This week we are finishing our little mini-series on multi-cat players. Last week we looked at at forwards, and today we turn our attention to defensemen.

For the purposes of this article we are mainly going to be focusing on hits, blocks, and shots (sorry no penalty minutes). I have pulled all the data for the 23-24 season from Frozen Tools Multi-Category Report, which includes season totals as well as per game information. We are going to be looking at per game data as season totals are certainly dependent on games played which can be fairly random.

One difference right off the bat for this group is we are likely to see higher numbers of blocks and lower shot rates. This pattern is fairly obvious to anyone who has rostered D before. To get us started let's take a look at some of the highest performing blockers in 2023-24.

There is not a lot to say here Alec Martinez is consistently on the top of this list, but there are a few other high producing names as well. Nick Seeler also adds a few more hits and shots than the others so he might be somewhat interesting in helping fill multiple categories.

Moving on to top hit producers:

These are guys who might just win a hit category all by themselves. Jeremy Lauzon with almost five hits per game? Plus a little something in the hits/blocks departments? That can be pretty valuable. Radko Gudas also has a very nice spread of stats. A little lower than ideal on shots, but almost three and a half hits per game and over two blocks per game is a pretty elite combination here.

I want to expand on this theme here, which players are strong across all the categories? To provide a better cross section I am going to apply a few filters. Essentially, I am looking for players who put up more than 1.5 shots, hits, and blocks a game. And here is the first chunk of that list.

One thing everyone on this list has in common is that their point production is not very strong. That certainly would be true of the hitters and blockers lists as well if I had included their stats. I added point production here though as I wanted to help draw some contrast between a couple of groups of players and because if we have someone who can also contribute a few points it obviously makes them even more valuable.

Two names jump out on this list. Darnell Nurse, and Jacob Trouba. Nurse was above two per game for each of shots, hits, and blocks, while also putting up .39 points per game. Trouba was above two and a half for both hits and blocks, but slightly lower in shots and in point pace. These are very strong performances for this group. For the rest there is a pretty good spread, and the only one who I might be a little questionable about is Adam Larsson. Below two per game in every stat and with a pretty poor point pace. It is hard to write him off completely though as in 2022-23 he was up at .4 points per game, almost two shots per game, almost three hits per game, and about two blocks per game. The drop in 2023-24 does give a big question mark, but perhaps if Seattle bounces back as a whole, Larsson could as well.

I did bury the lede here though. Thus far we have looked at elite performers in a single category that can help a little in others, and a group of players who are fairly consistent across the board. I left for last the consistent performers who also actually put up points.

Moritz Seider's point pace has lagged a bit behind the rest of this group, but given his history, and his potential in Detroit (none of the other lists have a realistic chance at the top power play for instance) I included him here. Seider has consistently produced across the board, but the one knock on him has been the decreasing offensive production. This is true in terms of points (where his point pace was highest in his rookie season) but also in his shot rates. He has actually decreased those rates for multiple consecutive seasons. On the other hand, he has been increasing his block rates, and 2023-24 saw his highest hit rates to date. Decreasing point/shot rates and increasing block/hit rates seem to be telling a story of a player is who playing more without the puck lately, so it is definitely something to keep an eye on. With Shayne Gostisbehere now out of the picture maybe Detroit is willing to let him step into some more offensive minutes on the top power play, but they did also add Erik Gustafsson who has played there in his past so that role is not necessarily guaranteed.

Rasmus Dahlin was a bit of a surprise on this list. Sure his point scoring has been well documented the last couple of seasons and it isn't a surprise to see him up at three shots per game, but almost two and a half hits per game, and almost two blocks per game? Those are previously unheard of stats for Dahlin. His previous high in terms of hits was 1.5, and prior to 2023-24 he had spent more seasons in his career below one block per game than over it. Going forward keeping up the point paces and shot rates make sense. I can even sort of understand his block rates. He saw a jump when he started getting some penalty kill time, and that number has been steadily increasing for several seasons now. Jumping a full hit per game remains a surprise and given that I do wonder what we will see in 2024-25.

Mackenzie Weegar was certainly not a surprise here. He has been a solid producer across the board before. It is highly unlikely he scores of 9.6 percent of his shots in the future, so that point pace is unlikely to continue into 2024-25, but those shot, hit, and block rates all seem pretty consistent with his past rates, especially if he continues to see 23 minutes a night with some time on both the power play and the penalty kill.

Similar to Weegar, McAvoy's shooting percentage was a bit high so that point pace might not be entirely sustainable, but a lot of the rest of his stats look okay. He has bounced around a lot and 2023-24 was kind of a down season, but for the most part he has been near to (but probably slightly under) two shots, hits, and blocks per game so that feels like a very reasonable expectation going into 2024-25

That is all for this week

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