Trying not to read player rankings is as difficult as not eating a scrumptious Big Turk sitting in front of me. I love reading rankings of players. I devour a Big Turk when I see it. Of course, I rarely will agree with every aspect of the rankings, nor with those who dislike the deliciousness of Big Turk, but if I see a list I’m always reading it.
Sportsnet released their top-100 NHL players list today. I’ve compiled lists before and they are much more difficult than you think. Deciding why one player is ranked 23rd and the next 24th isn’t as easy as you’d think. They are fun to put together, and I have separated their top-100 into the five positions: Centre, left wing, right wing, defence and goalies.
It is interesting to note they had 30 centres and 29 D-men in their top-100 which fits with the belief centres and defenceman can impact the flow of the game the most. They also had 15 goalies, 14 RW and 12 LW.
Let’s go position by position.
Centre:
No surprises at the top of the list. I’m sure we can all make strong debates about a player we like moving up a few spots. I’d have Barkov higher, but it is likely just nitpicking if we want a player #8 instead of #10.
It interesting to note that ten of the top-30 centres play in the Pacific division. Edmonton, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose have two, while Calgary and Vegas have one. The Atlantic division has eight while the Central and Metropolitan have six.
The four Pacific teams along with Pittsburgh, Toronto, Washington, Florida and Tampa Bay had two centres on the list, while Calgary, Vegas, Colorado, Winnipeg, Boston, Dallas, NYI, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Chicago, St.Louis and Minnesota had one.
Which means ten teams didn’t have one centre in the top-30: Arizona, Vancouver, Nashville, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, NYR, Carolina, New Jersey and Columbus. I’m sure some in Nashville will argue Ryan Johansen could have made the list, but if Nashville is going to hoist the Cup do they need a better top-line centre?
- Connor McDavid, Edmonton
- Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh
- Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh
- Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado
- Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles
- John Tavares, Toronto
- Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg
- Auston Matthews, Toronto
- Patrice Bergeron, Boston
- Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay
- Tyler Seguin, Dallas
- Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington
- Nicklas Backstrom, Washington
- Aleksander Barkov, Florida
- Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
- Sean Couturier, Philadelphia
- Jack Eichel, Buffalo
- Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim
- William Karlsson, Vegas
- Jonathan Toews, Chicago
- Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton
- Logan Couture, San Jose
- Joe Pavelski, San Jose
- Sean Monahan, Calgary
- Brayden Point, Tampa Bay
- Ryan O’Reilly, St.Louis
- Rickard Rakell, Anaheim
- Vincent Trocheck, Florida
- Eric Staal, Minnesota
- Jeff Carter, Los Angeles
Right Wing
The Central division is home to half of the top right-wingers in the NHL. Seven of the top-14 reside in the Central, while four play in the Atlantic, two are in the Metro and only one in the Pacific. The Central is stacked with Kane, Wheeler, Laine and Tarasenko. Vancouver’s Brock Boeser was the only representative from the Pacific.
- Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay
- Patrick Kane, Chicago
- Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg
- Patrik Laine, Winnipeg
- Vladimir Tarasenko, St.Louis
- David Pastrnak, Boston
- Phil Kessel, Pittsburgh
- Jakub Voracek, Philadelphia
- Mitch Marner, Toronto
- Brock Boeser, Vancouver
- Mikko Rantanen, Colorado
- Mark Stone, Ottawa
- Viktor Arvidsson, Nashville
- Alexander, Radulov, Dallas
Left Wing
The Metro has the top-three left wingers in the game. Some Oilers fans will cringe reading this list. It is interesting to note only 12 LW cracked this top-100 list. I’d have had Jaden Schwartz on my list. I think he is very good. I could also see players like Kyle Connor, Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, now that he is a left winger, move up this list next season.
- Alex Ovechkin, Washington
- Taylor Hall, New Jersey
- Claude Giroux, Philadelphia
- Brad Marchand, Boston
- Jamie Benn, Dallas
- Artemi Panarin, Columbus
- Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary
- Filip Forsberg, Nashville
- Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas
- Nikolaj Ehlers, Winnipeg
- Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida
- Max Pacioretty, Montreal
Defence
Having solid defenders can really help your chances of success. While Nashville had no centres in the top-30, they have three D-men in the top-29 and two in the top-six. Much of the Predators success begins on the backend and it is why they are considered a strong contender in the West.
The Central division has nine D-men on this list, while the Metro and Atlantic each have seven and the Pacific has six. Edmonton, Vancouver, Vegas, Colorado, New Jersey, NYI, NYR, Detroit and Buffalo aren’t represented on this list. The two Rasmus’ in Buffalo could be on this list next season, and if Oscar Klefbom can stay healthy he will likely be in the conversation.
- Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay
- Erik Karlsson, Ottawa
- Drew Doughty, Los Angeles
- Brent Burns, San Jose
- K. Subban, Nashville
- Roman Josi, Nashville
- Seth Jones, Columbus
- Dustin Byfuglien, Winnipeg
- Alex Pietrangelo, St.Louis
- John Carlson, Washington
- John Klingberg, Dallas
- Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Arizona
- Duncan Keith, Chicago
- Aaron Ekblad, Florida
- Zach Werenski, Columbus
- Shayne Gostisbehere, Philadelphia
- Ryan Suter, Minnesota
- Dougie Hamiton, Carolina
- Mark Giordano, Calgary
- Kris Letang, Pittsburgh
- Shea Weber, Montreal
- Morgan Reilly, Toronto
- Ryan Ellis, Nashville
- Hampus Lindholm, Anaheim
- Ivan Provorov, Philadelphia
- Zdeno Chara, Boston
- Colton Parayko, St.Louis
- Charlie McAvoy, Boston
Goalie
This was split very evenly across the divisions. Every division had four goalies except the Pacific who had three. Martin Jones, Antti Raanta and Cam Talbot are likely in the 16-20 range. Of the 15 goalies on this list, 12 of them were on playoff teams last year. Only Carey Price, Henrik Lundqvist and Corey Crawford didn’t make the postseason. Four teams made the playoffs without a top-15 goalie; Philadelphia, San Jose, New Jersey and Colorado.
- Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus
- Braden Holtby, Washington
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay
- Carey Price, Montreal
- Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas
- Pekka Rinne, Nashville
- Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles
- Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg
- Frederik Andersen, Toronto
- Matt Murray, Pittsburgh
- John Gibson, Anaheim
- Tuukka Rask, Boston
- Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota
- Henrk Lundqvist, New York Rangers
- Corey Crawford, Chicago
WRAP UP…
Here is how many players each team had on the list:
Six: Nashville and Boston
Five: Winnipeg, Tampa, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington
Four: Anaheim, San Jose, LA, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Florida and Columbus
Three: Vegas, Calgary, Minnesota and Montreal
Two: Edmonton, Colorado and Ottawa
One: Arizona, Vancouver, Buffalo, New Jersey, Carolina, NYI and NYR.
Zero: Detroit
It is no surprise Washington, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Boston and Winnipeg are at the top. Those teams are considered leading contenders for the Cup on virtually every list of playoff predictions.
New Jersey and Colorado proved you don’t need many elite players to make the playoffs, and they, along with other teams with little representation in the top-100, will need their depth players to perform well and support the few elite players.
The Oilers fall into this category. We know McDavid will produce offensively, and most likely lead the league in points, but their defence, goaltending and supporting cast of forwards will need to be competitive and productive like they were in 2017 if the Oilers want to get back in the playoffs.
Recently by Jason Gregor:
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A quick look through and there seems to be an eastern bias on the part those who did the choosing.
Huh? East has 16 teams…they have 49 players on the list.
The west has 15 teams and they have 51 players on the list.
There is no eastern bias.
Draisitl at 51 is an absolute joke. Again, no respect towards Edmonton. What a shock
Really, I thought that was as generous as they could be with Draisaitl. He’s a monster asset to any team given he’s a proven producer when playing with star players. When playing alone and forced to drive his own line he is still really good but still inconsistent and far from elite in my opinion.
How do you figure? The coaching staff put a boat anchor on the left side and fringe NHLers on the right most of the time. Connor will drive a line well because he’s in a league all by himself. Give Leon better wingers and he’ll be a PPG player. He’s a filthy passer and has elite hockey sense. He’s a fast skater too even though his long strides look effortless. He’ll be better this year I think.
Personally I think when you have to start subbing in line mates to talk about how good a player is it’s because you’re trying to overrate them. Given the obvious that if I played with Connor I’d put up 60pts, beyond that no player in the NHL has perfect line mates and that’s part of the game(and has been their entire life), sure they may fluctuate +/- 10-20pts but when rating a player I’m more of the what you see is what you get.
Drai made his reputation on mcdavids wing. He still hasn’t shown enough centering his own line yet. He’s got all the tools and I believe that he will get there but I can’t honestly say he’s there quite yet…
I agree, he also played lights out with Hall. Being able to produce with and enable star players is no slouch of a skill set either for a young center that puts up 70pts on his own. He is one heck of a young center and will have a great career but I agree with you. He’s not quite a stand alone 1C yet as many suggest.
A garbage team like this and idiot fans like you and OriganlPouzer and I think people are going to respect that’s. Stupid Oilers. Respect is earned or given.
I haven’t even posted in this thread but yet you make two personal attacks on me out of nowhere and add absolutely nothing of value to to the thread.
Care to share what exactly it is about me that you take the time to come on and personally attack me? Why exactly am i at the top of your head so much? I mean its flattering that you think about me this much.
Thats offside,…I mean Goaltender Interference.
Unless he is a ducks fan. Goaltender interference doesn’t apply to them.
Ya whats up with that I didn’t see Talbot on the list either?
Oiler Stew since 2006.
I have zero faith in getting fair reporting in hockey from the Eastern media about the Oilers.
Frank Seravelli is up next? Thanks. I’ll pass.
Let’s add up top two center on points. McDavid and Leon? 97 and 29 top for next 8 years
The Oilers can help themselves by proving the East wrong by actually winning and making the playoffs.
You mean the Eastern media, including Seravalli, that was picking the Oilers to win the Stanley cup last season?
Wait mayber OriganlPou….Butthurt can tell us in an essay what he thinks. We need his fountain of knowledge or else we all will be lost. ?????. What a chump
The term “chump” can be perfectly described as someone who takes shots at others without adding anything of value themselves. In otherwords, the person staring at you in the mirror.
Just because you don’t agree with the takes of other, it does not allow you to take a personal shot at them. If you want to debate their points with different valid facts, then you are at the right site. If you want to act like a name calling 12 year old, maybe you should find somewhere else to be entertained, you sound like a game of Spongebob.
Compared to all of the Oilers Left wingers, Right Wingers, and Goaltenders……
Mick David and Driasaitl,……… look like Moses and Superman!
With 31 teams and 100 players and the top 10 teams having more qualified, a team will at most have 3. Last year Talbot and Klefbom would have been on that list. It would be great to have a dman on the list but expecting to have each position listed is a pipedream
These lists are always flawed so don’t take the results too seriously. It’s not a definitive list, just some guys list. And Kieth and Weber are going on reputation here.
Any given night anybody could be the player of the game. I’m wondering who on Edmonton is capable of making the list of defensemen next year? Hopefully Klef. Nurse and Larsson are long shots, but you never know. Bouchard and Bear will not.
Larsson is our best dman, but he’ll never make a list like this. Either will guys like Vlasic. Chara on the list is a joke.
Vlasic is on the list. He was 12th best Dman.
Larsson and Nurse are our 2 most important and best Defenceman.
They should be paid fairly.
Larsson is our best defensive defensemen, i wouldn’t call him our best overall defenseman though.
All of these top list are usually heavily based on reputation.
To your point, Giordano and Hamilton were the top pairing D, yet they barely made the list. It’s a eastern reputation based list
Big Turks are gross. Kind of like the Oilers chances at making the playoffs this season.
You might be bunged up from not eating them. Big Turks can cure a lot. 🙂
I stand corrected, lol
Agreed. This Oiler team is just not good enough.
teams at the top, draft and trade for skill,
teams at the bottom, draft and trade for size and truculence
teams at the top, win
teams at the bottom lose
but hall was a cancer, barzal wasnt coachable, lucic can fight, reinhart is big, moroz is a good hitter, musil is a big stay at home defenceman, caggulia has grit
= losers
Interesting list. The teams with 1 or 0 players are among the worst in the league and the teams with 2 and 3 players in the list will be battling for wild card spots. Karlsson in the top 10 at C is a joke. Same with MacKinnon at 4.
If RNH was classified as a LW which he probably will be after this season he would be ahead of Pacioretty imo
Barzal above Draisaitl is an absolutely brutal choice.
Klingberg @ 11?
How does this compare to the same rankings last year when the Oilers were favourites to go deep and challenge for the cup?
I always have a hard time with the top centres list when I see Auston Matthews above Aleksander Barkov. The lists aren’t bad, but that one is especially hard for me to take.