Most of the best Boston Bruins teams throughout their long history have been built around an elite defenseman.
Names like Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque and Zdeno Chara immediately come to mind.
He has a long way to go, but Charlie McAvoy could someday join that group. The 2016 first-round draft pick has quickly developed into arguably the Bruins' most important player and a perennial Norris Trophy contender.
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NHL Power Rankings: Where Bruins stand in loaded Atlantic Division
McAvoy finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting in 2020-21 and fourth in 2021-22. NHL Network is in the process of unveiling its annual offseason rankings of the top players at each position, and the defensemen list was released a few days ago.
McAvoy came in at No. 5.
Here's the top 10 of NHL Network's best defensemen ranking:
- Cale Makar, COL
- Victor Hedman, TBL
- Roman Josi, NSH
- Adam Fox, NYR
- Charlie McAvoy, BOS
- Kris Letang, PIT
- Aaron Ekblad, FLA
- Devon Toews, COL
- John Carlson, WSH
- Miro Heiskanen, DAL
It's hard to argue with the top three. Makar just won the Norris Trophy, the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy with the Avalanche. Hedman is still an elite player and Josi is one of the most underrated players in the league. Josi also just finished second in Norris voting.
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Fox over McAvoy is very much debatable.
McAvoy drives puck possession, shots and goals at a higher rate during 5-on-5 action than Fox. McAvoy is a better defensive player, too, and therefore more well-rounded. Fox puts up a lot more points, but that's a bigger focus of his game. He also tallied 33 of his 74 points on the power play.
The gap between them isn't massive, though, so NHL Network putting Fox above McAvoy isn't super egregious.
The toughest challenge for the Bruins to begin the 2022-23 campaign will be overcoming the loss of McAvoy. He's expected to miss about a month of the regular season as he continues to rehab from offseason shoulder surgery. Hampus Lindholm, who's about to embark on his first full season in Boston, will need to shine in the No. 1 defenseman role to help the Bruins' weather this early stretch of injuries.
