The New York Rangers struggled to find their foot last season and missed the play -offs only one season after winning the presidents trophy. They made some movements, including The acquisition of JT Miller van The Vancouver Canucks last season, to prove that they were trying to make a push back to the play -offs. She also signed Defender Vladislav Gavrikov as a long-term contract in the long term when the free agency is open this summer, and they seem to have the line-up now to make a deep play-off run next season. A player who apparently became underestimated after a tough campaign for his team is the former winner of Norris Trophy, Adam Fox.
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There is apparently an opinion that forms online that FOX went out of the top five in terms of the best general defenders in the NHL at the moment. While Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes are easy to the top two in the past two seasons, arguments can be supplied for those who come up afterwards. Jaccob Slavin, Rasmus Dahlin and even Zach Werenski are mentioned as top defenders, depending on who you ask, but Fox seems to slide out and it makes no sense.
Fox was not at his best during the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament, and that short monster seems to be an important argument that is being used, given that he played against some of the world’s best competition, and it didn’t seem like he could keep up. The most important problem with that argument is that the speed of Fox has never been his strongest possession, and he played against the fastest team ever collected in Team Canada, but although he was a step behind, he still looked decent.
Having a rough tournament should not matter, and it is not something that should be used to claim why he falls out of the conversation for most elite fellows in the NHL. A small sample size, where there is no chemistry between teammates who play against the best competition in the world, is not a decisive factor why a player is not a top five defender.
Whether you want to refer to voters, who consistently consider him to choose who wins the prize for the best defender in the NHL, or you want to view the analysis in the past seasons, he is an elite defender. Without Fox, the Rangers do not have good defensive depth, and he is the reason that they have a stabilized blue line, despite a slower campaign of 2024-25.
Rangers’ rough campaign played a role in the reputation of Fox
Let’s say it about it: the Rangers were not good last season. A record of 39-36-7 and missing the play-offs is not a good follow-up campaign after being the strongest regular season team and making a run to the conference final the season before. That rough campaign played a major role in why a small percentage of fans didn’t think Fox had a solid season.
Something that needs to be recognized is the analysis of Fox. Although they should not be used as the all-all, everything in every argument, they are important to use here, because they show how strong are underlying numbers are, and show what the fans may not see with their eye test.
Let’s look at something that JFresh hockey posted on X last month:
I’m going to lose my mind. The only way in which Fox’s season “was not on the standard” is that he scored a few fewer goals and the team around him more sucked https://t.co/wknmsjk60j pic.twitter.com/vwn4tfqgvt
– JFresh (@jfresh hockey) June 16, 2025
His opinion is that Fox is still an elite defender, but let’s tackle what the cards he posted, and as he said, let’s close the idea that he has a season that “did not meet the standards”.
Fox had a weaker defensive partner last season, who refueled his number; He had less offensive production, which could be that the team around him was last season, but somehow he maintained elite analyzes on both ends of the ice.
He went from 73 points in the 2023-24 season to 61 points last season, and if you do a deep dive in how bad the Rangers were last season, regardless of why they were not a good team, Fox was one of the few clear places.
Losing confidence on the way to the 4 Nations face-off after a tough start would have ruined the reputation on the ice of each player, and certainly, having a tough show against some of the best players in the world is not something that needs to be overlooked. However, it should not be valued as high as some experts have appreciated it.
Fox’s defensive partners: a key factor
Something to consider is how strong Fox’s defensive partner was last season. Looking at some fundamental advanced statistics, thanks to MonePuck.comFour defenders had more than 50 defensive zone -road actions last season, while two had more than 70. Playing with Ryan Lindgren, who is a terrible defender and was an important reason why his figures fell a little, did not help his business.
Ryan Lindgren, signed 4x $ 4.5 million by sea, is a defensive defender. He is quite mobile, he plays bigger than his frame, he blocks shots, he kills punishing. He also torpedoed the figures from Adam Fox and had the worst results on a good AVS team in the Reg season and play -offs. pic.twitter.com/9okilid0yn
– JFresh (@jfresh hockey) July 1, 2025
The other major problem is that the Rangers players continued to move, and Fox was missing a real partner to play next to and grow solid chemistry, which caused even more problems. Bringing in Gavrikov, whose figures on both ends of the ice are incredible, must enable Fox to find some confidence and return to the conversation to be one of the best defenders in the NHL.
Compare him with other elite defenders
The last part of the argument would be, who is he above when he talks about the best defenders in the NHL? Last season alone there were a few players who could have been discussed better than Fox, but one bad season did not derail a career. Hughes and Makar have been consistently better and are the two best defenders in the NHL, and then the conversation is opened.
I have always been a big fan of Slavin, whose defensive mentality is incredible, and his ability to close some of the biggest stars of the NHL puts it quite high on my list. Dahlin’s ability to be a superstar in a terrible Buffalo Sabres team is also impressive, while Miro Heiskanen and Evan Bouchard also deserve to be discussed in the same breath.
However, Fox is a stronger all-round defender than fuss, Bouchard and Werenski. Werenski is solid, but an insane campaign has made him jump on the ranking, just not enough to be considered better than Fox. Heiskanen has been incredible for the Dallas stars in recent seasons, but he just misses on the top five. Bouchard’s attacking dominance and his ability to finally find some power when he plays in his own end have him in the conversation, but he just misses.
Debates are healthy and arguments can be supplied for just about everyone I mentioned in this article. Charlie Mcavoy is another defender who can be involved in this conversation, and even Josh Morrissey can be recorded here. I am sure that some fans have arguments about other players, but Fox’s analyzes, figures and the total value for the Rangers make him a top five defender in the NHL.
A small tournament should not derail what an incredible career has been for Fox, and when he inevitably finds his foot and bounces back in a Norris Trophy candidate next season, fans will return. Because one of the most elite defenders in the NHL is ridiculous to be underestimated, and he deserves his respect.
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