Hockey Pool Tips: Top 60 Defenseman

In our first piece of our 2012-2013 Hockey Pool Tips series we looked at the top 150 point producers from the 2011-12 season.  Our next installment concentrates on the top scoring defensmen from the past season.  Picking a solid point producing defenseman in the later rounds of your hockey pool draft can pay big dividends.

Hockey Pool Tip:  When researching defensemen for your hockey pool, be sure to look at their point production over a three year aggregate.  By doing this, you have a better understanding of the more consistent point producing defensemen that are out there.  Erik Karlsson was nearly a PPG (Point per Game) defenseman for the Ottawa Senators when he registered 78 points in 82 games last season.  However he recorded 45 points in the season before signalling an increase of  73% over the previous year.  You know that he will not have that same type of increase this year but could potentially still be good for 60-70 points which is exceptional for a defenseman in this day and age.

Hockey Pool Tips:  Top 60 Defenseman

Here is a look at the top 60 point producing defenseman from 2011-2012.

# Player Team Pos GP G A P +/- PIM
1 Erik Karlsson OTT D 81 19 59 78 16 42
2 Dustin Byfuglien WPG D 66 12 41 53 -8 72
3 Brian Campbell FLA D 82 4 49 53 -9 6
4 Zdeno Chara BOS D 79 12 40 52 33 86
5 Alex Pietrangelo STL D 81 12 39 51 16 36
6 Shea Weber NSH D 78 19 30 49 21 46
7 Alexander Edler VAN D 82 11 38 49 0 34
8 Dan Boyle SJS D 81 9 39 48 10 57
9 Mark Streit NYI D 82 7 40 47 -27 46
10 Dennis Wideman WSH D 82 11 35 46 -8 46
11 Ryan Suter NSH D 79 7 39 46 15 30
12 Dion Phaneuf TOR D 82 12 32 44 -10 92
13 Kevin Bieksa VAN D 78 8 36 44 12 94
14 Keith Yandle PHX D 82 11 32 43 5 51
15 Kevin Shattenkirk STL D 81 9 34 43 20 60
16 Kimmo Timonen PHI D 76 4 39 43 8 46
17 Kris Letang PIT D 51 10 32 42 21 34
18 Michael Del Zotto NYR D 77 10 31 41 20 36
19 Duncan Keith CHI D 74 4 36 40 15 42
20 Jack Johnson LAK, CBJ D 82 12 26 38 -7 39
21 Matt Carle PHI D 82 4 34 38 4 36
22 Brent Burns SJS D 81 11 26 37 8 34
23 Sergei Gonchar OTT D 74 5 32 37 -4 55
24 Dan Hamhuis VAN D 82 4 33 37 29 46
25 Nick Leddy CHI D 82 3 34 37 -12 10
26 Niklas Kronwall DET D 82 15 21 36 -2 38
27 Drew Doughty LAK D 77 10 26 36 -2 69
28 P.K. Subban MTL D 81 7 29 36 9 119
29 Nicklas Lidstrom DET D 70 11 23 34 21 28
30 Brent Seabrook CHI D 78 9 25 34 21 22
31 Jason Garrison FLA D 77 16 17 33 6 32
32 Tobias Enstrom WPG D 62 6 27 33 6 38
33 Oliver Ekman-Larsson PHX D 82 13 19 32 0 32
34 John Carlson WSH D 82 9 23 32 -15 22
35 Ryan McDonagh NYR D 82 7 25 32 25 44
36 Ian White DET D 77 7 25 32 23 22
37 Nikita Nikitin STL, CBJ D 61 7 25 32 -10 18
38 Filip Kuba OTT D 73 6 26 32 26 26
39 Christian Ehrhoff BUF D 66 5 27 32 -2 47
40 Tomas Kaberle CAR, MTL D 72 3 28 31 -18 12
41 Alex Goligoski DAL D 71 9 21 30 0 16
42 Jake Gardiner TOR D 75 7 23 30 -2 18
43 Zach Bogosian WPG D 65 5 25 30 -3 71
44 Dan Girardi NYR D 82 5 24 29 13 20
45 Jay Bouwmeester CGY D 82 5 24 29 -21 26
46 Cam Fowler ANA D 82 5 24 29 -28 18
47 Dmitry Kulikov FLA D 58 4 24 28 -5 36
48 Mark Giordano CGY D 61 9 18 27 0 75
49 Jamie McBain CAR D 76 8 19 27 -7 4
50 John-Michael Liles TOR D 66 7 20 27 -14 20
51 Lubomir Visnovsky ANA D 68 6 21 27 7 47
52 James Wisniewski CBJ D 48 6 21 27 -13 37
53 Paul Martin PIT D 73 2 25 27 9 18
54 Kyle Quincey COL, DET D 72 7 19 26 -1 89
55 Fedor Tyutin CBJ D 66 5 21 26 -21 49
56 Erik Johnson COL D 73 4 22 26 -7 26
57 Sami Salo VAN D 69 9 16 25 7 10
58 Andrej Meszaros PHI D 62 7 18 25 6 38
59 Trevor Daley DAL D 79 4 21 25 3 42
60 Joe Corvo BOS D 75 4 21 25 10 13

Picking defensemen can be tricky, be sure to do your research and select a strong D-man with a late round pick.  Notable defensemen that have changed teams in the off season include:

  • Ryan Suter – from Nashville to Minnesota
  • Matt Carle – from Philadelphia to Tampa Bay
  • Lubomir Visnovski – (pending) from Anaheim to Long Island
  • Jason Garrison – from Florida to Vancouver
  • Sheldon Souray – from Dallas to Anaheim
  • Sami Salo – from Vancouver to Tampa Bay