive) player. He is outstanding offensively but leaves much to be desired in the few instances where he is forced to play defense)
4.) Letang (Great defenseman and deceivingly physical, but the 3 guys ranked above him are 3 of the top 5 in the NHL. No hard feelings..)
I hate it when people say Doughty is a proven winner. A proven winner on ridiculously stacked teams. I'm not saying he was not good. No, he was outstanding but he was not the only factor.
Pietrangelo is one hell of a defenseman. Why do we always say Lidstrom is the best when Shea Weber would destroy physically Lidstrom? Because physical play do not factor into being a the #1. Pietrangelo fits the bill. Pietrangelo won't plaster a guy to the glass (he could ) but that's not what he does. He's an extremely smart player ; pokechecking, stickchecking, positional play.
Finally, Karlsson and Letang are almost similar players. They both bring the same things to the table. Only Letang is more physical and Karlsson is more gifted offensively. But they play the same way. And Karlsson is not the best defenseman for his offense but how he uses his offensive skills to steal the puck from the opposition and start offense. He is the most effective defenseman in all 3 zones. He keeps the puck out of the net by keeping it away from the opposition. Karlsson really reminds me of a Zubov. Karlsson's approach is really simple.
In the end, I think it will be Pietrangelo-Karlsson-Letang-Doughty.
However, Zubov once trailed Lidstrom as best Defenseman in the league and I think it will be the same.
I have all kinds of admiration for what Hitchcock can do for teams, especially in the early stages of his tenure.
You should too.
Hitchcock's teams consistently finish in the top 3 or top 5 in team defence in the league.
Guys like Kim Johnsson and Joni Pitkanen looked like world-beating two-way d-men under his tenure.
Yeah, I love Hitch too. One of the very best I've had the opportunity to observe closely. However, you weren't praising Hitch, you were denigrating Pietrangelo.
Did Hitchcock score those 51 pts?
Or perhaps make defensive plays look easy while holding down the top pairing with Colaiacovo as his partner?
No. No he didn't. But you would have us believe Hitchcock was out holding Pietrangelo's hand and structuring a magical game plan that would make Pietrangelo look much, much better than he really was. The funniest part is you have no idea how transparent you really are to the rest of us. You and your ilks apparent need to tear down others to "protect" Karlsson is pathetic but still has some entertainment value I'll admit. Who am I kidding? I probably wouldn't have posted today if it wasn't for you.
I hate it when people say Doughty is a proven winner. A proven winner on ridiculously stacked teams. I'm not saying he was not good. No, he was outstanding but he was not the only factor.
Stacked team or not, Doughty is only 22 and he has already won a WJC Gold in 2008, Olympic Gold in 2010 and Stanley Cup in 2012. In each of these events he was among the top defenseman and best overall players, who truly raised his game above the level of his peers.
It's one thing when a player is in the "right place, at the right time" like being a supporting player on the Edmonton dynasty, but in 2010 Doughty was 20 years old and shining on a defense-core that had future HHOFers Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and current NHL stand-outs Shea Weber and Duncan Keith. At the time we were all so amazed by how composed he looked and how unfazed he was by the immense pressure. This past season he was literally a top 3 player on the Stanley Cup winning Los Angeles Kings team behind Jonathan Quick and on par with Dustin Brown. Doughty was just so incredibly good defensively, physically and so consistent offensively.
He has the highest upside and top peak thus far of any of these young defenseman in my opinion, that's why he's #1 on my list.
These guys each bring basically as much as the others to the table. Pietrangelo's a bit safer and smarter in his own end than Karlsson (who's not bad in his own end), but doesn't produce near as much and Letang's right in between on both criteria.
Then you've got Doughty, who, when he's really on his game, is slightly better than any of these guys both ways, but isn't on his game near as often as these guys are on theirs.
Really, I think it's a complete wash between all 4 of these guys. They're equivalents, in my book.
Karlsson (am much as I hate him) and Doughty are a class obvoe the other two. Reigning Norris winner and a integral part of the current Stanley cup champions.
Then I would go with Letang, AP wouldn't produce like Letang even if he was one team with 2 of the top 5 players in the game.
Lastly and imho by a fair margin is AP. A good young defense man unfortunately him in this class is like putting a Camero amongst Italian super cars. I sometimes wish he won the Norris just so the St. Louis fans wouldn't feel the need to defend him so personally.
