Six NHL defensemen not getting enough recognition for their defensive play

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle (21) looks on during warm-up before the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bell Centre.

Credit: © David Kirouac

There’s something exciting about witnessing a player break out and establish themselves as a top player in their role. Whether it’s a goal-scorer scoring at an elite rate in minimal minutes who’s finally given a chance at the top of the lineup, a feisty bottom-six forward thrown into the top six and producing more or a backup goaltender finally being given the reins and proving to be a starter, seeing any player thrive in a new role always makes for a fun watch. And it’s even more fun when you can see it coming.

One role that’s often very hard to notice a breakout for is that of the defensive defensemen. For the longest time, their success was hard to accurately quantify, largely coming down to more standard stats like time on ice or plus/minus, or maybe they just played a lot of penalty kill minutes for a long time and happened to get their moment in the playoffs for people to give them more respect. More often than not, their rise to fame would be through hearsay of the media and the fans.

Thankfully, with the stats we have access to today, it’s a lot easier to look for those types of players, if you know where to look. Luckily for you, I’m going to save you a few steps and present several defensemen who are playing excellent defensive hockey this season and are not getting the recognition that they deserve.

There are two rules I put in place for a defenseman to qualify for this list. First, he can’t already be well known for being a strong defensive defensemen. Some might be better known by their fanbases or have some draft pedigree, but they haven’t gotten the respect league-wide. For example, Alex Vlasic would be a defenseman who would have qualified for this list in seasons past, but he’s much more known now.

Second, they have to be playing tough competition. There’s a lot of defensemen who are good defensively but generally playing against bottom-six forwards, so it’s not nearly as tough to put up those numbers. The guys on my list are generally playing in the top four on their teams and shutting down tougher competition. To judge this, I used the competition percentile stat displayed on JFreshHockey‘s player cards, with the threshold being that the percentile has to be above 50%.

Simon Edvinsson (Detroit Red Wings)

Edvinsson isn’t exactly an unknown name, as he comes with draft pedigree as one of the Red Wings’ top young blueliners. The 2021 sixth-overall pick has probably been overdeveloped in the AHL, playing just 25 NHL games before the 2024-25 season, but he has a full-time spot this year and has more than lived up to the draft hype so far by already thriving in a top-four role, albeit alongside Moritz Seider.

Edvinsson’s 15 points in 36 games have certainly been solid production for a pseudo-rookie blueliner (no longer Calder eligible but only played 25 games in first two seasons), but it’s his defensive game that should be getting all the attention. Despite facing competition in the 98th percentile, he’s tied for 30th among defensemen in RAPM xGA/60 with -0.139 and tied for 21th in defensive GAR with 3.5, so he’s already up there with the best defensive defensemen in the league in his first full season and playing just like Seider did in his first season. You could attribute Edvinsson’s performance to playing with Seider, but even Seider’s numbers aren’t this good. However, the Wings should be careful about deploying him in such tough minutes, because we’ve already witnessed how that’s hampered Seider’s development.

Ryker Evans (Seattle Kraken)

Evans was the second-ever Kraken draft pick behind Matty Beniers, and while the second-round pick hasn’t exploded onto the scene like Beniers did in his rookie season, Evans has quietly improved into a big contributor on the Kraken’s blueline. While he’s moved back into a third pair role with the return of Vince Dunn, Evans proved to be a good shutdown option alongside Adam Larsson when Dunn was injured, with that duo being the best Kraken pair at suppressing chances with a 2.29 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes together.

And those results aren’t just because Evans is playing with Larsson either. Evans’ 0.7 defensive GAR leads all Kraken defensemen (although only Larsson by 0.1), but it’s his RAPM xGA/60 of -0.033 (which isolates a player’s impact from stuff like the quality of their teammates) that better displays his capabilities.

Larsson is still better and is certainly driving this pair, but Evans is still showcasing he’s more than able to defend well, even while facing competition in the 52nd percentile. He also had a 4.4 defensive GAR and -0.2 RAPM xGA/60 last season, so he’s capable of not only doing this over one season, but doing even better.

Kaiden Guhle (Montreal Canadiens)

Like Edvinsson, Guhle does have some draft pedigree that doesn’t make him as much of an unknown name like other players on this list. But also like Edvinsson, not enough people recognize the defensive impact the 2020 16th-overall pick’s had, especially on a poor defensive team like the Canadiens AND facing competition in the 95th percentile.

Guhle’s -0.025 RAPM xGA/60 doesn’t quite stand out among other defensemen in the league, but since it does isolate impacts, it at least showcases his defensive capabilities. What really jumps off the page is his 2.2 defensive GAR, which is tied for 55th in the league. When you consider the fact that there are 64 spots in the league for top-pair defensemen, that more or less equates his defensive impact to that of a top-pair defenseman.

It’s also probably not a coincidence that when Guhle missed some time in early October, the Habs were one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Lane Hutson gets the attention on Montreal’s blueline, but if Guhle continues on this developmental path, he’ll also be a key cog for them.

Johnathan Kovacevic (New Jersey Devils)

The Devils needed to improve their defensive game going into this season, especially on the blueline, and while Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon got all the headlines, Kovacevic was an acquisition I thought was a really smart one for the Devils. Long-time readers may remember when I named him as a Calder finalist for my 2022-23 analytic awards for his excellent play as a rookie on the Canadiens’ young blueline in 2022-23, and while he took a step back last season, the Devils jumped on him and he has thrived this year.

Kovacevic hasn’t just been really good defensively this season, he’s actually first in quite a few underlying numbers. That includes his RAPM xGA/60 of -0.321 and his defensive GAR of 9.4, which are not just first, but have a decent gap on the rest of the field being 0.37 less and 0.5 more, respectively. Even when he’s only playing competition in the 52% percentile, that’s still impressive.

That’s allowed the Devils to run three pairs relatively equally, with Kovacevic playing alongside Jonas Siegenthaler. Considering how much New Jersey spent on Pesce in free agency and how much he’s struggled thus far, it’s not a great look that they could have avoided that (and maybe even kept John Marino) when Kovacevic is doing what he’s doing for league minimum and only costing the Devils a fourth-round pick. He may even be the best bang-for-your-buck in the league right now.

J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)

The Lightning shocked the hockey world when they dealt Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club at the 2024 Draft, largely to make room for the recently-reacquired Ryan McDonagh. But slipping through the cracks of the headlines was one of the pieces in that Sergachev deal in Moser. He’s not only provided a larger overall impact this season than Sergachev (a 6.5 GAR for Moser vs. 5.5 for Sergachev), but he’s also proven to be a reliable top-four presence alongside either McDonagh or Victor Hedman, even without the same level of production.

Moser is currently 70th in the league in defensive GAR with 1.8 and 106th in RAPM xGA/60 with -0.035 while facing competition in the 81% percentile, proving that he’s more than capable of being in a top-four role, even on a competitive playoff team like the Lightning. That said, he never showed flashes quite like this during his time with the Arizona Coyotes, even with stats like RAPM that isolate his impact, so you do have to wonder how much his environment plays a role in that. Regardless, he’s been excellent so far in Tampa Bay, and between him, Conor Geekie and the two picks, the Lightning may have managed to win the deal while also moving on from Sergachev’s cap hit.

Cam York (Philadelphia Flyers)

York is probably the defenseman that stretches my definition of “not getting recognition,” because at this point in time, he’s playing on the Flyers’ top pair alongside Travis Sanheim, and if you’ve been paying attention to him for long enough, you’d know he’s been doing this for a few years now. In fact, in a piece I wrote nearly two years ago when talking about betting on undervalued defensive defensemen with long-term contracts, I flagged York as a good example for a defenseman who should be given that type of deal, and he’s made me look very good for believing in him then.

While York has been good for a few years now, this has been his best season yet in his own end while facing tougher competition in the 75% percentile. His 4.1 defensive GAR is 12th in the league and is a career-high, which is even more impressive when you consider that he’s played only 27 games and GAR is a cumulative stat. RAPM xGA/60 isn’t cumulative, but his -0.211 mark is still a career-high and 10th in the league.

This isn’t because York plays with Sanheim either. In fact, York’s 5v5 expected goal share jumps from 54.73% with Sanheim to 62.3% away, while Sanheim’s (don’t read this next part Team Canada) drops to 47.06% away from York. This guy is going to be a big part of the Flyers’ future, and might even be a reason why they just can’t seem to fully commit to tanking.

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