Chicago Blackhawks: Predicting the top defensive pair

The Chicago Blackhawks are going into this season with a bit of a new look. They are looking to be better and this returning pair might be the key.

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be a slightly different looking team going into next year. They will still have the usual suspects on the roster that helped them win three Stanley Cups in six years. They will also have some new faces at just about every position in the lineup. The key will be for them to all gel nicely together. They need to score at a similar pace to what they did last year but they need to defend much better.

The key to that will be their defenseman just simply being better. They have some new additions to the group, but who is going to make up the top pair? The guys who will are likely going to be two guys who have been there for a while and have shown at times that they are capable of being in this position. The prediction for the top pair is Duncan Keith on the left and Erik Gustafsson on the right.

Keith is the best defenseman in Chicago Blackhawks history. He is one of the very best players to ever suit up for the team. He is not the player he once was but he is still pretty good. It is probably not ideal for him to be a top pair guy anymore, but he will have to do with the roster currently the way that it is. It would be nice to use Keith in a top-four role instead of a top pair role but it will have to do.

His partner is likely going to be Erik Gustafsson. Gustafsson is an outstanding offensive defenseman but he is a mess in his own zone. His 17 goals and 43 assists for 60 points were an outstanding bit of production for the 27-year-old Gustafsson so if he can clean it up in his own end he will be golden. Only four of his 17 goals came on the power play and only 14 of his 43 assists with the man advantage so a good amount of his production came at even strength.

If Gustafsson can do that all again and use Keith to help him in the defensive zone, this could turn out to be a really nice pair. They have a guy like Calvin de Haan added tot the mix now, but he will be mainly relied on in defensive situations and you need to be a little more two-way in order to be on the top pair.

Having a great top pair is important to a good hockey team so hopefully, if this is the pair, they go on to have outstanding seasons and lead the Blackhawks back to the playoffs. I am confident that coach Jeremy Colliton will get it right and make sure he does the best thing possible for this team.