Every NHL team has a top defenseman, but are they a true No. 1 defenseman who fills the role effectively? Carol Schram organizes each squad into tiers to find out.

Earlier this week, I piggybacked off a 2018 story by The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy. He looked at the teams around the NHL at that time and wondered aloud if a squad needed a true No. 1 center to become a Stanley Cup Champion.

The correlation was pretty strong — even if categorizing which players are ‘True No. 1s’ is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Now, we'll take a look at how the No. 1 defensemen stack up.

General guidelines for a true No. 1: logs the most minutes on his team’s blueline, quarterbacks the power play, puts up big points and — usually — is a right shot. Bonus points are awarded for big hitting and shot-blocking numbers, although it's ultra-rare to find all of that in one package.

The exercise also shows how infrequently a defenseman can maintain high-level consistency, ranking among the NHL's best year after year.

They’re the three who crack the ‘Elite’ category heading into 2024-25.

Teams With Elite No. 1 Defensemen (3)

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The bar for this tier is sky-high. All three rearguards are righties who led their team in ice time last season, have won the Norris Trophy and finished in the top four in voting in 2023-24.

Makar is the only one with a Cup so far. Josi is elevated by his leadership and consistent excellence, and Fox is already at a very high level, with plenty of runway ahead.

Teams With Effective No. 1 Defensemen (9)

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It was tough not to elevate the reigning Norris winner, Hughes, and the new Cup champion, Forsling, into the top tier. But both have really been at the highest level for a relatively short time. If they can sustain their excellence, they could make the leap.

The other players on this list also have upside. But so far, other than Hughes, none has been a Norris finalist. McAvoy and Hamilton both have fourth-place finishes on their resumes.

Teams That Might Have a True No. 1 Defenseman (6)

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For the most part, these defenders are a little younger but are coming off very strong seasons. Faber’s rookie heroics in Minnesota have been well documented, while Bouchard and Dobson both took giant leaps forward in 2023-24.

Seider, the 2022 Calder Trophy winner, is a model of reliability who hasn’t missed a single NHL game despite his high hit and blocked-shot numbers. He’s already averaging nearly 23 minutes a night.

And Weegar’s a fascinating case — a 30-year-old who ripped off 20 goals out of the blue last season as much of Calgary’s defense corps was traded away around him. Rasmus Andersson actually played a bit more, but like Seider, Weegar doesn’t shirk the physical aspect of his position. Now, he's putting up significant points as well.

After a 64-point campaign in 2022-23, Dunn’s ascent to true No. 1 status was slowed last season, as injuries limited him to just 59 games.

Teams That Should Have a No. 1 Defenseman Coming (5)

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This tier is home to players with promise who haven’t taken the next step quite yet.

The rookies in Anaheim and Chicago showed promise last season, and there has been a bit of a changing of the guard in Ottawa, where Jake Sanderson logged more ice time per game and produced more points than Thomas Chabot, in just his second NHL season. Chabot averaged more points per game in his 51 games played, but it's worth following next season how the team uses each player.

In Philadelphia, Travis Sanheim logged more minutes and posted more points than York. But the gap between the two is narrowing, and York has more upside.

Durzi led the Arizona Coyotes’ blueline last season, and he’s a righty. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be supplanted by the highly pedigreed new arrival, Sergachev.

Teams That Might Need a No. 1 Defenseman Soon (6)

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This tier of true, effective No. 1 D-men is where we see how dramatically the blueline landscape is changing around the NHL. 

Hedman and Doughty each have two Cup rings and a Norris Trophy, Letang has three championships, and Pietrangelo has two, while Carlson has one. Burns and Karlsson don’t have Cups but do have Norris nods — three of them, in Karlsson’s case.

They’re not quite the game-changers that they used to be but are all still effective, for now. For the most part, they won’t be going anywhere for a while, either. Only Burns, who turns 40 next March, is going into the last year of his deal.

Teams That Need a No. 1 Defenseman Now (3)

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It’s still too early to anoint Kaiden Guhle or Lane Hutson as blueline saviors in Montreal. Mario Ferraro looks set to continue in the No. 1 role by default in San Jose, and the Blues are now leaning on 31-year-old Colton Parayko in their top slot. He’s a good skater and a big body who isn’t afraid to block shots, but his production has topped out at 35 points throughout his career. 

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