D. Byfuglien vs S. Weber

[MT319]

Here, I comprise all my rankings for next year at the end of the season and then tweak modestly in the fall to accomadate any off-season chages etc. This is from my own personal lists I use if you want to see where I peg Byfuglien and Weber relative to others.


Top D

1.) Doughty
2.) Letang
3.) Byfuglien
4.) Visnovsky/Fowler depending on when you're looking to win
5.) Yandle
6.) Orlov
7.) Weber
8.) Keith
9.) Pietrangelo
10.) Karlsson
11.) Goligoski
12.) Subban
13.) Enstrom
14.) McBain
15.) Shattenkirk
16.) Carlson
17.) Green
18.) Streit
19.) Burns
20.) Boyle
21.) Myers
22.) E.Johnson
23.) Whitney
24.) Chara
25.) Ehrhoff
26.) J.Johnson
27.) Kulikov

If PHI were to land any sort of serious D option they would be top 15 automatic, possibly could reacquire Pitkanen to where he'd be in 10-15 range on that list. Based on how D produce the offense in front of them matters considerably and there is no such thing as beyond a 55-60 point D based solely on skill-set in the modern NHL to me. Bogosian if he ever finds himself in a better situation is top 20 and a wild card is Taormina both short an long-term as PP with Parise-Kovalchuk-Zajac (and possibly Tedenby) he could do some very serious damage from up top. This would be my 30 D.

Orlov Karlsson McBain Doughty Yandle are the top 5 in terms of raw offensive talent from the D position (Fowler and Pietrangelo are right after these 5) and Byfuglien is right there as well he just plays his own unique style of game, sort of like a "rover" (ie; pseduo-Forward/Defenseman) that no one else plays as opposed to the more traditional highly skilled offensive-defenseman (ie, Orlov, Karlsson, McBain) or highly offensive skilled all-around defenseman (ie; Doughty and Yandle) and he's got the most potent shot out of anyone in the game. I think both him and Weber are very good and even similar in alot of ways, but I think Byfuglien is just as strong if not stronger at all of Weber's assets and with 350 SOG he will never not produce below 15G-50+ regardless of his environment so he is better to me, particularlywhen tacking on the PIM's as well. ATL/WPG is an up and coming club so he is not getting his #'s inflated unlike with guys like Letang who are not more skilled than some of the other options on the list, but could very well begin to once the Kane's, Burmistrov's etc.. start to bust out in the near future so I like his upward mobility alot as well. This is how I see D in general moving forward on my end.

[Buck Fush]

If you take Buff over Weber I will laugh in your face... literally.... see you this weekend! haha

I was gonna make a snide remark about getting the last laugh, you know, since I crushed your hopes and dreams in the pool this year... but since it's your berfday tomorrow I thought I would restrain myself

[ridinryan44]

I was gonna make a snide remark about getting the last laugh, you know, since I crushed your hopes and dreams in the pool this year... but since it's your berfday tomorrow I thought I would restrain myself

hahahahahah, I was gonna say "why did you edit this thread" then I saw that you already wrote your reason... classic!