This all started a few nights ago when a bunch of friends and I were watching the Rangers game. One of my buddies is a HUGE Rangers fan, but doesn't play a lot of fantasy hockey. At one point in the game, he made a statement suggesting that Henrik Lundqvist is the best goaltender in the world, and if we were starting an NHL team and had the choice of Goalies, that Lundy is the goalie that you should take first. Most of the people at the table agreed with that statement, including me. One guy suggested that he would take Rask, simply because he is 5 years younger than King Henrik, which I could see.
Later, that same person suggested that Ryan McDonagh was the best all-around defensemen in the league, and if you were starting an NHL team and had a choice of D-men, he should be your first choice. That's when I said he was crazy. I said that I agree that McDonagh was a great defensemen, and I would LOVE to have him on the Oilers, and I agreed that he was the best D-men in the game we were watching (Pitt vs NYR), but I didn't think he would hit my top-5 list. He accused me of looking at this from a Fantasy Hockey perspective and not from a real life perspective; I accused him of looking at this as a HUGE Rangers fan, and not an impartial fan. Most of the guys watching the game tentatively agreed with me, but it wasn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be. We started to put together our own lists, and in the end, I agreed that McDonagh would hit my top-10 list, but not my top-5.
My list looked fairly similar to most everyone's list here.
Doughty
Weber
Karlsson
Subban
Suter Would be my top-5.
My top-10 would probably include
Keith
Pietrangelo
Hedman
OEL
McDonagh
The only reason Chara misses my list is because he is significantly north of 30. I told my buddy who started this whole conversation that I was planning on doing this, and he wanted to see the results. I told him that I expected to see McDonagh's name mentioned, but that I didn't think he would hit many of the posters here top-5 list. He was quick to throw in the disclaimer that this is a fantasy hockey site first, and a hockey site second. I told him that I would be sure to suggest that this should be taking the fantasy hockey element out of the equation, but he thought it wouldn't matter :-)
Rylant