Philadelphia Flyers: Does Broad Street Have the Best Defense in the NHL?

The Philadelphia Flyers took advantage of their stellar defense to carry them to a surprise Stanley Cup Finals berth in 2010.

The Flyers top four of Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle and Braydon Coburn averaged 25:51 minutes of ice time in the postseason, and it was their backbreaking work that led to the team's deep playoff run.

In the 2010 offseason, the Flyers kept that core, and added Andrej Meszaros, Sean O'Donnell and Matt Walker to help solidify the back end of the defense.

These additions to an already-stout unit has some Flyers fans pondering an intriguing possibility.  Namely, whether the Flyers have the best defensemen corps in the league.

Note that this would not mean the Flyers have the best team defense in the league. The loss of the fantastic two-way forward Simon Gagne and the questions surrounding projected starting goalie Michael Leighton will likely help keep the Flyers from leading the league in fewest goals allowed.

But do the Flyers have the best top-to-bottom assortment of defensemen in the league? Let's take a look.

Measuring the Defenses

A solid core of defensemen can be built in numerous ways. But the true elite cores have a few things in common.

First, they usually have at least one dominant defenseman that could play on the top pairing of any team. 

Second, they have depth throughout the defense. The top four is rock solid, and the third pairing is at least serviceable.

Third, the defense is not prone to injury, and has decent backups in case of disaster. While injuries are random to a degree, some players have a greater injury frequency than others. The best defenses either stay healthy, or are capable of surviving when random injuries hit.

A defense can still be considered elite even if they lack a true No. 1 defenseman. But the team would have to compensate by having almost unmatched depth throughout the top six.

The Contenders

In the 2010 offseason, numerous teams desperately searched for defensive upgrades. Despite the fact that a true No. 1 defenseman was not on the market, teams like Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Vancouver actively attempted to upgrade their cores.

Pittsburgh's projected top six was made deeper by the free agent acquisitions of Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek. Such additions keep Pittsburgh in the running for the title of best defensive core, despite its loss of the elite offensive defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

Still, neither Martin nor Michalek are true top pairing defensemen. Martin is borderline, but remains a step behind the true elites. The shot-blocking machine Michalek has been underrated most of his career, but his mediocre offensive contributions make him best suited for the second pair.

The Penguins' best hope for a true No. 1 defenseman is likely young Alex Goligoski, who quietly had a breakout season in 2009-10. He finished in the top 30 in GVT amongst defensemen last season, a new stat invented by Tom Awad from Puck Prospectus that attempts to quantify overall player performance. In addition, Goligoski was second in points amongst Penguin defenders last season, behind only Gonchar.

Still, he's not there yet. And with untested rookie Ben Lovejoy currently penciled in at the No. 6 slot, they will lack depth.

The Penguins' acquisition of Paul Martin meant that the rival New Jersey Devils lost a key member of their defense.

But like Pittsburgh, the Devils added more depth. The signings of Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder will improve their overall corps. 

However, just like the Penguins' acquisitions, neither Volchenkov nor Tallinder are true elite options. Neither has offensive upside, although both are solid stay-at-home defensemen.

Andy Greene had a monster 2009-10, and could eventually develop into a great defenseman. But he needs to prove that he can sustain his success. Colin White and Bryce Salvador are solid, and with Anssi Salmela and Mark Fraser providing depth, this is a solid core. It lacks the elite options of the top teams, but its depth probably puts the Devils slightly above Pittsburgh when comparing defenses.

Vancouver also attempted to overcome its lack of an elite No. 1 defenseman by stockpiling quality depth.

The Canucks' trade for Keith Ballard and signing of Dan Hamhuis gave them a core of six very solid defensemen in Ballard, Hamhuis, Christian Ehrhoff, Alexander Edler, Sami Salo, and Kevin Bieksa.

However, Salo will miss the first few months of the season due to injury, and Bieksa will likely be jettisoned when Salo returns for cap reasons.

As a result, the Canucks will be forced to depend on Shane O'Brien and Andrew Alberts as their sixth and seventh defensemen. Both are average, at best.

The extremely underrated Christian Ehrhoff is the best of their core, and despite a lack of media attention, is truly a borderline elite defenseman.

The Canucks, like the Devils and Penguins, are just a stone's throw away from having one of the best defensive corps in the NHL

A Stanley Cup Rematch

The Flyers, with their newly-improved defensive corps, fall in above Vancouver, New Jersey and Pittsburgh. 

Philadelphia has two elite defensemen in Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen. The Devils, Penguins, and Canucks lack even one defenseman superior to Pronger or Timonen.

Matt Carle and Braydon Coburn fill out the rest of the top-four, and both are very solid.

Andrej Meszaros brings high upside to the fifth defenseman slot, while Sean O'Donnell has been consistently above average despite his old age. The Flyers also have Matt Walker and Oskars Bartulis as decent bench options.

The Flyers' defense has the depth of New Jersey and Vancouver, but also has the true top-pairing defensemen that both teams would covet.

However, there is one team that may have the edge over the Flyers when it comes to defensemen.

That team is the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that defeated Philadelphia in the Finals in 2010.

Despite their massive cap purge of forwards, the Blackhawks' defense has stayed basically intact. They are fully aware that defense was likely the biggest reason for their Cup victory.

The combined 09-10 GVT of Chicago's projected 2010-11 top-six (59.70) is slightly superior to the Flyers' GVT (55.70). Chicago is the only team in the NHL with a higher total than the Flyers when it comes to defensemen.

In addition, the Blackhawks have a superior top four. Duncan Keith is the reigning Norris Trophy winner, and one of the few defensemen in the NHL that actually may be better than Chris Pronger. Brent Seabrook is on the level of Kimmo Timonen, and also may be a bit better.

The second pairing of Brian Campbell and Niklas Hjalmarsson is significantly better than the Flyers' Carle and Coburn.

The Flyers do have the edge in depth. 

Chicago was forced to deal Brent Sopel to fit under the cap. However, its remaining third pairing of Nick Boynton and Jordan Hendry is still serviceable. Free agent acquisition John Scott is a decent seventh defenseman as well. 

The Flyers have a superior third pairing to the Blackhawks, and more depth. But it may not be enough to make up for the gap in the teams' respective top fours.

Conclusion

Philadelphia certainly has one of the best defensive corps in all of hockey. Teams like Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Vancouver, and even previously unmentioned Detroit are looking up at the Flyers despite their strong personnel.

But the Flyers still fall short of the Blackhawks. Chicago's top defensemen are younger and better as a group than Philadelphia's top two pairings.

And while Hendry and Boynton are not on the level of Meszaros-O'Donnell, they are not scrubs. They can be counted on for decent minutes in the regular season.

Not to mention, in the postseason, teams often lean on their top defensemen, using their fifth and sixth options merely to spell the true workhorses. 

This is when Chicago's advantage over every other team in the NHL will become truly apparent, just as it did last postseason.

Yet again, the Flyers are second best.

Special thanks to Flyersfan94 on broadstreethockey.com for inspiring this topic.