Last month, Pucks and Pitchforks looked at the possibility of Sami Vatanen being a true number one defenseman in the NHL. Basically, we came to the conclusion that Vatanen can be a number one defenseman, but that he’s a much better 1B. With that said, new rankings from The Hockey News have Vatanen towards the bottom of the NHL as far as number one defensemen go.
The Devils top defenseman ranked 26th on the list. The article said something nice about Vatanen, talking about his all around worth to the team. However, when you look at some of the defensemen ranked ahead of him we have some questions.