This week on Frozen Tools Forensics we are going to continue our review of players who are contributing across multiple potential fantasy categories. For this week it is time for defense.

To gather the data for this review I ran the Multi-Category Report on the Dobber Reports page. This report gives us basic scoring information as well as several peripheral categories that include shots, hits, blocks, plus minus, and penalty minutes. It also gives us some of those stats combined. All of these categories are already split for us on a season and per game basis for easy analysis. For the purposes of this article, I am focusing on shots, hits, and blocks (no penalty minutes). All of the data here is also going to focus on the 24-25 season, we won't be hitting projections in this specific review.

To make the tables we will be looking at, I have exported the report and done some rearranging of the columns to focus on the relevant information. The tables start with basic player information on the left (name, position, team) and then the current season information (games player, shots per game, hits per game, and blocks per game).

Today we are going to specifically target defense. The following table contains those players who are putting over two shots, hits, and blocks per game. This is an elite tier of cross category contribution:

In the summer of 2024, we had four elite names (with a slightly more flexible criteria) on our list. Mackenzie Weegar and Moritz Seider were two of them. At the mid-season mark when we used this same criteria our list had shrunk to two names: Weegar and Seider. Here they are again, after a full season of production they are the only two players in the NHL who averaged two plus shots, hits, and blocks. These guys are fantasy gold in categories leagues. Weegar is now 31 and has been producing at this pace for roughly four seasons. His power-play time and therefore point production might have a question mark in the form of Zayne Parekh at some point soon, but there doesn't seem to be a big reason to doubt his peripheral contributions at this point. Seider has been putting up solid peripherals since he came into the league. His shot rates haven't always allowed him to be included in this group, but they have been trending up and even if he were to regress a little in that area, he would still be a very valuable piece. 

Now we reduce the criteria slightly to get our second tier (1.5 or above in each category):

Again, we have a small list and a couple of familiar names. Darnell Nurse and Charlie McAvoy both made our list last summer as well of defense who typically put up very solid peripheral production.

Nurse has pretty consistently hovered around this elite tier, but interestingly it was his block rates that were the low point in 2024-25. For a guy who isn't known for scoring it is interesting to see he doesn't rank quite as highly in blocks. Historically though, blocks have typically been the category keeping him from that elite status. He has had several recent years right on the edge, so he is certainly a good consolation prize for cross category peripherals.

McAvoy and Seth Jones are really very similar here. They have generally been good contributors, but usually a little lower on the straight peripheral lists. Their value has come from being good (if not elite) but also being top power-play quarterbacks. If we look at their recent history McAvoy does have one or two seasons close to the two per game threshold across the categories, but usually one or more of the categories is less than 1.5 per game. Jones is usually quite strong for shots, and good for blocks, but less than 1.5 per game in hits. Still, both are solid contributors and have more points upside than many players on your traditional hits and blocks lists.

That leaves us with Alexander Romanov. The gap (if we want to call it that) in his game for 2024-25 was shots, and that is a pretty consistent theme for him. His 1.55 per game in 2024-25 was actually a career high; he has typically been more in the 1.35 per game range, though 2023-24 was a then career high of 1.44. So clearly that rate is trending up as his time on ice increases (22 minutes was a career high in 2024-25) and that makes him an intriguing option going forward.

Like with our forwards it is also interesting to know if any of these players put up points in addition to their peripherals. We have already identified that Jones and McAvoy have historically had top power-play opportunities which certainly increase their value. This next list shows the highest point producers (with a cut off of a 45-point pace) who are putting up at least 1.5 shots per game and over one hit and one block per game:

Right off the bat we see that Weegar, Jones, and Seider are already listed here. McAvoy usually would be on this list too, but he had a dreadful (and unlikely repeatable) 38-point pace in 2024-25, so feel free to consider him an honorable mention.

Neal Pionk and Colton Parayko often make these peripheral contribution lists, so it isn't a surprise to see them, but their point production does vary pretty significantly. Parayko has had a point pace between 26 and 46 over the past four seasons, while Pionk has typically been a bit more consistently in the mid 30s recently. They seem like good bets for ok peripheral production, but probably not to count on more than a 40-point pace.

Aaron Ekblad and Dougie Hamilton are also kind of interesting guys here. They both have high point potential if everything goes right but also might not be top power-play quarterbacks at all. The benefit for them is that they do have decent peripheral coverage so at least if there is a lag in scoring, they can provide at least a little something for your week.

That leaves Rasmus Dahlin. Top tier point production to go along with very strong shot rates is a great start. His 1.34 hits per game is actually his lowest hit rate in five seasons, though most seasons have been closer to that rate than the 2.41 hits per game he put up in 2023-24. For blocks 1.34 is again his lowest rate in three seasons. Overall, an elite scoring D, who at worst puts up reasonable peripherals and at best almost makes the top multi-cat tiers.

That is all for this week.

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