Brunette Backs Josi as 'The World's Best Defenseman'

The quote, "he's probably, in my opinion, the world's best defenseman" only looks to be getting more support behind it after every game Roman Josi plays for the Nashville Predators this season. This is something head coach Andrew Brunette said about the team's captain. Josi is arguably the MVP of the team and is red hot in the second half of the season.

The 33-year-old is now over a point-per-game (70 points in 69 games) after another multi-point performance, this time it was the San Jose Sharks falling victim. While you could say that Josi really turned his game on at game 41 of the season as he has 10 goals and 39 points in 29 games from that point, but we can also look at the Predators' 15-game point streak and see that the captain has seven goals and 21 points over that time.

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Josi shouldn't just be judged based on his offensive ability even though that puts him as one of the top in the world. He is also stellar defensively, plays in all situations, and plays a ton, averaging 24:27 per game this season.

There's no arguing that Josi is one of the best defensemen in the world, but even saying he is the best right now isn't a stretch. He has received Norris trophy votes in eight of his past nine seasons, plays all of his minutes against the top competition, and is a point-per-game defenseman (which is very rare). What is even more impressive is that he is eight years older than his closest competition, and the NHL is a young man's game.

I believe that there is a lot to support this claim by Brunette and getting to see him first-hand only shows the Predators' coach why he is correct in his assessment.

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