defenseman

[ dih-fens-muhn, -man ]

noun,plural de·fense·men

[dih-fens-muhn, -men]. /dɪˈfɛns mən, -ˌmɛn/. Sports.

a player in certain games, as ice hockey or lacrosse, who lines up in a defensive zone or position.

Origin of defenseman

First recorded in 1890–95; defense + man

An entire condensed-schedule season later, and the numbers don’t make a strong argument for those defensemen to continue to get extended ice time.
The Bruins Took A Bet On Their Young Defensemen — And Had To Scramble When It Didn’t Work Out | Marisa Ingemi | May 19, 2021 | FiveThirtyEight
When Peter Laviolette met with Zdeno Chara in the offseason, before the 44-year-old defenseman was officially part of the Washington Capitals, there were no expectations about the upcoming season, no X’s and O’s drawn out.
Zdeno Chara was Boston’s leader. As the Caps’ Cup pursuit begins, he must face his former team. | Samantha Pell | May 13, 2021 | Washington Post
He’s also an excellent defenseman, having led the NL in steals.
Hey Batter Batter! The Boys of Summer Are Back! | Joshua Eferighe | May 6, 2021 | Ozy
Grill, a 5-foot-8 defenseman, also wasn’t heavily recruited, and he landed with the Golden Eagles, too.
After losing his father to ALS, a Maryland lacrosse standout plays for ‘Pops’ and his family | Emily Giambalvo | May 5, 2021 | Washington Post
Anyway, moving on to the Norris Trophy for best defenseman, I think this is a really interesting race.
We Picked The NHL’s Best And Worst Players Of 2021 | Neil Paine (neil.paine@fivethirtyeight.com) | April 30, 2021 | FiveThirtyEight

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