Analyzing the Best Young Defenseman in the NHL

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The NHL is littered with young stars, as a lot of them are under the age of 25. Defensemen are no exception as they have some of the top talents in the league as well. There was a lot of talk about 2 electric young stud defenseman: Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes. They were both great in their own right but I will say that, gulp, Adam Fox was better. The Rangers’ Adam Fox came into the league this year and tore it up.

Backstory

He was drafted 66th overall in 2016 as an 18-year-old from Jerricho, New York. He played 3 years at Harvard University where he put up really good numbers. He was traded in the Dougie Hamilton trade with Carolina that netted the Flames Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm.

New York

From there he was traded for Mads Søgaard and a conditional 2nd round pick at the end of last year. He came to New York with expectations of being good, but he was often overshadowed but a new rookie, second overall draft pick Kaapo Kakko. He quickly made Rangers fans forget who Kakko was due to his stellar performance.

What Made Him Great

He was an amazing offensive producer while being well above average defensively. It’s a shame Coach Dan Quinn didn’t realize his talent, as the only reason I can see him not having major recognition is that he didn’t put up gaudy point totals even though 42 for a defenseman is great, let alone a rookie. This can be attested to him playing 2 powerplay minutes a game, which is a shame because in 140 min he had 13 points as a quarterback. The Rangers powerplay was alright at 22% but having fox could have made them better and help him with development. Although plus-minus is a very flawed stat he was +22 which is really good. He wasn’t a Corsi monster but he was at 51.7% which is good. He is only 21 years old and amazing. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him win a Norris if he ever gets recognition.

Here is a graphing credit of @JFreshHockey on twitter that shows his greatness.