Dion Phaneuf over Norris Winner Nicklas Lidstrom: Fantasy Defensemen Rankings

Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings may have won another Norris Trophy this season as the NHL's best defenseman, but it's the Calgary Flames' young superstar Dion Phaneuf who claims the top spot in sportstwit.com's fantasy defensemen rankings.

The 23-year-old blueliner scored 17 goals and added 43 assists in 82 games for the Flames last season, moving up from No. 8 in the 2006-07 rankings.

It was Lidstrom's second straight runner-up finish in the rankings, after finishing a mere .01 of a point behind leader Sheldon Souray of the Montreal Canadiens last season. The Detroit captain claimed the top spot for the 2005-06 season.

Souray missed 56 games for his new team, the Los Angeles Kings, in 2007-08, falling all the way to No. 152 in the computer rankings.

Sergei Gonchar of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins, and Mike Green of the Washington Capitals completed the Top Five.

The Sportstwit player rankings, developed by Sportstwit editor Joe MacDonald, utilizes a computerized ranking system that evaluates players in a number of different categories. For defensemen, the categories used are games played, goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, plus/minus, shots on goal, special team points, ice time, and points per game.

Here are the Top 100 fantasy defensemen for 2007-08:

 

RNK	Player	Points	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
1	Phaneuf, Dion D CGY	86.92	82	17	43	60	182
2	Lidstrom, Nicklas D DET	82.99	76	10	60	70	40
3	Gonchar, Sergei D PIT	80.74	78	12	53	65	66
4	Chara, Zdeno D BOS	76.94	77	17	34	51	114
5	Green, Mike D WAS	74.88	82	18	38	56	62
6	Markov, Andrei D MON	74.16	82	16	42	58	63
7	Rafalski, Brian D DET	73.73	73	13	42	55	34
8	Campbell, Brian D CHI	71.52	83	8	54	62	20
9	Pronger, Chris D ANA	70.30	72	12	31	43	128
10	Streit, Mark D NYI	70.17	81	13	49	62	28
11	Jovanovski, Ed D PHO	69.77	80	12	39	51	73
12	Burns, Brent D MIN	66.97	82	15	28	43	80
13	Corvo, Joe D CAR	66.53	74	13	35	48	26
14	Kaberle, Tomas D TOR	65.71	82	8	45	53	22
15	Kubina, Pavel D TOR	64.32	72	11	29	40	116
16	Wideman, Dennis D BOS	64.05	81	13	23	36	70
17	Timonen, Kimmo D PHI	63.22	80	8	36	44	50
18	Bouwmeester, Jay D FLA	63.12	82	15	22	37	72
19	Schneider, Mathieu D ANA	62.17	65	12	27	39	50
20	Rozsival, Michal D NYR	62.15	80	13	25	38	80
21	Keith, Duncan D CHI	61.17	82	12	20	32	56
22	Whitney, Ryan D PIT	60.09	76	12	28	40	45
23	Zidlicky, Marek D MIN	59.62	79	5	38	43	63
24	Coburn, Braydon D PHI	59.53	78	9	27	36	74
25	Redden, Wade D NYR	59.29	80	6	32	38	60
26	Seabrook, Brent D CHI	59.25	82	9	23	32	90
27	Byfuglien, Dustin D CHI	58.97	67	19	17	36	59
28	Meszaros, Andrej D OTT	58.72	82	9	27	36	50
29	Visnovsky, Lubomir D EDM	58.17	82	8	33	41	34
30	Rivet, Craig D SJ	57.98	74	5	30	35	104
31	Aucoin, Adrian D CGY	57.96	76	10	25	35	37
32	Enstrom, Tobias D ATL	57.53	82	5	33	38	42
33	Kronwall, Niklas D DET	55.72	65	7	28	35	44
34	Hainsey, Ron D CLB	55.68	78	8	24	32	25
35	Spacek, Jaroslav D BUF	55.40	60	9	23	32	42
36	Robidas, Stephane D DAL	55.07	82	9	17	26	85
37	Blake, Rob D LA	54.97	71	9	22	31	98
38	Liles, John-Michael D COL	54.77	81	6	26	32	26
39	Suter, Ryan D NSH	54.44	76	7	24	31	71
40	Salei, Ruslan D COL	54.18	82	6	24	30	98
41	Martin, Paul D NJ	54.15	73	5	27	32	22
42	Morris, Derek D PHO	54.05	82	8	17	25	83
43	Zubov, Sergei D DAL	53.44	46	4	31	35	12
44	Gilbert, Tom D EDM	52.99	82	13	20	33	20
45	Salo, Sami D VAN	52.41	63	8	17	25	38
46	Jones, Randy D PHI	52.14	71	5	26	31	58
47	Girardi, Daniel D NYR	52.07	82	10	18	28	14
48	Kuba, Filip D TB	51.86	75	6	25	31	40
49	Ranger, Paul D TB	51.78	72	10	21	31	56
50	Ohlund, Mattias D VAN	51.65	53	9	15	24	79
51	Niskanen, Matt D DAL	51.32	78	7	19	26	36
52	Hamhuis, Dan D NSH	51.26	80	4	23	27	66
53	Hamrlik, Roman D MON	51.23	77	5	21	26	38
54	McCabe, Bryan D TOR	50.86	54	5	18	23	81
55	Wisniewski, James D CHI	50.61	68	7	19	26	103
56	Poti, Tom D WAS	50.29	71	2	27	29	46
57	Oduya, Johnny D NJ	50.24	75	6	20	26	46
58	Pitkanen, Joni D CAR	50.11	63	8	18	26	56
59	Johnson, Erik D STL	50.03	69	5	28	33	28
60	Ballard, Keith D FLA	49.63	82	6	15	21	85
61	Schubert, Christoph D OTT	49.40	82	8	16	24	64
62	O'Brien, Shane D TB	49.00	77	4	17	21	154
63	Lydman, Toni D BUF	48.92	82	4	22	26	74
64	Klesla, Rostislav D CLB	48.88	82	6	12	18	60
65	Johnsson, Kim D MIN	48.74	80	4	23	27	42
66	Regehr, Robyn D CGY	48.74	82	5	15	20	79
67	Edler, Alexander D VAN	48.74	75	8	12	20	42
68	Stuart, Brad D DET	48.58	72	6	17	23	69
69	Daley, Trevor D DAL	48.55	82	5	19	24	85
70	Niedermayer, Scott D ANA	48.30	48	8	17	25	16
71	Beauchemin, Francois D ANA	48.28	82	2	19	21	59
72	Ehrhoff, Christian D SJ	47.72	77	1	21	22	72
73	Tyutin, Fedor D NYR	47.58	82	5	15	20	43
74	Brewer, Eric D STL	47.01	77	1	21	22	91
75	Phillips, Chris D OTT	46.98	81	5	13	18	56
76	Gill, Hal D PIT	46.95	81	3	21	24	68
77	Vandermeer, Jim D CGY	46.13	75	3	14	17	110
78	Komisarek, Mike D MON	46.02	75	4	13	17	101
79	Montador, Steve D FLA	45.98	73	8	15	23	73
80	Weber, Shea D NSH	45.96	54	6	14	20	49
81	Boyle, Dan D TB	45.94	37	4	21	25	57
82	Finger, Jeff D TOR	45.90	72	8	11	19	40
83	Gleason, Tim D CAR	45.89	80	3	16	19	84
84	Preissing, Tom D LA	45.46	77	8	16	24	16
85	Staios, Steve D EDM	45.37	82	7	9	16	121
86	Clark, Brett D COL	45.06	57	5	16	21	33
87	Foote, Adam D COL	45.03	75	1	15	16	107
88	Hannan, Scott D COL	44.27	82	2	19	21	55
89	Huskins, Kent D ANA	44.01	76	4	15	19	59
90	Foster, Kurtis D MIN	43.93	56	7	12	19	37
91	White, Ian D TOR	43.89	81	5	16	21	44
92	Hedican, Bret D CAR	43.78	66	2	15	17	70
93	Michalek, Zbynek D PHO	43.43	75	4	13	17	34
94	Berard, Bryan D NYI	43.22	54	5	17	22	48
95	Jackman, Barret D STL	43.15	78	2	14	16	93
96	Hejda, Jan D CLB	43.12	81	0	13	13	61
97	Kaberle, Frantisek D CAR	42.84	80	0	22	22	30
98	Allen, Bryan D FLA	42.77	73	2	14	16	67
99	Bergeron, Marc-Andre D ANA	42.56	55	9	10	19	20
100	de Vries, Greg D NSH	42.37	77	4	11	15	71

In the final part of our three part series, we'll rank the top 50 fantasy goaltenders.