Our multi-series Talent Tiers continues this week, with a focused shift towards the defensive depth charts for all 32 NHL teams.

If you missed last week’s kickoff analyzing the goaltending depth charts across the National Hockey League, you can check it out here. But now it’s time to break down our beloved defencemen, with thoughts for all 32 teams below:

Yost1

Anaheim Ducks (T5) — The Ducks may have one of the thinnest groups in the league, but there’s plenty to like about 24-year-old Jackson LaCombe. The two-way defender put a 43-point season together in 2024-25, but more encouragingly, the Ducks outscored opponents 56-to-51 ( 5) with LaCombe on the ice last season. For a lottery-bound team otherwise outscored 123-to-111 (-12) last year, it’s encouraging outperformance.

Boston Bruins (T3) — Boston’s eyeing not one, but two notable injury-returns on the blue line. The big one is Hampus Lindholm, whose fractured patella removed him from the lineup long-term. That put significantly more workload on star defender Charlie McAvoy, who also went on to miss 32 games last year. Boston has a robust top-four and should see improvement at the position year-over-year with a return to full health.

Buffalo Sabres (T2) — Finding areas to criticize the Buffalo Sabres organization is an easy exercise, but the one area of real strength for this team is on the blueline. Rasmus Dahlin has solidified himself as one of the best defenders in the league, and 22-year old Owen Power has already shown himself capable of anchoring a second pairing. Couple that with Bowen Byram’s likely return after his arbitration deal, and the Sabres should be able to ice three quality pairings this season – a luxury few teams around the league possess.

MacKenzie Weegar Calgary Flames

Calgary Flames (T4) — Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov and Rasmus Andersson were once core fixtures of Calgary’s deep defensive corps. But as part of Calgary’s retooling efforts, three of the four have been moved out, and it’s fair to say Craig Conroy has not ruled out moving on from Andersson and his expiring deal this season. If Andersson exits, it’s fair to say an incredible workload burden will be placed on players like Kevin Bahl and MacKenzie Weegar to anchor Calgary’s top-four.

Carolina Hurricanes (T1) — A robust defensive team found another weapon in the form of K’Andre Miller - acquired this summer to anchor a pairing behind the venerable Jaccob Slavin. Miller spent most of last season with the Rangers in a similar situation, anchoring a quality second-pairing with Will Borgen ( 3 in even strength goal differential on the season) behind the Adam Fox pairing. Assuming Carolina’s brain trust doesn’t want to play him on his off-hand, my best guess is Miller starts the year with Jalen Chatfield or Sean Walker on the second unit.

Chicago Blackhawks (T4) — A name worth watching in Chicago? Wyatt Kaiser. In last year’s utterly futile season, Kaiser was a swiss army knife, playing well despite an unrelenting change of pair mates and forwards in front of him. But amidst the challenges, the Blackhawks played to a -1 even strength goal differential in the entirety of Kaiser’s minutes, juxtaposed against a staggering -55 even strength goal differential with Kaiser off the ice. With his first full season behind him, I expect Chicago to put a heavy workload on Kaiser inside of their top-four as they continue through the rebuild.

Colorado Avalanche (T1) — Colorado may have the best defensive corps in the league, and it starts and ends with two-time Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar. It feels impossible to quantify Makar’s dominance in one singular data point, but I’ll give it a go: Colorado is 97 goals better than the opposition over the last four years at even strength with Makar’s pairing on the ice.........

© TSN