CHICAGO – Teams need a superstar franchise defenseman to win the Stanley Cup. Or so that is often how the thinking persists in hockey circles.

Recent history backs that up. The Kings have won two with Drew Doughty. Chicago has two with Duncan Keith. Boston hoisted it with Zdeno Chara. Detroit captured its last Cup with Nicklas Lidstrom.

Shea Weber, Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban and Ryan Suter are also perennial Norris Trophy candidates or have won the honor as the NHL’s top defender. The Ducks don’t have that person. Not yet, at least.

What they do have are six blue-liners who seem to be playing as one cohesive unit. The Ducks have used the same six for each of their 12 playoff games and their connected play is a big reason they’re in the Western Conference finals with a 2-1 series lead over Chicago.

Hampus Lindholm, Francois Beauchemin, Cam Fowler, Simon Despres, Sami Vatanen and Clayton Stoner. It’s a largely unheralded bunch that has helped limit three playoff opponents to an average of 1.92 goals allowed, the best among all 16 teams in the tournament.

Continuity works.

“It makes a big impact on our team,” said Beauchemin, who’ll be 35 on June 4. “You look at last night (in Game 3). Whoever’s out there, we know, and we have the trust that they’re going to do the job out there.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team that’s been that deep on (defense). Rolling through six (defensemen) like we’re doing right now, it’s great for everybody.”

Beauchemin can speak from experience. The 10-year veteran played alongside a superstar in Scott Niedermayer on the 2007 Cup team, which also had another Norris winner in Chris Pronger. But while that defense corps was top-heavy, this one has unparalleled depth.

The Ducks got veteran top-four defender James Wisniewski at the trade deadline for an upgrade to the corps and further to stock up for the postseason. Wisniewski hasn’t played one minute in the playoffs. The six going now have done nothing to warrant any changes.

Assistant coach Trent Yawney beams with pride. Yawney’s unofficial title is defensive coordinator and he has a confident group that doesn’t mind being challenged. Or as the former NHL defenseman and coach put it, “Getting them to do what they don’t want to do sometimes so they can become what they want to become.”

“It’s been fun for me to watch them grow,” Yawney said. “I’ve said this before. When it’s going good, I just kind of stand behind. And if it’s starting to get a little off the rails, I’ll jump in front of them and try to get them back on track.

“They’ve been a lot of fun to work with and fun to watch.”

The Ducks may have the ideal mix at work now. Lindholm, Fowler and Vatanen are playmaking puck movers who are paired respectively with the physical, defensive-minded Beauchemin, Despres and Stoner.

Fowler and Lindholm were first-round selections while Vatanen was a fourth-round pick. Beauchemin was reacquired from Toronto four years ago by General Manager Bob Murray while Stoner was a free-agent signing. Ben Lovejoy and Bryan Allen were the other main holdovers to start the season.

Still, it was a unit many deemed a question mark and a hindrance to their Cup aspirations. Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau didn’t see it that way.

“Overall, we thought our defense was going to be better,” Boudreau said. “We thought it would be more mobile. Trent’s done a great job with them behind the blue line as far as getting them to play the right way.

“Sometimes it doesn’t show in the goals-against during the course of the season, but as the process continues, you get better and better and better. I think they’ve done a good job so far in the playoffs.”

Despres has been the surprising wild card. The 23-year-old native of Laval, Quebec was acquired from Pittsburgh for Lovejoy and fit seamlessly into their mix from his first game on March 3 at Arizona. His first postseason goal Thursday was decisive in the Ducks’ 2-1 Game 3 win – giving him seven points to go with a plus-8 rating.

Once seen as a likely extra, Despres’s nightly contribution of hard hits and poised puck play is turning the trade into an unmitigated steal for Murray. Murray, who was the NHL’s general manager of the year last spring, was named a finalist again Friday.

“He’s a guy that’s stepped in and played great for us,” Fowler said. “I’ve been saying it all along. Our partnership and our styles seem to complement each other. I think when that trade was made, people weren’t exactly sure where he’d fit or how’d things would work out.

“Obviously I enjoyed my time with Lovey. We were a great partnership too. Sometimes changes need to be made. … Sometimes things just click.”

Beauchemin was more effusive in his praise. He said “we noticed his abilities” right away in the game at Arizona.

“When you don’t expect much from a guy because you didn’t know the guy, it was a great surprise for everybody,” Beauchemin said. “He was the steal of the deadline, that’s for sure. In the last few years I don’t know if there’s a guy that was traded at the deadline that’s made such a big impact on a team as he did. It was just a great move by Murph.”

Said Despres: “We were the No. 1 team in the West when I got here. It’s a really good team to be on and I’ve tried to do my best to complement the other players.”

The six did some of their finest work in the Game 3 win Thursday and have supported goalie Frederik Andersen by blocking shots and clearing out the majority rebounds that happen to be left by the goalie.

Murray is impressed with the consistency and balance between the three pairs. And he’s also giving high marks to Yawney for his handling of the group.

“Trent is great for us,” Stoner said. “He shows confidence for all six of us. He plays us all fairly equal minutes, has confidence in us playing against any line. I think over the course of the 82 games, that’s really developed a good six-man unit that plays hard and really has faith in each other.

“We got young guys and old guys, so it’s a diverse group. But we play together, back each other up when we can.”

Contact the writer: estephens@ocregister.com