Nik the Trik said:cw said:I think that's a fair statement. The closer we get the to top, the fewer candidates fit. There's only 13 or so NHL dmen who got 100 or more pts in Norris voting over the last five years.
When I was trying to place where Phaneuf fits overall right now, I kind of went through that exercise on the basis "if I had to win a game today, who would I rather have?" I found roughly 25 dmen I'd take over him and about 15 more I could debate.
It's a tough one because there is some truth to what Wilson says. Phaneuf is miscast as a #1. So it's a little tough to compare him to someone like Shattenkirk, for instance, or someone else who might be similarly miscast as a #1 but who looks terrific as his team's #2 or #3. Where would he stack against someone like Seabrook or Stralman or Ekblad, right? I don't know if we can say for sure.
It did get harder for me as I went because fairly quickly, you start to have to compare different types of dmen. A thing Phaneuf can do many of the comparable point producers cannot is play physically. It is an important consideration/talent for the blueline. So I might give him an edge for that as something he did better than some yet if we compared him to Lidstrom, that couldn't overcome what Lidstrom could do overall.