from Sam McCaig of The Hockey News,

Here’s an overview of the NHL’s freshmen blueliners this season:

– Fifty-nine rookie defensemen have played at least one game in the NHL this season, but only 34 have appeared in 10 games or more.

– Breaking it down further, only 16 have played 30-plus games – and a grand total of nine rookie defensemen have played 40 or more games this season.

– The rookie ‘D’ headliners, of course, are Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin (61 games, 20:52 average ice time) and Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen (62 games, 23:04 average ice time). They’re the only first-year defenders with more than 20 points (Dahlin 36, Heiskanen 27) as well as the only ones playing more than 20 minutes per game. That’s impressive in and of itself, and doubly so when you consider that they’re both still teenagers – Dahlin is 18, Heiskanen is 19. Add it all up, and they’re looking good to join Pettersson as finalists for the Calder Trophy.

– Let’s take a look at the other rookie D-men who have played at least 40 NHL games this season. Among the nine who qualify, Detroit demoted Dennis Cholowski (52 games) to the AHL on Feb. 14 to work on his defensive play, and Igor Ozhiganov (42 games) has been relegated to the press box in Toronto since the Maple Leafs acquired Jake Muzzin on Jan. 28. Cholowski, 21, was a first-round pick (20th overall) in 2016. There’s a lot to like about his skating and puck-moving ability, and he figures to be a key cog on the Wings’ blueline moving forward. Ozhiganov, on the other hand, is a 26-year-old who was signed to a one-year deal after spending most of the previous seven seasons in the KHL.

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