Travis Yost: Grading every NHL team’s blueline depth

The feature grading the positional depth of each NHL team continues this week. This time, the focus is on the blue line. The approach to grading defencemen is similar to the way we evaluate forwards. It's based on a core group of six players who play regular NHL ice-time.

Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks are in the bottom tier. Travis Yost grades every NHL team's blueline depth.  Tier 5 is in trouble for Arizona, in good for Columbus, bad for San Diego, good for Anaheim, and bad in Detroit, Calgary, Edmonton, Nashville, Winnipeg, Toronto, Boston, New York Rangers, and Chicago. Tier 4 is good, for Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Milan, the New Jersey Devils, Washington,

Philadelphia's off-season update was disappointing. Seattle's forward group is coming along well, but the overall condition of the team is grim.

Vancouver's team is weak defensively and their forwards are not very good. Dallas' team has a good group outside of Miro Heiskanen. Brett Kulak was a great addition to Edmonton's roster. Florida's defense is solid, but Aaron Ekblad is the best player on the team.  Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets are the other teams in the top 10.

The Los Angeles Kings have a better defensive team than Dallas. The emergence of Matt Roy, Mikey Anderson and Sean Durzi has helped the team.

Adam Fox is entering his fourth season in the NHL. Travis Yost is grading every NHL team's blueline depth.

John Marino played for Pittsburgh for three years in a row. New Jersey is expected to play him more this year.

Travis Yost grades every NHL team's blueline depth. Tampa Bay has confusing depth chart. Haydn Fleury and Zach Bogosian are not included. Shea Theodore has added more wins to the Vegas Golden Knights ledger than any other player. Winnipeg has a quality group with some competition on the third pairing.

Washington Capitals outscored opponents 71-41 (+30) with Nick Jensen on the ice last season. Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Nashville Predators are in the Tier 2. The public gives the edge to Carolina. It will be fascinating to see how Brent Burns fits into the Carolina's up-tempo line-up.

Minnesota has one of the deepest defensive groups in the NHL. Last year's Wild were better than their competition with Alex Goligoski deployed. Five of Minnesota's six regulars were goal-positive last season. Matt Dumba was the only one who was negative last year.

New York Islanders made a surprising move by signing Alexander Romanov. Romanova is a physical player but also has higher-end skating ability.

The Montreal Canadiens made a win-later trade for Jeff Petry. Pittsburgh was on the fringes of Tier 3.

Toronto's defensive group is solid. St. Louis' defence is weak. Travis Yost grades every NHL team's defence. He gives Toronto the highest grade. Toronto's roster doesn't include restricted free agent Rasmus Sandin.

Calgary Flames have the best defence in the NHL. Colorado Avalanche have a good defence with Nicklas Lidstrom, Erik Karlsson and Cale Makar. Nashville Predators have good defense with Ryan Sutter and Juuso Valimaki. Chris Tanev is recovering from a shoulder surgery.

Roman Josi is a good defender. Ryan McDonagh has a lot of miles on him. Nashville can ease Mcdonagh's minutes and get an even more productive player in the process.

Travis Yost grades every NHL team's blueline depth.