Brent Burns - USA TODAY Sports Images

In Part 1 of our look at some of the best fantasy blue liners from 2016-17, we were led down a winding path from Winnipeg’s brutal back end and Dustin Byfuglien’s stabilizing presence, all the way to sunny Tampa Bay where Victor Hedman transformed from potential stud, to megastar in the span of one season. Both were worthy candidates for the Erik Karlsson Trophy as the top fantasy blue liner, but this week we dig into the final two.

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Runner up…

Erik Karlsson

It seems silly to not just hand over the Erik Karlsson Trophy to…. Erik Karlsson. But despite another terrific offensive season that saw him add some peripheral category dominance, he comes up just shy.

Karlsson ranked third in scoring for blue liners this season with 71 points in 77 contests. The Senators’ captain had finished first in that category four of the last five seasons, with his injury-riddled 2012-13 campaign the only reason it wasn’t five straight.

NHL Stats – Last 5 Years

SEASON	GP	G	A	P	PntPG	+/-	PIM	Shots	SH%	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	FOW	FO%	PPTOI	%PP	%SH	TOI/G	%TOI
2016-2017	77	17	55	72	0.94	10	28	218	7.8	67	4	27	0	201	0		03:41	72.7	41.9	26:50	44.1
2015-2016	82	16	66	82	1.00	-2	50	248	6.5	84	1	26	0	175	0	0.0	04:39	92.6	27.1	28:58	47.5
2014-2015	82	21	45	66	0.80	7	42	292	7.2	93	6	30	0	89	0		04:48	83.3	10.5	27:15	44.5
2013-2014	82	20	53	73	0.89	-14	36	257	7.8	122	5	30	0	101	0		04:05	76.2	23.8	27:04	44.3
2012-2013	17	6	8	14	0.82	7	8	79	7.6	10	2	4	1	14	0		04:31	76.0	29.2	27:08	44.9
Average	82	19	55	74	0.90	2	40	264	7.3	91	4	28	0	140	0	0.0	04:20	81.0	25.5	27:31	45.1

After being snubbed for his third Norris trophy last June, for apparently not being defensive enough, the Swedish native added an element to his game that I’m not sure every fantasy GM loved, but it was a nice bonus.

Karlsson led the league in blocked shots for much of the season before finally succumbing to Kris Russell down the stretch, as Karlsson rested an injury. Karlsson had already doubled his 2014-15 total blocks in 2015-16, but tacked on another 26 this past season to truly show his dominance.

If you’re like me, you’d rather not see one of the most prized fantasy assets stepping in front of shots all game and risking injury, but what can yah do?

First Quarter Summary

GP	G	A	P	PntPG	Pace	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI	%PP	%PK	TOI/G	%TOI
22	4	13	17	0.77	63	6	10	51	19	1	4	0	67	.2727	66.8	41.3	.5000	44.4

Second Quarter Summary

GP	G	A	P	PntPG	Pace	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI	%PP	%PK	TOI/G	%TOI
18	3	14	17	0.94	77	-4	6	43	16	0	9	0	36	.8333	74.9	43.2	.3333	44.3

Third Quarter Summary

GP	G	A	P	PntPG	Pace	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI	%PP	%PK	TOI/G	%TOI
21	3	18	21	1.00	82	1	2	60	19	1	7	0	59	.8571	72.5	42.0	.3333	43.4

Fourth Quarter Summary

GP	G	A	P	PntPG	Pace	+/-	PIM	Shots	HITS	PPG	PPP	SHG	BLKS	PPTOI	%PP	%PK	TOI/G	%TOI
16	7	10	17	1.06	87	7	10	64	13	2	7	0	39	.2500	78.1	40.5	.1250	44.3

The 26-year-old got incrementally better as the year went on and has transferred that level of play in carrying the Senators into the Eastern Conference finals of the playoffs. He continues to be the most valuable fantasy defender as his age and skill level act as the most desirable package.

While Karlsson comes up just short this season, his awe-inspiring talents are recognized far and wide. Consider yourself fortunate to be able to witness the tremendous skating stride, the incredible vision, mile-long saucer passes and bushels of points for many more years to come.

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The Champ is Here…!

Brent Burns

There’s lifestyle beards and then there’s Brent Burns. This guy could absolutely do no wrong through the first three-quarters of 2016-17. On February 25, the 32-year-old was sitting third in NHL scoring with 65 points in 61 games and looked like a lock to be named the Norris winner, a Hart finalist and most important of all, the 2016-17 EK Trophy winner as the top fantasy defender.

However, the back stretch of games was not so kind to the tattooed behemoth and opened the door to some fiery competition for this prestigious award. Burns sputtered his way to just two goals and 11 points in the final 21 contests. It was that recency bias that likely led to his name being left off the Hart trophy finalist group.

📢 advertisement:

He did get a nod for the Ted Lindsay Award for most valuable player as voted on by his peers – a more respected award in the player’s eyes.

The finalists for the 2016-17 Ted Lindsay Award are: Brent Burns, Sidney Crosby, & Connor McDavid. https://t.co/u03S3lQ7v3 #TLA #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/n8HXcp8Og4
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) May 2, 2017

Burns finished the season with 320 shots on goal – down from the ridiculous 353 he posted from a season ago, but still good enough to lead the entire league and be the only defender in the top 20.

Top 10 Shooters

Rank	Player	Pos	Team	GP	Goals	SH%	EV SOG	PP SOG	SH SOG	SOG 0-15	SOG 16-30	SOG 31-45	SOG
1	BURNS, BRENT	D	S.J	82	29	9.1	235	84	2	15	32	63	320
2	OVECHKIN, ALEXANDER	L	WSH	81	32	10.5	208	100	0	48	59	135	305
3	BERGERON, PATRICE	C	BOS	79	21	7.0	232	65	5	59	96	98	302
4	SEGUIN, TYLER	C	DAL	82	26	8.6	212	92	0	46	76	121	301
5	KANE, PATRICK	R	CHI	82	34	11.6	225	66	0	63	104	103	292
6	TARASENKO, VLADIMIR	R	STL	82	39	13.6	225	60	3	47	108	108	286
7	SKINNER, JEFF	L	CAR	79	37	13.2	221	56	1	105	92	57	281
8	MATTHEWS, AUSTON	C	TOR	82	40	14.3	239	47	1	79	128	54	279
9	PACIORETTY, MAX	L	MTL	81	35	13.1	231	38	3	53	83	75	268
10	PASTRNAK, DAVID	R	BOS	75	34	13.0	200	65	0	53	72	78	262

He set career-highs in goals (29) and points (76), despite witnessing his power-play time drop a full 30 seconds per night and his team dropping from the fourth best offense in 2015-16 to just the 19th-ranked offense this past season.

Advanced Stats

Year	PDO	5 on 5 SH%	Off. Zone Start %	PTS/60	IPP
2016-17	1021	9.04	58.27	2.2	62.3
2015-16	998	7.72	50.87	2.1	59.5
2014-15	987	7.62	50.46	1.8	59.5
2013-14	1024	9.49	49.64	2.5	52.7
2012-13	999	8.81	54.77	2.3	62.3
2011-12	1001	6.35	54.97	1.2	70.4
2010-11	1004	8.83	41.07	1.4	44.0

In comparing him to the other EK Trophy finalists, Burns leads the way in several categories including games played, goals, points, individual and five-on-five conversion rates, offensive-zone starts and average power-play time per game. He also ranked last in short-handed time per contest, which is exactly the stat you want to see from your top fantasy assets.

While during the 2015-16 season Burns was a key cog in a full arsenal that featured a scorching Joe Pavelski, and a rejuvenated Joe Thornton, this past year the Sharks were fully powered on the oils that keep his facial art so fresh and so clean.

He may have stumbled a tad down the stretch, but his overall body of work is indicative of the unique and powerful weapon that he is. He is a very worthy recipient of the top fantasy hockey defenseman and we trust he’ll take great honour and privilege from such a title.

For those of you who are wondering about his production next year, this is likely going to be his peak value in terms of trading and pure production. At 32 years of age, and on a team that is witnessing its core pieces slowly slide down the backside of the mountain, it’s likely that Burns will begin to see that plateau and slight decline soon. That said, he should be expected to produce 65-plus points and terrific peripherals for 2017-18.

Your sell high window won’t close this summer, but it will begin to creak shut with each passing year.

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Here is a statistical breakdown of some of the major aspects that these four blue liners were judged on throughout this process.

Categories	Karlsson	Hedman	Burns	Byfuglien
GP	77	79	82	80
Goals	17	16	29	13
Assists	54	56	47	39
Points	71	72	76	52
PPP	27	33	25	14
Points (5v5)	44	39	51	39
SOG	218	166	320	241
SH%	7.8	9.6	9.1	5.4
5on5 SH%	7.7%	8.42%	9.04%	8.52%
Off. Zone %	52.9%	57.43	58.27%	48.54%
ATOI	26:50	24:31	24:52	27:27
PPTOI	3:41	3:01	3:36	3:18
SHTOI/G	2:09	2:03	1:44	2:21
%SH	41.9%	39%	39.2%	43.4%
Blocks	201	132	142	124
Takeaways	59	39	53	65
Giveaways	106	73	153	85
Hits	67	93	69	183
CF%	49.72	53.36	53.71	51.4

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As always, feel free to follow me on Twitter @CrazyJoeDavola3 where I often give unsolicited fantasy advice that I’m sure at least someone is listening too.