{"id":806507,"date":"2026-08-08T05:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806507\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:56:17","slug":"nhl-network-top-20-defensemen-entering-2026-27-5-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806507\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Network top 20 defensemen entering 2026-27: 5 questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a refresher, here were the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/nhl-current-players-ranked-top-20-defensemen-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">top 20 defensemen last season<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>20. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brock-faber-8482122\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brock Faber<\/a>, Minnesota Wild; 19. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/lane-hutson-8483457\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lane Hutson<\/a>, Montreal Canadiens; 18. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/mikhail-sergachev-8479410\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mikhail Sergachev<\/a>, Utah Mammoth; 17. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/devon-toews-8478038\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Devon Toews<\/a>, Colorado Avalanche; 16. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/adam-fox-8479323\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Fox<\/a>, New York Rangers; 15. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/shea-theodore-8477447\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shea Theodore<\/a>, Vegas Golden Knights; 14. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/thomas-harley-8481581\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thomas Harley<\/a>, Dallas Stars; 13. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/jake-sanderson-8482105\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Sanderson<\/a>, Ottawa Senators; 12. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/gustav-forsling-8478055\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gustav Forsling<\/a>, Florida Panthers; 11. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/charlie-mcavoy-8479325\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlie McAvoy<\/a>, Boston Bruins; 10. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/evan-bouchard-8480803\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Evan Bouchard<\/a>, Edmonton Oilers; 9. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/roman-josi-8474600\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roman Josi<\/a>, Nashville Predators; 8. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/jaccob-slavin-8476958\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaccob Slavin<\/a>, Carolina Hurricanes; 7. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/rasmus-dahlin-8480839\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rasmus Dahlin<\/a>, Buffalo Sabres; 6. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/josh-morrissey-8477504\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Morrissey<\/a>, Winnipeg Jets; 5. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/victor-hedman-8475167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Hedman<\/a>, Tampa Bay Lightning; 4. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/miro-heiskanen-8480036\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miro Heiskanen<\/a>, Dallas Stars; 3. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/zach-werenski-8478460\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zach Werenski<\/a>, Columbus Blue Jackets; 2. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/quinn-hughes-8480800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quinn Hughes<\/a>, Minnesota Wild; 1. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/cale-makar-8480069\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cale Makar<\/a>, Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n<p>Which player from last season&#8217;s list will make the biggest jump?<\/p>\n<p>Lane\u00a0Hutson was ranked No. 19\u00a0on this list a year ago and is 22 years old, so he has a lot of room to jump and the potential to do it. In 2024-25, he had 66 points (six goals, 60 assists) in 82 games for the Montreal Canadiens, leading all NHL rookies in scoring, not just rookie defensemen. Last season he improved to 78 points (12 goals, 66 assists) in 82 games for Montreal. What&#8217;s next for an up-and-coming player on an up-and-coming team?\u00a0&#8212; Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a refresher, here were the top 20 defensemen last season: 20. Brock Faber, Minnesota Wild; 19. Lane&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-806507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}