This series has already covered the forwards who gave their teams the cheapest and most expensive cost per point last season. The blue line is next. Cost per point is a blunt measure for defensemen, who are paid to do far more than score, so treat this as a breakdown of the numbers rather than a ranking of the league’s best.
With that in mind, here are the ten defensemen whose production came cheapest in 2025-26.
This list excludes players on entry-level contracts and requires at least 42 games played last season.
Darren Raddysh ($14K Per Point) — The cheapest point in the entire series, forwards included. Raddysh turned an undrafted journeyman’s career into a franchise-altering season, setting a Tampa Bay record for goals by a defenseman with 22 on the way to 70 points, all on a $975K cap hit. He fired the hardest shot of any player in the NHL last season and quarterbacked the Lightning power play while logging nearly 23 minutes a night, a workload that landed him 11th in Norris Trophy voting.
Remarkably, he had totaled just 73 points in 176 career games before this, which made his free agency one of the summer’s most fascinating questions: bet on the breakout or the track record. Rather than let him reach it, the Lightning signed him to an eight-year, $68MM deal ($8.5MM AAV) on June 19 and immediately flipped him to Toronto in a sign-and-trade for a 2026 fifth-round pick, so his breakout earns him a near nine-fold raise and a new home with the Maple Leafs in 2026-27.
Jackson LaCombe ($16K Per Point) — The 24-year-old posted 58 points on a $925K bridge deal, led all Anaheim skaters in ice time, made the U.S. Olympic team, and carried the Ducks to their first playoff berth since 2018 before scoring nine points in a first-round upset of Edmonton. Anaheim had seen it coming and moved early, signing him last October to an eight-year, $72MM extension ($9MM AAV), the richest contract in franchise history (for a short while) that kicks in for 2026-27.
The $9MM AAV matched the Luke Hughes deal that set the market for young defensemen this cycle, and after seeing how the market has shaped up this offseason, the deal could very well be a bargain for Anaheim.
Ryan Shea ($26K Per Point) — The quietest breakout on the list belonged to Shea, who logged 35 points and a team-best plus-30 across 80 games for Pittsburgh while emerging as a trusted penalty killer on a $900K deal. An undrafted late bloomer who spent years buried on depth charts, he had never topped a handful of points in a season before finally getting a runway with the Penguins.
He parlayed that platform into the biggest security of his career: a five-year, $20MM contract ($4MM AAV) with Edmonton on July 1, signed within the hour after the Oilers dealt Darnell Nurse‘s $9.25MM cap hit to San Jose to clear the room.
Charle-Edouard D’Astous ($27K Per Point) — The best story here. An undrafted 28-year-old who was named top defenseman in the ECHL, Finland’s Liiga, and the SHL before ever playing an NHL game, D’Astous debuted in October and produced 29 points in 70 games filling in on Tampa Bay’s injury-hit blue line. He’d spent nearly a decade grinding through the minors and overseas, and his late arrival looked like the kind of story that lasts a cup of coffee, instead he stuck, chipped in on the power play, and forced the Lightning’s hand.
Tampa Bay extended him in January, so he returns for 2026-27 on a one-way deal worth $875K.
Brent Burns ($29K Per Point) — The oldest player in the league was also one of its best values. Burns, 41, played all 82 games for Colorado and posted 35 points with a career-best plus-33 on a $1MM cap hit, still logging top-four minutes and manning the power play in what was supposed to be a twilight depth role. His durability remains almost unbelievable for his age, he hasn’t missed a game in over a decade and sits just 57 shy of Phil Kessel‘s all-time ironman record.
The Avalanche brought him back in late June on a one-year deal, so the chase for that record, and his first Stanley Cup, continues in 2026-27.
Nick Blankenburg ($32K Per Point) — Blankenburg’s 24 points came in a career year split between two teams. He set personal highs in Nashville, quarterbacking the second power-play unit, before a midseason trade sent him to Colorado for a fifth-round pick and a smaller role down the stretch. Undersized and undrafted out of Michigan, the 28-year-old has spent his career fighting for lineup spots, and his $775K deal expired this summer with the timing of his best offensive season.
Unlike most of this list, though, he’s yet to sign, one of the better values still sitting on the open market as camp approaches.
Sam Malinski ($35K Per Point) — Another Avalanche find, Malinski turned a one-year, $1.4MM “bet on himself” deal into a career year: 40 points and a plus-43 that led all NHL defensemen and ranked tied for third among all skaters. The undrafted Cornell product settled into a top-four role alongside Brett Kulak and drew public praise from Cale Makar, who called his offensive instincts another level.
Colorado didn’t let him reach free agency, signing him in late January to a four-year, $19MM extension ($4.75MM AAV) that makes him the fourth-highest-paid blueliner on the roster through 2029-30.
Logan Stanley ($48K Per Point) — At 6-foot-7 and 231 pounds, Stanley is one of the league’s most physically imposing defensemen, and last season he paired that frame with career-high offense: nine goals and 26 points across 76 games, more goals than his previous five NHL seasons combined. A March trade sent him from Winnipeg to Buffalo, where his role shifted back toward a defensive assignment as the Sabres pushed into the second round.
His $1.25MM deal is up, and like Blankenburg, he remains unsigned deep into the summer.
Jordan Spence ($48K Per Point) — Acquired from Los Angeles in the summer of 2025, Spence delivered a career-high 31 points in his first season in Ottawa on a $1.5MM cap hit despite opening the year as a healthy scratch. He worked his way up the depth chart and led all Senators defensemen in even-strength goal differential, forming an effective pairing with Tyler Kleven.
The Senators rewarded him before he could reach restricted free agency, signing him on June 26 to a four-year, $20MM extension ($5MM AAV) that runs through 2029-30 and lets him hit the open market at 29.
Tony DeAngelo ($50K Per Point) — The well-traveled DeAngelo, now on his fifth NHL team after a KHL detour, quarterbacked the Islanders’ power play to 35 points on a $1.75MM deal. With Noah Dobson gone, the offense ran through his stick on the man advantage, and DeAngelo delivered exactly the kind of production the Islanders needed, proving a reliable veteran presence on a bargain deal.
He re-signed on June 26, staying on Long Island two more years at $9MM total ($4.5MM AAV) through 2027-28.
All contract information provided by Puckpedia.