ROOS LETS LOOSE POLL: Best single seasons from young defensemen

[RizzeeDizzee]

After 2019-20, aside from COVID arguably the biggest fantasy story was the impact of young defensemen and how the NHL was seemingly poised to be dominated by a crop of young blueliners for the next decade plus. That’s where today’s poll comes in. You’ll be voting on which five of 20 young defensemen will have the highest single season point outputs by the time their careers are over. By that I don’t mean which five will have the most total points – I’m talking about who’ll rank 1-5 in best single season output (i.e., points, not points per game pace) between now and the end of their career, with the qualifiers being that each defenseman has to be 25 years old or younger as of now and have played at least one NHL game this season.

One clarification - suppose one defenseman has two or more single season totals that rank in the top five overall single season totals among these 20. If that happens, you should still vote for five players not four - just look to the next highest total. For example, if Player A had single season highs of 86 and 81 points, Player B had a single season high of 84 points, Player C had one of 80 points, Player D had one of 79 points, and Player E had one of 77 points, with those being the top six single season outputs of any of these 20 choices. Even though player A had two of the top five totals and Player E's best only stood sixth, you still should vote for players A, B, C, D, and E, as it's the top five single season totals from unique players that count.

As always, when casting your vote please post in this thread who you voted for and why, as it's great food for thought for your fellow Dobberites.

[RizzeeDizzee]

My votes went to:

Bouchard - I don't think Barrie will be back, and Bouchard should leapfrog Nurse and Klefbom to be the source of blueline offense in Edmonton, which might be the best gig in all of the NHL
Dahlin - Yeah, he's looked lousy this season, but you don't do what he did as a teen without making a huge impact at some point in time
Hughes - He's so good already, the sky's the limit
Makar - Great talent on great team equals great numbers
Theodore - Vegas will have little choice but to deploy him even better given what he's showing, and he's a pure blueline scorer

[YzermansLegacy]

Makar, Hughes, Dahlin were insta-clicks for me.

Chabot gets a vote due to the wealth of talent coming up in OTT and his already high totals.

Heiskanen gets my last vote due to belief that he could put up 70 in a single season.

Could have easily replaced the last two with a couple of other options... great question as per usual Rizz!

[RizzeeDizzee]

Makar, Hughes, Dahlin were insta-clicks for me.

Chabot gets a vote due to the wealth of talent coming up in OTT and his already high totals.

Heiskanen gets my last vote due to belief that he could put up 70 in a single season.

Could have easily replaced the last two with a couple of other options... great question as per usual Rizz!

Glad you liked the poll, and I felt the same way as you in that the first three were slam dunks, which is why I made this a five choice poll. Like you I think there were a lot of options for those last two spots and seeing where people's votes go should be insightful.

[tdomshy]

Makar, Dahlin, Hughes.

The last two for me are:
Fox - unreal opportunity now that DeAngelo is gone.
Heiskanen - so much poise, already a steady real life defenceman.

[GentleYeti]

This should be revised to "best single seasons from young defensemen OTHER than Makar, Hughes, and Dahlin, to get some actual discussion flowing for who are the five in that next bracket. Just a thought

[NewStuD]

Great poll. Makar, Byram, Hughes, and Dahlin. A lot of good choices but I think one of those 4 will have two seasons in the top 5. Also pleased that 5 of my D are on the list and this might make for an easier decision to not pay Hedman for an extension next year.

[senryu]

Makar Hughes Dahlin instapicks.

Bouchard and Theodore in addition.

[Eskimo Brother]

I agree with Dahlin/Makar/Hughes being almost automatic picks here. Theodore was one of my other two, and Chabot was the last one. Being the current leader of the pack Chabot gets the default vote - bird in hand and all.

[PittsburghHustlers]

Makar, Dahlin, Hughes, Theodore and Fox for me.

[VincentVega]

Makar, Hughes, Ekblad, Dahlin and Heiskanen.

[Jasco]

Makar, hughes, chabot, byram, heiskanen

[FFleming5]

Not sure how Ty Smith isn't even mentioned in the article since he's leading rookie defensemen in scoring, and is #1 on the most recent Dobber prospect defensemen list.

[RizzeeDizzee]

Not sure how Ty Smith isn't even mentioned in the article since he's leading rookie defensemen in scoring, and is #1 on the most recent Dobber prospect defensemen list.

Yup - bad oversight on my part. As at least one commenter mentioned, and the more as I think about it, I should've excluded the "big three" of Makar, Hughes and Dahlin and seen who else would've received votes, including Smith and two others.

[TornBetween2Pucks]

I went a bit off the board. The usual three - Makar, Hughes, Dahlin. Then I've got Boqvist and Bouchard.

Boqvist reminds me a bit of a young Erik Karlsson and he's starting to find his sea-legs. He's already on the 1st PP unit in Chicago. He's not quite himself because of COVID-19 but I'm willing to say he's going to have a surprising breakout next year.

Bouchard, as mentioned earlier, is the probable top dog for the Oilers, especially on that wonderful PP. Klefbom and Nurse might be better real-life defencemen but Bouchard's skills on the PP set him apart in a points-only league.