St. Louis blueliner left off NHL Network's top 20 defensemen list

We're in the dog days of summer and the dog days of the NHL offseason. August is the slowest and most boring month of the year in the NHL, so media outlets have to find way to drive engagement.

One of the easiest ways to do that is with rankings. Rankings are easy to argue about, and fans of most teams will think one of their players should be higher on the list -- or on the list at all.

That's exactly the case for St. Louis Blues defenseman Colton Parayko. NHL Network revealed their top 20 defensemen on Wednesday night and the St. Louis blueliner was nowhere to be found.

We get it. Parayko isn't going to crack the top handful of defensemen or even the top 10 or 12. Maybe not even the top 15. But there is a strong argument to be made that he should be in the late teens or 20.

Parayko was one of three defensemen to play in all four games at the 4 Nations Face-Off for Team Canada. Of course, there were some injuries that caused that, and he didn't play a top-pair role, but being one of the best Canadian defenseman has to count for something, right?

And we know that Parayko is never going to rack up the points like a Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, or Quinn Hughes. But those guys don't play the defensive minutes that Parayko does -- and does quite well, we might add.

Parayko had a career-high 36 points (16 goals, 20 assists) in just 64 games last season. That's an 82-game pace of 46 points, which would put him right there with Moritz Seider as 18th-most in the league.

Hopefully, the Blues can use stuff like this and Jordan Kyrou being left off the top wingers list as motivation in the upcoming season.