Before the Rangers eventually sent Kaapo Kakko to Seattle in exchange for defenseman Will Borgen, the soon to be 29 year old defensemen had been on Rangers GM Chris Drury’s target list for a while. At the time of the trade, Borgen’s acquisition wasn’t met with fanfare, mostly due to the Rangers sending their former second overall pick to the Kraken for a guy that hadn’t had a good season in a couple of years. But Borgen has proven himself a top three Rangers defenseman this year, and the numbers back it up.
Per Hockey Stat Cards, Borgen’s defensive game score ratings aren’t just among the top three Rangers defenseman, but top three in the NHL. To be fair, it’s very early and there are a lot of names that you’d expect to be on here that aren’t yet, and some players like Vlad Gavrikov are expected to climb as the season continues and hot starts fade with poor starts heating up. Still, Borgen has been quietly solid and has certainly earned his new role as one of the top three Rangers defensemen. At least thus far.
What’s interesting about this is how Borgen has been used. While the Gavrikov-Adam Fox pairing has typically been matched against the opposition’s top offense, Borgen isn’t that far behind.
Looking at the bottom middle chart (QOT = quality of teammates, QOC = quality of competition), we can see the overall quality of competition on offense the Gavrikov-Fox pair receives is pretty high at 0.737 (highest is 1). So Mike Sullivan often sends out his top pair against top lines, but he also does it with top lines from the Rangers. Essentially the top pair is stapled to the top line to create offense and shut down the opposition’s top line.
Like every other team, this doesn’t happen at a 100% clip. Even with last change, it’s just not possible for that to happen. So at some point, another pair will be out there against top competition, often without the benefit of another top line, or in Borgen’s case, another top defenseman with him.
Focusing again on the bottom middle chart with the QOC numbers, Borgen’s offensive quality of competition is nearly identical to that of both Gavrikov and Fox at 0.673, but you’ll notice that Borgen simply does not receive the same type of teammates that the Rangers top pair does. This is due to multiple factors: both Fox and Gavrikov being top pair defensemen, that pair deployed almost exclusively with each other, and Borgen’s primary defense partners being Carson Soucy (138:01 TOI) and Matthew Robertson (99:45).
There’s a lot working against Borgen, but he’s doing great regardless and has cemented himself as one of the top three Rangers defensemen early in the season. Gavrikov/Fox are also receiving roughly 56% offensive zone starts, with Borgen getting just 40.63%.
Borgen has been a top three Rangers defenseman
To summarize: Borgen has been getting the same quality of competition as both Gavrikov and Fox, gets far worse teammates, and starts shifts significantly more often in the defensive zone. While both Gavrikov and Fox grade out higher, per Hockey Stat Cards, because they also supplement their defense with offense, but Borgen carries the highest defense rating of the three.
Now the question with Borgen isn’t whether he is currently a top three Rangers defenseman, it’s whether he is simply off to a hot start that will regress. Borgen’s previous three seasons had all shown him to be declining, but this year is by far his best defensively, almost twice as good statistically as his previous best. It’s only 18 games into the season, so there is plenty of time for this to regress to his previous career path, but there is cause for optimism.
Mike Sullivan is one of the best coaches in the NHL, and his systems has proven time and time again to get stellar defensive results. Look at the blue line from his 2016-2017 Penguins team that won a Stanley Cup. Not exactly a murderer’s row of elite talent. If he can keep this up, we will be talking about him as a top three Rangers defenseman instead of the contract Drury gave him almost immediately after his acquisition.
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