You're mad at the wrong defenseman

It does not matter what team we are talking about, the wrong defenseman is probably taking the blame.

Goalies tend to be the hardest position to evaluate in the NHL because their performance can be so volatile and unpredictable.

Not only from year-to-year, but from month-to-month and even game-to-game.

Players that spent a decade in the minors can emerge out of nowhere and put together a couple of great seasons. Can’t miss top prospects fail all the time. The goalie that posts a .930 save percentage one season is likely to follow it up with a .904 mark the next season, and vice versa. There are only a handful of top-tier goalies in the league that you can really, truly count on to repeat that performance and production on a consistent basis.

Even the people that know what they are doing struggle with evaluating the position.

As fans? Media? We are all just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.

Sometimes I think the teams are as well.

Defensemen, on the other hand, tend to be the dumbest position to evaluate, mostly because we have a tendency to focus on the wrong things, value the wrong qualities and have a misguided view of what they should be doing — and are doing — on the ice.

Let’s take New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox as an example for this.

Fox has been one of the best all-around and productive defensemen in the NHL from the time he made his debut during the 2019-20 season. He won the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in just his second season in the league, and then proceeded to finish in the top-five of the voting in each of the next three seasons, including a second-place finish during the 2022-23 season.

He has been the one consistent strength on what has been a consistently poor (to downright bad) defensive team.

His individual numbers and on-ice impacts are as good as any player in the league at the position.

His contract, even at $9.5 million per season, is going to end up being a huge positive value for the Rangers under an increasing salary cap in the coming seasons. Hell, it already is and has been under the current cap.

He rules. Rangers fans should be going to bat for him at every opportunity. Many do. He is not only one of their best players, he is one of their most valuable and important players.

Despite all of this I have discovered a puzzling and baffling trend this season — there is a non-zero number of Rangers fans that are unhappy with him and his play.

Beyond that, he is facing some really bizarre criticism from the media about what he is like to play against, his durability and what the Rangers should be doing to maximize his play.

The harshest criticism, however, came in the aftermath of the 4 Nations Face-Off when former NHL defenseman Jason Demers threw out some rather damning criticism (and one bad idea). Along with arguing that the Rangers need to pair him with a bigger, stronger defenseman, he also said he has spoken to several players around the league they love playing against Fox in the playoffs. The implication being that he is soft.

Do NHL players actually believe that? They might. They probably do!

Demers played in the NHL a long time, and there is definitely an emphasis on toughness and physicality among a lot of current and former NHL players. I am not going to doubt or question what they believe or what their narrative is based on their personal experiences.

But sometimes it is just that — a narrative.

At the end of the day, professional sports is a results-driven, bottom-line business, and your successes and failures are published every day in the form of numbers and standings. That’s not to say the eye-test and personal evaluations don’t matter (they very much do). But if your narrative is correct, there should be some sort of objective measure to help back it up. It can’t just be a “trust me, bro” situation.

Maybe Fox is not an overly physical player or imposing figure.

Maybe he does not play a “playoff style” of hockey.

But do you know what happens when he is on the ice in the playoffs?

The other team does not score goals.

Do you know what else happens?

The Rangers give up fewer chances per minute when he is on the ice versus when he is off the ice.

Between the 2021 and 2023 postseasons there were more than 80 defenders that logged at least 250 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time. Fox ranked among the top-15 in both goals against per 60 minutes and overall goal-differential. In terms of suppressing chances and expected goals, no Rangers defenseman was better than him or even close to him.

Players might be enjoying playing against him, but they were having more success against other people and they were generally losing the minutes they played against him. Who cares if he didn’t leave you battered and bruised? HE BEAT YOU. That is all anybody should care about at the end of the day.

It is the same trend that happens in the regular season.

Fox simply produces positive results, both for himself and in relation to the rest of his team.

The Rangers have had — and still do have — very real defensive issues in the regular season and playoffs. But they are more “Rangers” issues than “Adam Fox” issues.

Along this same line of thought, this past week Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman had to go to bat for his top defenseman, Evan Bouchard, because of the criticism HE has faced this season.

Bouchard’s offensive numbers have not quite matched what he did a year ago, and he is the type of offensive-minded defenseman that is going to draw criticism every team he has a defensive zone lapse.

But it is the same story here as it is with Fox in New York. Bouchard is one of the bright spots on a thin defense that has too many empty spots. When he is on the ice, the Oilers do extremely well. When he is not, they do not. And contrary to what the follow-up response to that might be, it’s not all about Connor McDavid. McDavid is a SIGNIFICANTLY more productive and effective player when he is Bouchard on the ice with him than when he does not.

None of this is new. This is a common theme among defensemen and the way they play and how they go about it.

Why do we keep doing this?

Let’s talk about it.