Fantasy Hockey 2013: Draft Do-Over on Defense

By Rob Kirk on Thursday, February 7th 2013
Fantasy Hockey 2013: Draft Do-Over on Defense

In the eDraft world of fantasy draft “Do-overs” we’ll take a look at the blue line. In my season preview, I listed the following in my top five.

Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators

Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins

Shea Weber, Nashville Predators 

Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues 

Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks 

 

Honorable Mentions went to Kris Letang, Niklas Kronwall, Dustin Byfuglien, Alexander Edler and Brian Campbell.

There have been some amazing performances around the league and if we got to hit the reset button today, here’s what we would do.

 

Honorable Mention: Alex Pietrangelo, Dustin Byfuglien, Alexander Edler, Victor Hedman, Brian Campbell, Sheldon Souray

These five are just outside the top five players and have been tearing it up in their own right. The next five have been lights out though.

 

5. Kevin Shattenkirk, St. Louis Blues-The Blues are blessed to have Shattenkirk and Pietrangelo patrolling their blueline. Shattenkirk nosed out his mate to claim the fifth spot with one goal and eight assists and a plus-4 through the first nine games.

 

4. Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins-This star defenseman has recovered nicely from an injury-plagued 2012 and has posted nine points (three goals and six assists) in the Pens first 10 games. The high powered Penguins are a perfect fit for Letang's up-tempo style of play.

 

3. Tobias Enstrom, Winnipeg Jets-The Jets haven’t exactly set the world on fire to start the season, but Enstrom has been a bright spot. Usually the spotlight on the Jets’ defense is taken by his headline stealing teammate Byfuglien. Big Buff has had a nice start too, but Enstrom has been the better fantasy player with two goals and 10 assists through nine games.

 

2. Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadians-Quite possibly the best story of the young season has been the comeback of Montreal’s Russian defenseman Markov. After playing only 20 games in the past two seasons due to injury, Markov has come back with a vengeance. Four goals and five assists through the first nine games is amazing considering the amount of time spent on the shelf for Markov. Hopefully he can finish the season as well as he began it.

 

1. Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators-The reigning Norris Trophy winner seems to have picked up where he left off last season. He’ll be challenged the next two months as Ottawa must replace the leadership (and scoring) of Jason Spezza, who is out after back surgery. Through the first ten games for the Senators, Karlsson has four goals and four assists.

 

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