Part VIII in a Series
The Norris Trophy was established in 1953 to recognize the top defenseman in the NHL “who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-around ability in the position.” Yet, with rare exception, the award over the past decade has gone almost exclusively to the defenseman who has piled up the most points that season – or at least been in the top two or three.
And Cale Makar is the exception, much like seven-time winner Nick Lidstrom, who truly excels at both ends of the rink.
Part of the reason the defensive component of the Norris has been overlooked in recent years is because it is difficult to quantify. We can see defensive positioning and posture with our eyes, but we’ve had a harder time properly quantifying it because a lot of it is influenced by overall team success or failure, including goaltending.
That’s gotten easier in the last couple of years with the emergence of fancy stats.
And to that end, we’ve been advocating for a true “defensive defenseman” trophy for years. Call it the Rod Langway Award, named after the Secretary of Defense, the only shutdown blueliner to be honored in the hallowed Hockey Hall of Fame. But that’s a campaign for another day.
The truth is, if there was a Langway Award, Carolina Hurricanes stalwart Jaccob Slavin probably would have won a couple by now.
It’s no surprise then that Slavin shined through in our Archetype Rankings as the No. 1 Shutdown Defenseman in the NHL. Slavin is such a presence in his own end that he honestly deserves consideration to fall into the Franchise Player category, since each player can only be slotted into one archetype classification bucket. Only three defensemen made the cut: Makar, Roman Josi and Victor Hedman – all Norris winners.
The goal of the exercise was to eliminate consideration of puck-moving ability and point production, to purely focus on defensive zone play. We defined the Shutdown Defenseman as: “Utilizing a combination of reach, awareness and skating ability, shutdown defensemen are stout on zone entries, limit time and space for the opposition and effectively limit scoring chances and extra chances.”
With that definition serving as our guiding light, and the help of five anonymous NHL front office executives, here are Daily Faceoff’s Top 20 projected Shutdown Defensemen for the 2022-23 season, with their league-wide rank from last season in these categories:
| Rank | Player | Pos | Age | Team | Total Denials | Carry Denial | DZ Deflect Turnover | DZ Pass Int | Iso xGA |
| 1 | Jacob Slavin | LD | 28 | CAR | 6 | 9 | 3 | 12 | -13.3% |
| 2 | Aaron Ekblad | RD | 26 | FLA | 12 | 1 | 91 | 57 | -12.6% |
| 3 | Charlie McAvoy | RD | 24 | BOS | 9 | 8 | 96 | 43 | -12.2% |
| 4 | Jonas Brodin | LD | 29 | MIN | 37 | 22 | 18 | 18 | -11.6% |
| 5 | Travis Sanheim | LD | 26 | PHI | 3 | 18 | 23 | 28 | -6.2% |
| 6 | Colton Parayko | RD | 29 | STL | 4 | 30 | 16 | 22 | -4.4% |
| 7 | Alex Pietrangelo | RD | 32 | VGK | 17 | 36 | 27 | 8 | +2.4% |
| 8 | MacKenzie Weegar | RD | 28 | CGY | 7 | 5 | 20 | 10 | -1.4% |
| 9 | Damon Severson | RD | 28 | NJD | 5 | 2 | 17 | 3 | +0.8% |
| 10 | Devon Toews | LD | 28 | COL | 86 | 97 | 14 | 14 | -3.7% |
| 11 | Darnell Nurse | LD | 27 | EDM | 32 | 21 | 32 | 127 | -6.5% |
| 12 | Brandon Carlo | RD | 28 | BOS | 54 | 53 | 31 | 20 | -5.1% |
| 13 | Josh Morrissey | LD | 27 | WPG | 20 | 23 | 24 | 100 | -5.3% |
| 14 | Ryan Graves | LD | 27 | NJD | 29 | 26 | 21 | 34 | -4.5% |
| 15 | Noah Hanifin | LD | 25 | CGY | 12 | 2 | 19 | 106 | -3.2% |
| 16 | Jonas Siegenthaler | LD | 25 | NJD | 52 | 16 | 6 | 74 | -15.1% |
| 17 | TJ Brodie | LD | 32 | TOR | 17 | 17 | 39 | 52 | -8.8% |
| 18 | Mattias Samuelsson | LD | 22 | BUF | 23 | 10 | 12 | 37 | -5.2% |
| 19 | Vladislav Gavrikov | LD | 26 | CBJ | 34 | 83 | 2 | 65 | +1.7% |
| 20 | Adam Larsson | RD | 29 | SEA | 10 | 19 | 29 | 77 | -0.5% |
LEGEND
Total Denials: NHL rank among defensemen in 2021-22 in total zone entry denials per game at the blue line.
Carry Denial: NHL rank among defensemen in 2021-22 in denying zone entries by forwards who were attempting to carry the puck into the zone.
DZ Deflect Turnover: NHL rank among defensemen in 2021-22 in turnovers created in the defensive zone by deflecting pucks using their stick.
DZ Pass Intercept: NHL rank among defensemen in 2021-22 in passes intercepted in the defensive zone.
Iso xGA: Percentage relative to the rest of the NHL in 2021-22 isolated expected goals against while that defenseman is on the ice. eg There is a 15.1% reduction in expected goals compared to the league average while Jonas Siegenthaler is on the ice. (Stat courtesy of HockeyViz.com).
Under Consideration (in alphabetical order): Rasmus Andersson, Erik Cernak, Ben Chiarot, Brian Dumoulin, Mattias Ekholm, Gustav Forsling, Filip Hronek, John Marino, Ryan McDonagh, Tyler Myers, Andrew Peeke, Brady Skjei, Nikita Zadorov, Artem Zub.
It’s interesting working through the exercise to see how your perception of a player might change. We probably think of Aaron Ekblad as a point-producing machine, but he leverages his skating ability, physical nature and hockey IQ to deny more carry-in attempts at the blueline than any player in the NHL. His stick may not be as elite as Slavin’s, but Ekblad’s equally adept at keeping expected goals out of the net.
We were also intrigued by the team-by-team make-up of the list. The New Jersey Devils have cornered the market on shutdown guys, with three making the list in Severson, Siegenthaler and Graves. The Flames made it a priority to add a second in Weegar, and they also had Rasmus Andersson and Nikita Zadorov receive consideration.
Daily Faceoff Archetype Rankings Series
Part I: Explainer / Franchise Players
Part II: Clutch
Part III: Distributors
Part IV: Shooter
Part V: Power Forward
Part VI: Net-Front Scorer
Part VII: Puck-Moving Defenseman
Part VIII: Shutdown Defenseman
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Up Next: Power Play Specialist
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