Ranking Hockey Canada's Best (Part 2) Defence and Goalies
Posted 7:14 AM ET | Comments 14
This is the second part of my rankings for Canada's best hockey players by position. I posted earlier my rankings for Canada's top 32 forwards and now it's time to rank the defense and the goalies going into the 2014 olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Canada has great depth on the blueline and in my opinion a changing of the guard so to speak. With Neidermayer retired and Chris Pronger likely done there is room for new blood back there. I will now list the top 24 defencemen in Canada's depth chart remembering only 7 will go to Sochi.
1. Duncan Keith
2. Shea Weber
3. Drew Doughty
4. Kris Letang
5. Alex Pietrangelo
6. Dan Girardi
7. Brent Seabrook
8. Braydon Coburn
9. Marc Staal
10. Tyler Myers
11. Michael Del Zotto
12. P.K Subban
13. Kevin Bieksa
14. Dan Hamhuis
15. Luke Schenn
16. Brent Burns
17. Dion Phaneuf
18. Dan Boyle
19. Josh Georges
20. Mike Green
21. Jay Bouwmeester
22. Jared Cowen
23. Karl Alzner
24. Trevor Daley
Now between the pipes. I will now rank Canada's top 8 goalies going into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
1. Carey Price
2. Marc-Andre Fleury
3. Roberto Luongo
4. Cam Ward
5. Martin Brodeur
6. Braden Holtby
7. Mike Smith
8. Brian Elliot
I hope you enjoyed my rankings of Canada's top players by position. Please fell free to comment and give your own opinion. Thanks.
Canada has great depth on the blueline and in my opinion a changing of the guard so to speak. With Neidermayer retired and Chris Pronger likely done there is room for new blood back there. I will now list the top 24 defencemen in Canada's depth chart remembering only 7 will go to Sochi.
1. Duncan Keith
2. Shea Weber
3. Drew Doughty
4. Kris Letang
5. Alex Pietrangelo
6. Dan Girardi
7. Brent Seabrook
8. Braydon Coburn
9. Marc Staal
10. Tyler Myers
11. Michael Del Zotto
12. P.K Subban
13. Kevin Bieksa
14. Dan Hamhuis
15. Luke Schenn
16. Brent Burns
17. Dion Phaneuf
18. Dan Boyle
19. Josh Georges
20. Mike Green
21. Jay Bouwmeester
22. Jared Cowen
23. Karl Alzner
24. Trevor Daley
Now between the pipes. I will now rank Canada's top 8 goalies going into the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
1. Carey Price
2. Marc-Andre Fleury
3. Roberto Luongo
4. Cam Ward
5. Martin Brodeur
6. Braden Holtby
7. Mike Smith
8. Brian Elliot
I hope you enjoyed my rankings of Canada's top players by position. Please fell free to comment and give your own opinion. Thanks.
Marc-Andre Fleury??? Seriously?? Did you watch last years playoffs? I would rate Luongo and Ward well ahead of Fleury. In fact I would rank Ward 2nd overall, his numbers would be much better if he played on a better defensive team. Heck from the little I've seen of him, Corey Schneider may be better than Fleury too.
Odds are that Canada's Goalies for Sochi will be Fleury, Ward and Price. PS to BiggE, they won't put any weight into last years series with the Flyers, as there was literally no defense or goaltending in that series. Look at the rest of his body of work and you'll see that he's one of Canada's top Tenders.
I sure hope Brodeur is not #5 anymore in 2014. Hopefully a younger guy will have develop.
Travis Hamonic?
Luke Schenn at 15?!?! That's crazy
How did Cowen and Schenn make that list?! Wow
I agree with BarDownBobo, the Pens/Flyers series has no wieght on Sochi. A terrible defensive series. BiggE your biased opinion against the Pens doesn't make Fleury a bad goaltender. The only reason Fleury would start above Price is because of his experience in the Finals, and that's not Price's fault. I think Price is the best Canadian tender right now.
Braydon Coburn at number 8. You're adorable.
Schenn Shouldn't be on this list, and even though he probably would be that high, Phaneuf shouldn't be in the olympics. Both of them are way too slow for the olympic sized ice.
Holtby and Elliot ???? Laughable. Holtby has a flash of greatness and you think he can hang with the top dogs?? Elliot not as bad but even Jose Theodore would put up good numbers if he played in stl . Goalies will be Price , Ward , then whoever is hot IE: luongo, Fluery .Also bigge schneider Is American
I would rank Fleury 5th behing Luongo and Ward. Smith should be ahead of Holtby, even though I think his stats are inflated playing in PHX. Not that it matters much, but Keither should be below Doughty and Weber IMO. Coburn is waayy too high. Hamhuis should be ranked higher than Bieksa, he makes Bieksa look better than he is. Schenn shouldn't be on this list. Not a bad list outside of the Flyers homerism.