Seth JonesPhoto credit: The Hockey News

Of course, it’s the off-season and fans are pining over hockey, and finding new ways of generating content and ways of talking about their team and favorite players.

And controversial Twitter personality and hockey statistician, JFresh held a poll which was for fans to rate the best defenseman in the league.

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All of the usual suspects were on the poll, including top defensemen like Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Roman Josi, and Adam Fox who topped out the poll from #1-4.

The public made up its mind about Seth Jones in 2021 & nothing is gonna change it, outside of him winning a Norris
If you watched the #Blackhawks with & without him over the last 2 seasons (I don’t blame you if you haven’t), he’s much better than the 53rd defenseman in the NHL

Whereas our own Seth Jones wasn’t ranked last but tracked near the bottom at #53 in the poll.

Which of course, is an example of recency bias in action, as during the last part of 2023-2024 Jones found his game again and shows the flashes of the game he had in Columbus, which people loved.

While it’s not wrong to say Jones hasn’t been the best defenseman, he’s been the best defenseman which helped shelter Alex Vlasic enough to grow into the kind of defenseman, the Blackhawks need.

He’s played a leadership role in the organization, and when his game is on, he is one of the better hardnosed defensemen, with offensive upside in the league.

The fact that Matt Roy, Filip Hronek, and Thomas Harley are rated this low as well tells me these people don’t watch hockey games.

Tirabassi is correct, people have made up their minds about Jones and sticking to it.

«I think he’s doing much of what he did in the second half last year in the second half of this year–he’s calmed down, his forcing the plays he’s coming up the weak side as a weak side defenseman a lot to join the plays that way–I think he’s shooting the puck a lot more and harder–which is showing in his stats and it’s helping us all offensively,» Richardson said. «I think he’s confident, he’s always pretty quiet and calm, a lead by example type of guy. You can tell when he’s a little more at ease–I think that lets him see the game better and that’s probably why he’s in better position. He’s not running around putting fires out all over the place because he’s up and down the ice every shift. I think he’s just playing his position and when it’s there, he has the ability to get up the ice offensively and I just like his mindset right now.»