Top 3 defensemen still available in free agency.

We have made it through the entire month of July and through the first week of August as well but there is still plenty of time before fans in the National Hockey League get to experience meaningful games once again. That also means that there is still plenty of time for NHL organizations to tweak their rosters before next season, even though most of the work has already been done. 

In spite of the fact that most of the teams around the league already have a pretty good idea of what their rosters will look like come the start of the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season, there are still some potential additions out there that could prove to be difference makers for a number of teams. Today we will be taking a look at the top available players remaining in free agency at their respective positions, and in every case these are players who could make a significant impact come next season. 

This time around we will be looking at the blue line and what potential options their remain out there for teams looking to bolster their defense. Here are, in my opinion, the 3 best defensemen still available on the free agent market at the time of this writing. 

#1 Jake Gardiner.

This is a pretty easy pick. Gardiner would almost certainly have been signed by now under normal circumstances but there is clearly something abnormal about this offseason for Gardiner. There have been all kinds of rumors suggesting that he has a handshake deal in place with the Toronto Maple Leafs and general manager Kyle Dubas, but at this time those remain only rumors. Gardiner is unquestionably the top free agent defenseman still on the market but it does seem like Toronto is where his heart is.

#2 Dion Phaneuf

Although he is not exactly the most popular figure in the National Hockey League, the veteran defenseman remains a solid fixture on the blue line. After being an every game player throughout the entirety of his NHL career Phaneuf hit his first major bumps in the road with the Los Angeles Kings in the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season. Made a healthy scratch for the first time in his career by then interim head coach Willie Desjardins it became clear that Phaneuf was very unhappy with the way things played out in Los Angeles. The big knock against Phaneuf has always been his contract, but with the King's buying out the final 2 years of that deal Phaneuf will be available at a much more reasonable number. His days as a top 4 guy in the NHL are likely behind him, but there's no doubt that he still has value.

#3 Nicklas Kronwall. 

At 38 years of old Kronwall is by far the oldest man to make the list but in Kronwall's case age may just be a number. In spite of the fact that he has spent the last 3 seasons on a Detroit Red Wings team that looks nothing like the one he has played for historically, Kronwall has continued to produce at a high level for the Red Wings. Kronwall is reportedly weighing retirement so there is still some doubt about whether or not he will even return to the NHL, but like Gardiner it seems he has his prefered destination as well. Kronwall has never played a game for a team other than the Red Wings and this late into the summer I would be shocked to see him sign anywhere else. That being said his services are still technically up for grabs.