A high percentage of people who participate in my weekly chat are having a difficult time handicapping the offensively-minded defensemen in the NHL. They are questioning if Brett Burns is jinxed, if Nicklas Lidstrom is washed up, if Michael Del Zotto and Matt Carle are for real and if Tom Gilbert’s performance last season was a fluke.

We are seeing a major changing of the guard on the blueline this season. Of the top 25 scoring defensemen last year, there are only 11 (Mike Green, Dan Boyle, Duncan Keith, Chris Pronger, Christian Ehrhoff, Scott Niedermayer, Shea Weber, Mark Streit, Brian Campbell, Zdeno Chara and Kimmo Timonen) who currently sit amongst the league leaders. No wonder poolies are skittish.

We suspect that by the end of the campaign, consistent producers such as Lidstrom, Brian Rafalksi, Dion Phaneuf and Kevin Bieksa will find their way into the top 25. But for many fantasy pool participants it will be too late.

Reliable scoring defensemen are becoming rarer each season. Picking the few rearguards who will continue to produce is akin to playing roulette and it’s a sucker’s game.