RealGM

As per the latest Hockey News:

1. Detroit
2. Ottawa
3. San Jose
4. Anaheim
5. Minnesota
6. Dallas
7. Vancouver
8. Nashville
9. Buffalo
10. Calgary
11.Philadelphia
12. Colorado
13. St. Louis
14. Pittsburgh
15. Montreal
16. Florida
17. Los Angeles
18. Carolina
19. Boston
20. Chicago
21. New Jersey
22. Ny Rangers
23. Ny Islanders
24. Tampa Bay

25. Toronto: "No team is getting less for its money than the Leafs, who are second only to Detroit in defense spending. Bryan McCabe and Pavel Kubina have been huge disappointments. The Leafs give up the most shots per game in the NHL."

26. Washington
27. Columbus
28. Phoenix
29. Edmonton
30. Atlanta

The article is from the November issue (could've been written weeks ago). Written by Ken Campbell.

"We polled a number of pro scouts, NHL executives and analysts to come up with this list. The criteria was fairly straightforward - rating defense corps on their ability to defend (imagine that), create offense and play on both sides of special teams.
The payroll of the top six defensemen on each team was also taken into account to determine whether the team is getting good value on its blueline."

I thought that it was an interesting read. At least they're not ripping on the goaltending. We're next to Detroit for highest paid defense but the only difference is the Wings defense is amongst the best in the league and the Leafs, well, considering we give up the most shots and goals per game in the NHL, I'm actually surprised that there are several teams out there that have worse defense then Toronto

There way off on there asessment of the Bluejackets defence as they are one of the stingier ones in the entire league.

They ranked us that high?

Well they aren't anymore... Columbus has passed us, I think Washington's is better than ours and Phoenix is quietly starting to get stronger.