Goal Scoring Defense Corps

Christian Ehrhoff	14	Chris Pronger	10	Keith Yandle	12	Tomas Kaberle	7	Nicklas Lidstrom	9
Alex Edler	5	Kimmo Timonen	6	Ed Jovanovski	10	Dion Phaneuf	12	Brian Rafalski	8
Sami Salo	9	Matt Carle	6	Derek Morris	4	F. Beauchemin	5	Niklas Kronwall	7
Keith Ballard	8	Braydon Coburn	5	Adrian Aucoin	8	Luke Schenn	5	Brad Stuart	4
Dan Hamhuis	5	Andrej Meszaros	6	Sami Lepisto	1	Carl Gunnarsson	3	Jon Ericsson	4
Kevin Bieksa	3	Sean O'Donnell	3	Kurt Sauer	0	Jeff Finger	2	Derek Meech	2
Andrew Alberts	3	Oskars Bartulis	1			Brett Lebda	1
Shane O'Brien	2	Matt Walker	2			Mike Komisarek	0
TOTAL	49		39		35		35		34

Offense from the blueline generally comes at a premium in this hockey pool, especially with 17 guys picking (hopefully more for the 2011 season), but if you're looking for a team to base your defense around, here are the top five goal scoring defenses in the league, including some new signings, up to Tuesday morning.

Just a little heads up, the lists for each team listed here are sorted by defensemen points and not goals, just in case you were wondering.

Even with an injured Sami Salo out of the Canucks line-up, Vancouver would still hold a 1-goal lead over the blueline from Philadelphia from last season, thanks to some good signings in Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis, who added 13 of those 49 goals. The top five for the Canucks look like a pretty good group, minus Salo and his injury now, for goals and points.

The Flyers have some good consistency in their blueline top five, a few sixes and a five behind Chris Pronger's 10 look really good. The Flyers added some good veteran experience to help anchor the backend, which likely means you'll see a bit more activity, defenders jumping into the play a bit more.

The Coyotes have a solid six on their blueline roster at the moment, with three bombers carrying the load for the most part. Keith Yandle, Ed Jovanovski and Adrian Aucoin accounted for 30 goals from the blueline. They'll have a solid showing during the draft, I'm sure.

The Maple Leafs have only a few days left before they can move Tomas Kaberle and his seven goals, which would knock the Leafs out of the top five, unless they managed to replace them somehow. Dion Phaneuf, Francois Beauchemin and Luke Schenn may have to carry all the weight in this department for the blue & white this year.

Finally, the Red Wings make the list with their top six, which has seen a bit of a drop-off in recent years, but all six are capable of good things, including a little offfense to go with their responsible defense. The Wings are usually a pretty good team to pick from in most years and they should be a good target for your draft team again this year.

Honourable mentions in this category go to the Buffalo Sabres, who also have 34 goals among their seven defensemen, the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators each have 33 goals from their backend and the St. Louis Blues, who currently has a line-up with 32 goals last season.