After winning the Conn Smythe trophy last year (for the most valuable player in the playoffs), It may come as a surprise to some that Victor Hedman isn’t on this list.
TOI: 89% (17th overall)
TOI vs. Elite: 71% (19th overall)
Points: 77% (fourth overall)
Corsi For %: 61% (seventh overall)
(+/-): 94% (second overall)
Blocks: 51% (11th overall)
Hits: 37% (10th overall)
Overall score: 68%
Admittedly, I put no stock in playoff performance. For one, I can’t readily compare all the players. Not only does their sample size vary, but the Conn Smythe almost always goes to a player on the Cup-winning team. Hedman certainly deserved it, but my point is that if any of the other teams were in the finals, he wouldn’t have been considered. It was also a strange year.
That being said:
- Pietrangelo didn’t win it when St. Louis won the Cup the year before;
- Carlson didn’t win it the year before that;
- Letang didn’t win it the year before that, or the one prior.
And Hedman won the Norris in 2018. That wasn’t a fluke, of course; he is a perennial contender for the Norris. Last year he finished 3rd in Norris voting.
So while his postseason might have been perfect, his regular season was not. He was near the bottom of my sample for TOI and the absolute bottom for TOI against elite comp. In fact, there were at least 20 other defensemen in the NHL that play more minutes than he does against elite comp. And for someone to be named the best defenseman in the league, I see that as a bit of a problem.
But the Tampa Bay Lightning are so stacked they really don’t need to deploy their #1 D as heavily against elite comp. So I can’t hold that too much against him. On balance, I felt that the team success stat of (+/-) appropriately buoyed out his ice time deficiencies. And in spite of everything, his overall score was the 3rd highest.
That being said, I believe there’s one other player out there, who is right now, the very best…