Blue Line Buzz: Guardians of the Galaxy

It's past the quarter-way mark in the NHL season and the league standings and scoring race are starting to take shape. Sure, some players and certain teams are due for a regression, but there's a good chance that, for example, Mark Giordano will finish in the top 10 in scoring among defensemen and that Justin Faulk's plus-minus will be horrendous no matter how many points he scores.

Without further ado, here are your top performing, surprising, and disappointing defensemen thus far in the 2014-15 fantasy hockey season.

The Guardians of the Galaxy
The league's biggest hits

Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames

The heads-on favorite to win the Norris Trophy thus far, Giordano leads all defenseman with 28 points, six more than the next highest total, has a second-best plus-17 rating, and averages over 24 minutes per game. Statistically, Giordano's numbers are outstanding, but more importantly, the Flames sit third in the tough Pacific Division. Make no mistake, while T.J. Brodie has been outstanding in his own right, Giordano is the superior player. Among defensemen who have played at least 20 games, Giordano (1070) and Brodie's (1078) PDO place third and second in the league, respectively, which means a regression will be in order, and further, no Calgary defenseman currently has a positive on-ice Corsi. But still, even if Giordano's PDO regresses to a level below 1000, he's still a top-notch defenseman. He posted 47 points in 64 games last year with a PDO of 994.

(For the uninitiated: PDO, roughly speaking, is a measure of luck. It's a simple advanced stat, as far as advanced stats go. Quite simply, it's the sum of a team's save percentage and shooting percentage. It's often argued that hockey (and most other head-to-head sports) is a zero sum game, with a winner and loser declared every time. Since each shot attempt is either a goal or a save, in a perfect world a team's PDO should be 1.000. Last year, the Oilers' save percentage was an abysmal .887, and combined with their below-average shooting percentage of .076, produced a PDO of .963. Since the Oilers' PDO is furthest from 1.000 of all 30 teams, it indicates that the team suffered extraordinary bad luck. It's one reason why everyone thought the Oilers would really make strides this year. Of course, the inherent flaw in statistics is that there's no telling when a trend will buck and what other factors - say, owner Darryl Katz's insistence the team draft Nail Yakupov over a much-needed defenseman in Ryan Murray - may affect on-ice play.)

Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning

A broken hand forced him to miss a month's worth of games, but Hedman is the only other defenseman in the league scoring points at the same pace as Giordano. In the long run, Giordano will still outscore Hedman by virtue of being a better skater and offensive defenseman, but Hedman's game is still very fluid, which is a boon to the Lightning's talented offensive forwards. Since the shortened lockout season, Hedman has scored 85 points in 129 games, including 55 in 75 games last year and 10 in 10 games this year. It took awhile for the second overall pick in 2009 to get there, but Hedman is an elite defenseman.

Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators

Entering his sixth NHL season, we all know what the Senators captain can offer: explosive acceleration with top-notch speed and elite offensive talent combined with an aggressive decision-making ability that can lead to defensive lapses. And he's coming every bit as advertised. Karlsson's 20 points is sixth in the league and his 13 power play points are second, but among the league's top 15 scoring defenseman, Karlsson's minus-10 rating is the worst. He is, however, the Sens' best player and the engine that drives the offense, and Karlsson's 104 shots on net ranks fifth overall in the league, on pace to finish with 315 shots on net after finishing 15th last year with 257. His offensive ceiling is the highest among the league's defenseman, but unfortunately he doesn't play on an elite team, so you take the bad with the really good.

Kevin Shattenkirk, St. Louis Blues

"Shatty" was always an elite offensive defenseman, a three-year standout with Boston U who then broke out with 26 points in 46 games with the Avs in his rookie season. He's been outstanding since coming over to St. Louis, scoring 150 points in 263 games (0.57 ppg), compared to Alex Pietrangelo, who has 186 points in 332 games (0.56 ppg) and was probably drafted at least five rounds earlier. There's no real reason to believe Shattenkirk will cool off anytime soon and given how the Blues' power play is ranked 17th in the league, it's conceivable that his production will trend upwards.

Tyson Barrie, Colorado Avalanche

A third-round pick from 2009, Barrie is another offensive defenseman whose current production shouldn't be surprising. After all, Barrie did score 13 goals in 64 games last year and had consistently proven that he could score in the AHL prior to that. The Kelowna Rockets can add Barrie to their long list of elite defensemen they've graduated into the NHL. The Avs are struggling, which is surprising to no one, but Barrie is doing his best to keep the puck in the offensive zone. His 20 points ranks seventh in the league.

Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins

He's been hobbled by various ailments and injuries over the past four seasons and it's unlikely Letang will ever remain healthy for a full season, but when he does play he's the Pens' No. 1 guy. Teammates will always benefit when they play alongside Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, as Letang often does on the power play, which is unsurprisingly ranked first in the league. Letang was good under Dan Bylsma, but Mike Johnston really likes generating offense from his defensemen, going back to his days with the WHL's Portland Winterhawks, so the 27-year-old may have even better seasons to come. He just needs to stay healthy.

Age of Extinction
Big names and big noise but ultimately generating little fanfare

P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens

The team is doing well and Subban is still one of the most dangerous players on the ice, but his knack for coughing up the puck - 33 giveaways, fourth-worst in the league - and Marc Bergevin's insistence on collecting more veteran defensemen worries me. Subban's seven goals is tied for second among defensemen, but his 18 points in 29 games is far off his usual pace, even though his shooting percentage is more than double his career average. The worst part is that Subban has just three points on the power play (16.7% of his total) compared to 23 (43.3% of his total) last year. Subban and Karlsson were the two premier defensemen coming into this fantasy season and only one of them has really delivered.

Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues

The Blues' best all-round defenseman is on pace to finish with around 40 points this season when most were expecting him to be closer to 60. His totals so far this season - 14 points in 27 games and a minus-7 rating - aren't very good and he's been usurped by Shattenkirk as the go-to Blues defenseman. Like Drew Doughty, Pietrangelo's just better at real life hockey and doesn't really bother himself with putting up numbers for couch potatoes like me.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Arizona Coyotes

OEL has been the most disappointing by far, posting just 12 points in 28 games with an atrocious minus-14 rating. Last year, the 23-year-old Swede came into his own with 44 points in 80 games, lending further belief to the idea that the Coyotes would part with Keith Yandle. On the surface, OEL is doing everything right - he's shooting the puck a lot, he's playing a lot of minutes and he's still scoring at a good clip on the power play - but Mike Smith is making the entire team look terrible and OEL's 952 PDO suggests that he's been having some terrible, terrible luck. He is still, in my mind, Arizona's best player so his luck should turn around soon.

Justin Faulk, Carolina Hurricanes

Like OEL, Faulk doesn't get much to work with playing on one of the league's weaker teams, especially one that has been riddled with injuries to its star players. On a better team Faulk could be putting up more points, but as it stands he has just 15 (still a respectable total) and the ultimate poison pill is his minus-15 rating. Faulk's good, but not Karlsson-level good, so it's hard to justify having Faulk unless plus-minus is irrelevant to you. Unfortunately in most leagues it remains a standard category.

Christian Ehrhoff, Pittsburgh Penguins / Alexander Edler, Vancouver Canucks

The two former teammates who were pegged to bounce back from subpar seasons are in a similar boat. For Ehrhoff, after escaping Buffalo, going to Pittsburgh was supposed to help elevate his offensive game, but instead he's on pace to finish with less than 30 points, and this is with the team's highest PDO at 1069. Edler is playing much better under Willie Desjardins, but it's just not showing with nine points in 28 games. Despite possessing all-world talent, Edler has yet to break the 50-point barrier in his career. Edler still leads all Canucks defensemen in scoring but the team itself isn't generating much production from its back end despite having a roster full of good skaters and good shooters.

Nightcrawler
The hits that come out from left field

T.J. Brodie, Calgary Flames

Brodie made strides last season and was given praise last year but no one thought the former fourth-round pick would sit fifth in league scoring and enter the Norris Trophy conversation. Let's not take anything away with how well he's playing, but let's also not get ahead of ourselves. It's difficult to believe Brodie will finish in the top 10 in scoring among defensemen.

Anton Stralman, Tampa Bay Lightning

He couldn't really latch on in Toronto when plugs like Jeff Finger were getting regular minutes. He was swapped for draft picks twice in the summer of 2009 and despite two moderately successful seasons with Columbus was released as a free agent. He couldn't even crack the Devils lineup that featured a bunch of molasses-footed greybeard defensemen, and was forced to latch on with the Rangers on a one-year contract and was only re-signed after being awarded in arbitration. Then, the Lightning swoop in with a $22.5 million offer for a largely unproven product, and suddenly Stralman's become a legitimate top-four defenseman. He's got 13 points in 28 games with a plus-17 rating.

Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers

Yeah, okay, he was the first overall pick, but 18-year-old defensemen don't usually lead their team in scoring. With 17 points in 25 games Ekblad is 16th in scoring among defensemen. He's been Florida's best defender and most consistent point producer. Brian Campbell quarterbacks the power play, but has 10 fewer points and taken 14 fewer shots. The Panthers have taken a defenseman first overall just one other time - in 1994 with Ed Jovanovski - and that turned out pretty well, too.

Recent Transactions

- With the Pens suffering a rash of injuries up front, they acquired depth forward Rob Klinkhammer from the Coyotes for defenseman Philip Samuelsson, who was drafted in the second round in 2009 and will join his brother Henrik in Arizona. The Pens' prospects on defense are deep, so they could afford to trade Philip, who had yet to make a lasting impression in the pros.

- Alec Martinez re-signed with the Kings with a $24 million extension over six years with a manageable cap number of $4 million. It's the going rate for a top-four defensemen these days and is comparable to the one Jake Muzzin signed ($20 million over five years), but you wonder how the Kings can keep signing guys to these kind of contracts with their cap crunch. Only when Slava Voynov was suspended were they able to be cap compliant with a full roster, and as it stands only have around $9 million to fill out the rest of the roster.

- Controversy seems to follow Anthony DeAngelo (once suspended by his own team for insensitive comments) wherever he goes, but there's no denying that he's one of the best offensive defensemen in recent years. The 19th overall pick from the 2014 draft, DeAngelo recently inked his entry-level contract with the Lightning, a team that has shown an ability to draft and develop prospects under Steve Yzerman. Though undersized, DeAngelo is a right-hand shot and certainly a player to keep an eye on in the coming years. He scored 71 points in 51 games for the Sarnia Sting last year and has 32 points in 25 games this year. He's also expected to play a huge role for Team USA at the upcoming World Junior Championships.

- It just doesn't end for the Ducks. After acquiring Eric Brewer from the Lightning, the Ducks lost him to the infirmary after blocking a shot. In an effort to further shore up the blue line, a recurring theme for the Ducks and the entire league this year with defensemen in high demand, Jesse Blacker was traded to Florida for Colby Robak. Robak is bigger, more polished and more experienced than Blacker, though neither player, both former second-round picks, have managed to stick in the pros. It's considered a depth trade, but Robak, a former standout in the WHL and capable AHL player, has the potential to provide some more value for the Ducks.