Ranking the Top Defencemen Entering NHL Free Agency in 2017
Brent Burns signed a long-term extension with the San Jose Sharks last week. It’s a big deal for the Sharks, for obvious reasons, but it also matters for those teams hoping to find a blueliner in free agency next summer. Burns was probably the top player on the market and certainly one of them; his decision to re-up with San Jose makes for a thinner field of available players.
At this early juncture, most fans probably haven’t put a lot of thought into what fits could be out there for their team when July rolls around, but it’s a given that the league’s general managers have. Good defencemen are in short supply at the best of times, and with expansion looming—at least nine teams are going to lose a defencemen—it pays to keep an eye on the horizon.
What’s out there? Read on to find out.
LD Karl Alzner
1 of 10
2016-17 stats: 21 games, two goals, four points, -1.0 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 28
Alzner routinely plays 20 minutes per game for one of the NHL’s top teams, which is a pretty impressive number given that he’s almost guaranteed to be stapled to the bench when the power-play unit finds its way to the ice.
Alzner is a classic defensive defenceman in some ways. He combines size (6’3”, 219 pounds) with brains and mobility, which makes him a hard player to beat in the defensive zone. He isn’t especially physical, but there’s upside to that, too: He doesn’t get out of position running around for the hit and generally he isn’t in the sin bin when his club desperately needs to kill a penalty.
He’s a matchup defenceman who can be safely put on the ice against any opponent and in the defensive zone, though for the best results, it’s best to pair him with a right-shooting puck-mover.
LD Brian Campbell
2 of 10
2016-17 stats: 23 games, two goals, eight points, -1.4 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 38
Campbell’s days as a big offensive producer appear to be well in the past, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still help an NHL team.
Chicago signed the veteran defenceman for a song this past summer and has done weird things with him this season—playing him on his off-side, keeping him away from hard matchups and even briefly using him as a forward. There’s value in that versatility, but it also means the Blackhawks aren’t making as much use of the player as they could be.
Campbell is a superb transition player. There’s a misguided tendency in hockey to conflate the ideas of point production and passing ability for defencemen. In reality, where passing ability tends to show up is in the shot metrics, which have almost always been good over the course of Campbell’s career. This is a player who can take the puck and quickly send his team in the right direction, which makes him valuable even in his late 30s.
LD Trevor Daley
3 of 10
2016-17 stats: 22 games, two goals, eight points, -5.6 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 33
It wasn’t all that long ago that Daley was considered more liability than asset. Chicago took him in a trade from Dallas in the summer of 2015, seemingly as a budgetary move (the Stars had taken pricey Patrick Sharp the other way). The Blackhawks didn’t play him much and then shipped him to Pittsburgh in exchange for the ghost of Rob Scuderi.
Then, in Pittsburgh, Daley suddenly became an all-situations workhorse, logging heavy minutes on both special teams and at five-on-five.
It’s reasonable to be a little suspicious of the turnaround, particularly given Daley’s age. He has legitimate ability, especially in the offensive zone, but his teams also have a fairly long record of getting out-shot when he’s on the ice. Caution is needed here.
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LD Michael Del Zotto
4 of 10
2016-17 stats: Eight games, one goal, six points, +3.8 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 27
It’s been a tough few months for Del Zotto. As CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio writes, the defenceman missed much of the early season due to a knee injury and then ran afoul of coach Dave Hakstol, leading to a three-game stint in the press box.
The shift in fortune is remarkable given that Del Zotto was averaging more than 23 minutes per night for the Flyers last season. As was the case with Trevor Daley, this sudden change in circumstance warrants some skepticism.
Del Zotto’s longer-term record suggests that he lacks dimension at the NHL level. Hakstol told Panaccio that Del Zotto needed to “clean up” his play in the defensive zone, and that’s a familiar refrain for this player. Nevertheless, he’s legitimately gifted with the puck and that shows up both in his club’s possession numbers and in his career point totals. There’s nothing wrong with being an offensive specialist.
RD Cody Franson
5 of 10
2016-17 stats: 21 games, one goal, six points, +1.5 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 29
Franson is one of the more underrated players on this list, something which is a byproduct of both playing for a lot of poor teams over the course of his career and currently playing for a Sabres club loaded with other right-shooting options.
Both are key items to consider when looking at this player’s power-play production. He has a long history of being effective with the man advantage, but with Rasmus Ristolainen also on the team, he’s been reduced to a bit role on the power play—a power play which lacks the kind of scoring forwards necessary for any defenceman to produce.
He isn’t a special player at even-strength, where his lack of foot speed sometimes gets him into trouble, but his teams have been consistently better with him on the ice than on the bench over his NHL career. By goals or shots, he’s been pretty much a break-even player all down the line, which is quite an achievement for a skater who has spent so many years with underwhelming teams.
LD Dmitry Kulikov
6 of 10
2016-17 stats: 12 games, zero goals, zero points, 0.3 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 26
Kulikov has been and out of the lineup due to injury this season, making it difficult to get a firm read on him. He’s also played in differing situations over the last few years, sometimes as the partner to a marquee talent on an offensive pairing (as he was with Aaron Ekblad last season) or as a key figure in a matchup pairing.
Pegged as a dynamic offensive defenceman back in his junior days, he hasn’t really been a scorer at the NHL level. He’s certainly competent with the puck and teams keep using him on the man advantage, but he has yet to put up a 50-point season. Defensively, he’s hurt by a lack of strength and reach; at 6’1”, 204 pounds, he’s undersized for his position.
Nevertheless, he is a useful player. He can do a little bit of everything, and while the shot metrics suggest he’s a better fit on the second pairing than the top unit, his versatility makes it easy for coaches to bump him up the depth chart.
LD Andrei Markov
7 of 10
2016-17 stats: 22 games, two goals, 17 points
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 38
A half-decade ago, it was hard to imagine Markov even being in the league at 38. Between 2009 and 2012, he played just 65 of a possible 246 games, and it looked like injury was going to cost him his career. In the four-and-a-bit seasons since, he’s missed just two games.
Instead of fading away, Markov has been remarkably resistant to erosion as he closes in on his 40th birthday. He’s averaging 22 minutes per game in Montreal, playing on the power play, the penalty kill and as one half of an effective two-way pairing with Jeff Petry.
As with Brian Campbell, any team pursuing Markov will need to weigh the risk that comes with his age. On a short-term deal, though, he can still help.
LD Kris Russell
8 of 10
2016-17 stats: 16 games, zero goals, three points, -1.5 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 30
Russell has the misfortune of being one of those players who gets dramatically different reviews depending on whether the observer believes in the new wave of hockey stats or not.
Just 5’10” and 170 pounds, Russell is fiercely competitive, winning battles he shouldn’t win and blocking shots like virtually nobody else in the game. He’s a good skater, he can pass the puck and he has decent history on both the power play and the penalty kill. He also has history playing his off-side.
Yet his teams routinely get out-shot when he’s on the ice. He’s not overly aggressive when it comes to defending the blue line, and while he can make a first pass out of the defensive end, he’s somewhat prone to just dumping the puck out when under pressure.
The combination of all those factors makes him a supremely interesting player to follow. When we took a longer look at him back in September, our conclusion was that he was a good third-pair option at evens with legitimate special teams ability.
RD Kevin Shattenkirk
9 of 10
2016-17 stats: 23 games, four goals, 15 points, +3.0 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 28
Like most offensive defencemen, Shattenkirk is a famous player.
His offensive game is easy to sell: He is the right-shot point man that absolutely every team in the league wants on its power play. Since the start of 2013-14, no defenceman in the NHL has even been close to catching him in terms of points/minute in 5-on-4 situations. The gap between Shattenkirk and second-ranked Shea Weber is basically the same size as the gap between Weber and an average No. 1 power play defender.
He probably has more to give, though. The Blues have had Alex Pietrangelo on the right side, too (and now Colton Parayko as well), and so haven’t needed to use Shattenkirk in a shutdown role very often. Yet even when he’s played with long-time St. Louis shutdown pivot David Backes in defensive situations, his shot metrics have been exceptional.
He’s young for a free agent and has great point totals, so he’s going to get paid, but weirdly enough he may not get overpaid. That’s because he’ll be sold as an offensive blueliner but there’s a really good chance that he can be an all-situations, 25-minute/game guy for whichever team he joins.
RD Michael Stone
10 of 10
2016-17 stats: 11 games, zero goals, three points, -7.2 relative Fenwick
Age (as of July 1, 2017): 27
The key complication with Stone is linemate effects. Prior to this season, where he and Alex Goligoski have been tossed to the wolves by head coach Dave Tippett, he’s generally played with either Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Keith Yandle in a less extreme role. That’s a place where it’s easy to look decent.
When we look at Ekman-Larsson’s partners over the last few years, Stone doesn’t stand out in a particularly good way. His shot metrics are a touch better than Zbynek Michalek, but Michalek had tougher minutes and was in the twilight of his career anyway. Ditto for Connor Murphy, save that Murphy was in the infancy of his career.
What works in Stone’s favour is that he’s a right shot with some versatility. He has good size (6’3”, 210 pounds) and has been used on the penalty kill; he can also play on the power play and had 36 points last season. He’s also young for a free agent.
Statistical information courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com. Contract information via CapFriendly.com.
Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.
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