Penguins Update: No Defense Part II

As I was about to respond to a comment to my last article by Other Rick about the state of our defense, I decided to delve into the blue-line makeup of recent Stanley Cup winners as a way of demonstrating what an effective, balanced defense should look like. After all, if anyone should know a thing or two about constructing a defense, it’s teams that have hoisted Lord Stanley’s chalice.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Or in this case, a series of tables. I’ve listed the top six defensemen for each of the past four Cup champions, along with their height and weight and a brief description of each player’s basic attributes.

To absolutely no surprise (or at least not mine), none of these defensive corps bear even a passing resemblance to our current mix of rearguards.

Without further ado, here goes:

2023-24 PANTHERS

Player	Ht./Wt.	Attributes
Forsling	6’0″ 186	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Montour	6’0″ 194	Puck-mover, all-arounder, physical
Ekblad	6’4″ 215	Puck-mover, all-arounder, physical
Ekman-Larsson	6’2″ 200	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Mikkola	6’4″ 209	Stay-at-home, physical
Kulikov	6’1″ 201	Stay-at-home, physical

 

2022-23 GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Player	Ht./Wt.	Attributes
Theodore	6’2″ 197	Puck-mover
Pietrangelo	6’3″ 215	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Whitecloud	6’2″ 207	All-arounder
Martinez	6’1″ 210	Stay-at-home
Hague	6’6″ 230	Stay-at-home, physical
McNabb	6’4″ 215	Stay-at-home, physical

 

2021-22 AVALANCHE

Player	Ht./Wt.	Attributes
Makar	5’11” 187	Norris Trophy puck-mover
Toews	6’1″ 191	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Byram	6’1″ 190	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Manson	6’3″ 218	Stay-at-home, physical
Johnson, Erik	6’4″ 225	Stay-at-home, physical
Johnson, Jack	6’1″ 227	Stay-at-home

 

2020-21 LIGHTNING

Player	Ht./Wt.	Attributes
Hedman	6’7″ 244	Norris Trophy puck-mover, all-arounder
Sergachev	6’1″ 217	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Cernák	6’4″ 224	Puck-mover, all-arounder, physical
McDonagh	6’1″ 215	All-arounder
Savard	6’1″ 235	Stay-at-home, physical
Rutta	6’3″ 204	Stay-at-home, physical

 

The trend continued back through the ’19-20 Lightning, the ’18-19 Blues and the ’17-18 Caps. The Blues in particular boasted a HUGE, physical defense that featured the likes of Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko (6’6” 228), Jay Bouwmeester (6’4” 206), Joel Edmundson (6’5” 221) and ex-Pen Robert Bortuzzo (6’4” 216).

Okay, now compare these groups with what figures to be our top-six this season.

2024-25 PENGUINS (PROJECTED)

Player	Ht./Wt.	Attributes
Karlsson	6’0″ 190	Norris Trophy puck-mover
Letang	6’0″ 201	Puck-mover, physical
Pettersson	6’3″ 177	All-arounder, physical
Graves	6’5″ 220	All-arounder
Grzelcyk	5’10” 176	Puck-mover, all-arounder
Aho	5’10” 186	Puck-mover

 

You’ll notice immediately that as a collective we’re almost totally bereft of a stay-at-home presence, not to mention size and physicality. (Frankly, it was a stretch to list Letang and Pettersson as physical players.)

Although the imbalances in our defensive makeup would improve slightly if 6-foot-3, 200-pound Jack St. Ivany (stay-at-home, physical) displaces Aho, given coach Mike Sullivan’s preference for puck-movers there’s no guarantee of that happening.

In closing, I hope this provides an objective look into the shortcomings of our defense, and why I’m so critical of the way Kyle Dubas has constructed it.