The NHL season is starting on October 12th. Hockey poolies are getting ready for their fantasy hockey drafts and the Hockey Fanatic is here to help. We’ve reviewed a number of data sources only to come up with our predictions for the top scoring NHL defensemen for the upcoming season.

2021-22 Predictions: Top 55 NHL Defensemen

Here is our list of whom we think that top point-producing rearguards will be this season. In case you missed our list of top forwards, you can check out our list of the top 225 NHL forwards for your Fantasy Hockey pool.

With that here is a look at our predictions for the top 55 NHL defensemen for the 2021-22 NHL season.

Player	Team	Est. Points
Cale Makar	COL	71
John Carlson	WSH	66
Morgan Rielly	TOR	60
Victor Hedman	TB	59
Quinn Hughes	VAN	58
Tyson Barrie	EDM	58
Adam Fox	NYR	57
Roman Josi	NSH	57
Dougie Hamilton	NJD	56
Darnell Nurse	EDM	56
Jakob Chychrun	ARI	55
Seth Jones	CHI	55
Charlie McAvoy	BOS	54
Kris Letang	PIT	53
Shea Theodore	VGK	52
Thomas Chabot	OTT	52
Miro Heiskanen	DAL	51
Drew Doughty	LAK	50
Aaron Ekblad	FLA	50
Alex Pietrangelo	VGK	49
Jeff Petry	MTL	48
Torey Krug	STL	48
Ryan Ellis	PHI	47
John Klingberg	DAL	44
MacKenzie Weegar	FLA	44
Jared Spurgeon	MIN	43
Samuel Girard	COL	43
Brent Burns	SJS	42
Devon Toews	COL	42
Ivan Provorov	PHI	42
Zach Werenski	CBJ	42
Alec Martinez	VGK	41
Erik Karlsson	SJS	41
Mikhail Sergachev	TBL	41
Neal Pionk	WPG	41
Mattias Ekholm	NSH	40
Tony DeAngelo	CAR	40
Oliver Ekman-Larsson	VAN	39
Shayne Gotisbehere	ARI	39
Ty Smith	NJD	39
Adam Boqvist	CBJ	38
Matt Dumba	MIN	38
Vince Dunn	SEA	38
Bowen Byram	COL	37
Evan Bouchard	EDM	37
Rasmus Dahlin	BUF	37
Brett Pesce	CAR	36
Jamie Drysdale	ANA	36
Noah Dobson	NYI	36
Colton Parayko	STL	35
Filip Hronek	DET	35
Mark Giordano	SEA	34
Nick Leddy	DET	34
Jake Muzzin	TOR	33
Jacob Slavin	CAR	32