Darren Raddysh scored more than every defenseman in the league except six, and NHL Network still left him off its top 20 list entirely.
The network released its rankings of the top 20 defensemen heading into next season, and Raddysh's name simply wasn't there.
That's a real omission given the numbers. Raddysh posted 22 goals and 48 assists for 70 points in 73 games last season, finishing 7th among all NHL defensemen in scoring.
He signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs this offseason as one of the two biggest additions of the summer, alongside goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
His production wasn't a one-off fluke either. He added 10 power play goals and 16 power play assists, exactly the kind of offensive impact from the blue line that usually gets recognized on lists like this one.
Leafslatest flagged the snub directly, asking fans where they'd actually rank Raddysh themselves.
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Why a 70-point season still gets overlooked
Part of the issue is probably reputation. Raddysh spent his career mostly outside the spotlight before this breakout, and name recognition still carries real weight in these kinds of preseason rankings.
Playing in a smaller market for most of his career likely didn't help either, even with the numbers speaking for themselves.
There's also a fair question about whether voters are discounting his season as a product of favorable usage rather than pure talent. That's a debate worth having, but it doesn't fully explain leaving a 70-point defenseman off a top 20 list entirely.
Toronto is clearly betting his production travels well with a new team, given the term and role handed to him this summer.
If Raddysh comes anywhere close to repeating last season's numbers in Toronto, this snub becomes exactly the kind of thing that gets brought up again and again throughout the year.
Rankings like this are always going to generate debate, and a 7th-ranked scoring defenseman getting left off the top 20 entirely is about as good a reason as any to have that argument.
Should Darren Raddysh have made NHL Network's top 20 defensemen list?
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