The Top 100 Players in the NHL - 100-26

Read it and weep

The dog days of summer are rolling upon us and the doldrums of the NHL offseason are here in full force. There’s not much to talk about in the hockey world, and frankly, I’m pivoting to the baseball stretch run and the ramp up to football season until late September. But before I close the book on the 2021-22 NHL season, I wanted to leave a morsel to help kickstart discussion in the fall: my annual Top 100 NHL players ranking.

Last year I simply did a ranking for myself, showed it to a few friends, but never published it. This year? I’m going public, baby. My ranking will be broken up into two articles, because it would be too long for one piece considering the level of analysis I want to put in. So this one will be players 100-26, and then tomorrow I will release the top 25, which will be much more in depth on each listed player. Before we get rolling, I will present the criteria and method by which I use to rank players, which you can see below.

Criteria: I rank players based on a three year sliding scale. As in I look at their play over the past three seasons to rank them. Some guys do get a pinch of reputation points if their play goes beyond that span, but for most part, I’ve focused it down to this window. The idea is to smooth out some of the noise that can come from a year to year basis; I don’t want the rankings changing drastically every season. That said, it is weighted more heavily towards the present. Players who were injured and/or bad much of this season saw themselves drop (goodbye, Jake Muzzin and Alex Pietrangelo) and those who saw big improvements in their play flew up the board (hello, Matt Duchene and Johnny Gaudreau). For younger players, I weight extremely heavily towards the present given that they are developing and each season may be more variable, but they do get docked slightly for being young. Having a breakout year is great, but to climb further they will need to continue that level of play. Hence why Igor Shesterkin is not yet the top goalie in my rankings (as you will see in Part 2). Another year at that level and he will move to the pole position among netminders.

Method: To start, I ranked players within their positional groups, forwards, defensemen and goalies. I didn’t bother distinguishing between centers and wingers because a number of players slide between the two positions and fundamentally, playing forward is the same idea no matter where you are in modern hockey. After ranking them in positional groups, I broke those rankings into tiers. To create the top 100, I took the Tier 1 defensemen, goalies, and forwards, and ranked them. Then I moved onto Tier 2, and so on and so forth. When I ranked all the Tier 1 players together, it was mostly unscientific. I spent far more time fretting about the rankings within positional groups than I did when I was combining the groups. It’s really hard to compare a D to a F, let alone a D/F to a G. Outside of the top, say, five guys, think of any player’s ranking as being +/- 3 spots. I don’t honestly care that much about the individual number. It’s their place in the overall ranking (tiers) that matters far more.

The Ranking

100. Valeri Nichushkin, RW, COL

99. Drew Doughty, D, LAK

98. Mat Barzal, C, NYI

97. Bryan Rust, RW, PIT

96. Robert Thomas, C, STL

This is a nice collection of players who are all a bit different from each other. Drew Doughty is a veteran jumping back into the Top 100 after a strong season for LA that saw him find his old level of play before injury dashed his season. At 26:00 ATOI over the past three seasons, he is the second most-used defenseman in the NHL and I give out credit for being a workhorse. Val Nichushkin moves into the Top 100 after finally putting together a season (including playoffs) that saw him produce offensively in a manner that lined up with years of excellent underlying analytics. His playoff performance was just too impressive to keep out.

Mat Barzal tumbles down the board after a disappointing season (a theme for Islanders on this list), but he stays in the Top 100 based on the preceding two seasons. Robert Thomas enters the Top 100 as a young player who had a breakout campaign for St. Louis, scoring a point-per-game and asserting himself as one of the top young passers in the league, while Bryan Rust is still a very good top six winger who inked a sizable extension to stay in Pittsburgh.

95. Sean Couturier, C, PHI

94. Mats Zuccarello, LW, MIN

93. Erik Černak, D, TBL

92. Timo Meier, RW, SJS

91. Jeff Petry, D, PIT (formerly MTL)

I love this grouping of five guys because it’s probably the grouping that the public underrates the most. Before you start yelling at me about overrating Sean Couturier, I know he had a rough injury riddled year, and that’s why he’s down the list. But even with that factored in, Couturier still is a productive offensive centerman who is a great defensive player. One bad year couldn’t quite knock him out for me.

Beyond that, wow do we have some great, underrated players here. Mats Zuccarello? Dude is a point-per-game since Kaprizov came over and a high-end finisher. Erik Černak? He gets docked a bit for providing no offense and playing <20 minutes per night, but there are few better pure defenders than him, a massively underrated piece of the Tampa dynasty. Timo Meier scored 35 goals and no one noticed because he plays in San Jose, and Jeff Petry got to escape Montreal this offseason, bringing with him an effective two-way game that has aged well into his 30s.

90. Anže Kopitar, C, LAK

89. TJ Brodie, D, TOR

88. Matt Duchene, C, NSH

87. Nikolaj Ehlers, LW, WPG

86. Nazem Kadri, C, ?? (formerly COL)

We still don’t know who Kadri is going to be with this season, but it seems like either the Islanders or the Avalanche. Either way, he rides a career year into the Top 100. Probably not going to replicate it again, but gotta reward excellence, even if it’s lightning in a bottle. Old Faithful Anže Kopitar is still kicking in the Top 100, having led his Kings back to the playoffs with another stellar season, while Matt Duchene remembered how to score goals and potted 43 of them en route back to the Top 100. TJ Brodie makes the list in recognition of his excellence as a defensive defenseman and the vital role he plays taking top assignments at 5v5 and on the PK for a very good Toronto team. Nik Ehlers rounds us out, one of my favorite players to watch. He wasn’t talked about as much this year because the Jets are a cesspool of middle-school-girl drama, but he’s just under a point-per-game over the past two seasons, scoring over 35 goals per 82 games in that span. The dude is electric.

85. John Tavares, C, TOR

84. David Perron, LW, DET

83. Chris Tanev, D CGY

82. Noah Hanifin, D, CGY

81. Roope Hintz, LW, DAL

Calgary’s got two defensemen who make an appearance here, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin. Last year they partnered to be one of the league’s most dominant shutdown pairs and this year they split up to control play on two separate pairs. Regardless, they are the backbone of a top defense in the NHL and both get their recognition. Roope Hintz joins the Top 100 after posting his second straight point-per-game(ish) season, using his size, speed, and skill to play right wing on one of the NHL’s top lines in Dallas next to Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson.

John Tavares is still in the Top 100, despite all the consternation about his pay and place in the league. Yes, he’s not a $11 M player anymore, but he is still a menace on the PP, piles up the points, and has scored at a 30 goal pace over the past three seasons, not to mention the fact he was the Leafs’ best forward in Game 6 and 7 against Tampa. Tavares still belongs. Speaking of still belonging, David Perron… and why did the Red Wings sign him? I mean, I’m not complaining as a Red Wings fan, but Perron is still really freaking good (also a PP menace) and he’s old. Why didn’t he sign with a contender? My guess is he wanted the money only a team like Detroit could offer.

80. Ilya Sorokin, G, NYI

79. Darnell Nurse, D, EDM

78. Tomáš Hertl, C, SJS

77. Jordan Kyrou, C/RW, STL

76. Jesper Bratt, F, NJD

This is the rising star grouping, with Kyrou, Sorokin, and Bratt all leaping into the top 100. Kyrou and Bratt are two similar players, electric skaters who are so fun to watch in the offensive zone, both busting out for 70-point campaigns after showing promise a year ago. Their numbers are remarkably similar and it felt incorrect to separate them too much. Sorokin is the first goalie to appear and boy was he terrific this season: .925 SV% and 21.64 goals saved above expected in Evolving Hockey’s numbers. Much like Kyrou and Bratt, this was the breakout campaign following a season of promise a year prior for Sorokin. He was clearly a top five goalie in the NHL this year.

Darnell Nurse could be controversial to some given his defensive issues and his point total ticking down after last year, but Nurse’s defensive metrics actually increased this year, while the lower point totals were really just shooting percentage luck reverting to the mean. He’s still a very talented offensive defenseman and I cut him some slack because Edmonton asks him to do waaaaay too much. At 25:18 ATOI the past two seasons, he’s one of the most heavily used defensemen in the league and there’s no doubt that weighs his overall play down some. Hertl is a guy, like Timo Meier, who hasn’t been talked about much because he plays for the Sharks. It’s a shame, because he’s an excellent player, a 30-goal center who plays a strong two-way game and is worth the contract extension San Jose signed him to (why they signed him to that deal, is another question).

75. Claude Giroux, C/LW, OTT (formerly PHI/FLA)

74. Jakob Chychrun, D, ARI

73. Shea Theodore, D, VGK

72. Morgan Rielly, D, TOR

71. Jack Hughes, C, NJD

Eclectic collection of players here, including Jack Hughes, who would be my pick to be the biggest riser next season. Hughes went from “trending in the right direction” to absolutely elite this past season, but injuries limiting him to just 49 games is why he’s only at #71. If Hughes scores at that pace over a full 82 (would come out to >90 points), he will be flying up the board to the franchise player category. Claude Giroux is on the opposite end of his career arc, choosing to sign this summer with the Ottawa Senators in what could be his last NHL contract. Giruox is still a wily offensive player, a good passer who plays a complete game and can do just about anything you want him to. A great career and one that is coming up on 1,000 points too, the ideal veteran signing for a young Sens team.

The other three slots are held by defensemen. Shea Theodore tumbled after a tough year in Vegas (a common theme for Knights, like the Isles) but was still a good enough player to stay in the top 75. Jakob Chychrun saw his shooting percentage luck revert and his offensive numbers crater, but his defense was stellar and you have to grade on a curve playing in a tough situation in Arizona (and this is before he moves into the NCAA bandbox arena). Morgan Rielly still has never figured out how to defend the rush, but he stitched together an excellent 58-assist, 68-point campaign (plus 3-3-6 in 7 playoff games) to keep his place among the top puck-rushers in the league.

70. Ryan Pulock, D, NYI

69. Kevin Fiala, LW, LAK (formerly MIN)

68. Max Pacioretty, LW, CAR (formerly VGK)

67. Pavel Buchnevich, LW, STL

66. Sam Reinhart, C/F, FLA

All four forwards here were either traded this summer or last summer. Fiala was shipped to the Kings from the capped-out Wild who are drowning in Parise/Suter money, and he’s coming off a career year, scoring 33 goals and 85 points. Max Pacioretty being given away for nothing as a cap dump by Vegas was baffling. Yes, Patch is older now and missed half of last year, but he’s scored at a 41-goal per 82-game pace over the past two seasons! There are not that many better pure goalscorers in the NHL than Max Pacioretty when it comes to consistency.

Pavel Buchnevich was the subject of last offseason’s most baffling trade, and it validated everyone who panned it from the Rangers perspective, as Buchnevich went out and scored a point-per-game for his new team in St. Louis, while playing good defense. Reinhart fetched a much higher cost last summer but it was worth the price as he posted career-best numbers in Florida’s offense-happy system, driving an elite third line with Anton Lundell and Mason Marchment.

Ryan Pulock is the lone defenseman here and he is much lower after an injury-plagued year, but there was little decline in his play when he did suit up, still clocking in as a strong two-way force for the Isles.

65. Chris Kreider, LW, NYR

64. Juuse Saros, G, NSH

63. Elias Pettersson, C, VAN

62. Ryan O’Reilly, C, STL

61. Mark Scheifele, WPG

Chris Kreider, a career 13.4% shooter prior to last season, has now shot 20.0% the past two campaigns to score 72 goals in 131 games (!!), still doing it all from within a couple feet of the crease as the new master of deflections and tap-ins. Juuse Saros is our second goalie listed, posting a second-straight excellent year (.918, +12.59 GSAx) and putting up those numbers in a backbreaking workload (67 starts!), though that probably contributed to his injury that caused him to miss the playoffs.

This grouping ends with a run on centers in the Western Conference. We’re still waiting for Elias Pettersson to put it all together, but even as a frustrating enigma, he’s still a very good hockey player who scores a lot of goals and drives play at both ends. EP40’s end to the year (23-25-48 in 40 games) is a good glimpse of his still sky-high potential. Ryan O’Reilly’s offense is in decline but there are few better two-way centers than him (top five in Selke voting four straight seasons) and RO’R is the consummate playoff gamer. Been a fan of his for years now. Mark Scheifele, unlike O’Reilly, has not played a second of defense since he entered the NHL a decade ago, but at 1.06 points-per-game over the past three seasons as a goal-scoring centerman, it’s hard to deny Schiefele’s offensive sizzle.

60. Brett Pesce, D, CAR

59. Quinn Hughes, D, VAN

58. Joe Pavelski, C, DAL

57. Adam Pelech, D, NYI

56. Jonas Brodin, D, MIN

This is a defense-heavy tier, and the one forward listed, Joe Pavelski, is an excellent defensive forward who has had two Selke-caliber years in a row centering the Hintz and Robertson line in Dallas. Quinn Hughes is the lone offensive D of the four here, ranked a bit lower than what his potential is, but 2021’s debacle of a campaign for the Canucks in the North Division is still included in our recent sample. He rebounded very well to set franchise records for offensive production as a defenseman this past year, and Hughes’ talent as an offensive defenseman is certainly among the highest in the league. He just needs another highly productive season to move up the rankings.

Brett Pesce is an awesome two-way defenseman for the Hurricanes. He doesn’t have the gaudy point totals because Carolina doesn’t use him on the PP, but he can move the puck and is rock solid defensively, logging ~22 minutes per night for a contender. Jonas Brodin and Adam Pelech are my picks for the two best pure defensive defensemen in the game (edging out Tanev, Brodie, and Černak), which is how they find themselves ranked this high. Both are dominant defensive players who choke the life out of opposing offenses, though I ranked Brodin slightly higher due to his heavy workload (played 23.5 minutes per night this season!).

55. William Nylander, F, TOR

54. Elias Lindholm, F, CGY

53. Zach Werenski, D, CBJ

52. Jack Eichel, C, VGK

51. Evgeni Malkin, C, PIT

Only one defenseman here and he’s of the offensive variety, Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets. With Seth Jones leaving town, Werenski played a whopping 25:40 on average this season(!!) and handled it gracefully. He’s not great defensively, but he’s hyper-skilled and creative offensively, and again, I grade on a curve for guys who are asked to do way too much.

Nylander and Lindholm means Sweden gets two players here, both coming off career years. Lindholm centered the mega-line of Tkachuk-Lindholm-Gaudreau in Calgary, though he’s now the only one left standing. He’s a skilled two-way forward who poured in 42 goals and though his defensive metrics declined some in exchange for his better offense, he still is respectable through all 200-feet. William Nylander scored a career-best 34 goals and finished one point short of an exact point-per-game pace in the regular season and then continued to destroy The Narrative by again having a strong playoffs. Though he gets flak for lacking defensive play, his analytics have never been Phil Kessel or Mark Scheifele bad defensively; in fact, they’re quite decent. When you combine that with his great shot and passing ability + the electric skating with value in the transitional game *and* the fact he’s been the most consistent playoff performer of the Leafs’ Core Four, you get a highly ranked player. Even if that’s not what caller Gary from Oshawa wants you to believe.

Finally we have two injury-prone centers who are top notch players when healthy to round out these five. Jack Eichel was shipped out of Buffalo, returned after his surgery, and was… not very good? I’m going to chalk it up to injury and deem it a lost year. The reason I’m still comfortable ranking him this high is the preceding two years were so strong at both ends of the ice. If Eichel can get fully healthy, he’s a hell of a player. As for Malkin, a future HOFer enters his twilight years still producing offense at an elite clip when healthy. He’s not healthy enough to rank him higher than this, but when he plays, he’s still scoring at a 1.12 PPG clip in the last three years.

50. Filip Forsberg, F, NSH

49. Gabriel Landeskog, LW, COL

48. Moritz Seider, D, DET

47. Jake Guentzel, LW, PIT

46. JT Miller, F, VAN

Some major risers here, including the obvious, Moritz Seider. His rookie year was extremely impressive, playing massive minutes for a bad Red Wings team and not being overwhelmed. Solid defensively and with 50 points on offense, that’s a pretty nice start. Do it again and he’ll move up even higher.

Filip Forsberg and JT Miller are both coming off career years. Forsberg had a great Contract Year Overperformance, scoring 42 goals, but as outlier(y) as it may be, he deserves to be ranked this high given his well-rounded game and the limited help he has in Nashville. JT Miller came agonizingly close to a triple digit point total, but he’ll have to settle for 99 points. I was more down on Miller than anyone after what I saw from him last year, but his offense perked up and he at least tried defensively this season, which results in a big move up the rankings.

Jake Guentzel and Gabe Landeskog are wing-men for two of the best centers in the game in Crosby and MacKinnon. Guentzel notched 40 goals for the second time in his career and didn’t stop scoring in the postseason, putting up 8 in a seven game series (!). He’s an all-offense winger, yes, but his production is high-end and it merits a ranking at #47. Landeskog is knocked down a bit due to injury issues but he’s an awesome player, giving you a little bit of something everywhere on the ice, be it offense, defense, grit, or leadership. He’s scored at a 39 goals per 82 games pace over the past two seasons and put up 11-11-22 in 20 playoff games en route to hoisting the Stanley Cup as Colorado’s captain. Pretty good!

45. John Carlson, D, WSH

44. Thomas Chabot, D, OTT

43. Brayden Point, C, TBL

42. Mark Stone, RW, VGK

41. Sebastian Aho, C, CAR

John Carlson just scores points. I always have him ranked lower in my head and then adjust him up when I make the rankings because I see how much he scores. He is a puck-rusher with limited defensive contributions, yeah, yeah, but he is second in the NHL in points by a defenseman over the past three seasons and third in PPG pace. In my head I have him on the same level as Morgan Rielly and Quinn Hughes, but statistically, he’s ahead of them in actual production and that should count for something. Analytics like him too, to be fair.

I’ve said during this piece that I give credit for defensemen being asked to do a lot, and no one personifies “being asked to do waaaay too much” than Thomas Chabot. He has played >26 minutes per night in three straight seasons for an Ottawa team whose blue line is a catastrophe. In a perfect world, Chabot would be in the Carlson mold, allowed to focus on offense, but on Ottawa, he has to do everything and conserve energy to play all the time. He dealt with some injuries this year but Chabot still scored at a 52 points per 82 pace while seeing his defensive impacts rise and again being tasked with playing all the time. Few guys are in a worse situation than him and he handles it well. Chabot better be hoping Jake Sanderson pans out, though.

Brayden Point and Mark Stone are like Eichel and Malkin, together in a grouping and bonded by injury issues. Both were higher on my rankings last year but struggled due to various ailments. Stone was not himself when he played for Vegas this year and then was LTIR’d. It may have been a cap manipulation tactic, but you could tell Stone was not right from his play. When he’s on, he has a claim to being the best two-way winger in the sport. He wasn’t that this season, but we’ve seen enough good from Mark Stone to leave him in the top 50.

Point missed 16 games in the regular season and wasn’t as sharp in those games, before playing 6ish forgettable games (well, except for the one OT goal) against the Leafs prior to tearing a quad in Game 7, which more or less washed out the rest of his playoffs. Like Stone, though, one disappointing/injury-riddled year is not enough to drop a guy who scored 28 postseason goals over 2020 and 2021 out of the top 50.

Finally there’s Sebastian Aho, one of the most reliable players in the NHL. He’s a top-notch goal-scoring center and is remarkably consistent in his production. Here’s his points-per-game totals over the past three seasons: 0.97, 1.02, 1.03. And how about his playoff clip over that span? 1.03. Good, freakishly consistent player.

40. Patrick Kane, RW, CHI

39. Mika Zibanejad, C, NYR

38. Jason Robertson, LW, DAL

37. Kyle Connor, LW, WPG

36. Dougie Hamilton, D, NJD

Patrick Kane is still hanging around in the #40 slot. One of the great analytics mysteries, we know he doesn’t play any defense but regardless of the befuddled xG models, the boxcar stats speak for themselves. Kane is a flawed player because of the issues in his own end, but he creates gobs of offense as a still-elite passer, scoring 1.19 PPG in the past three seasons. He will likely be a top trade target this season. On the other end of the career trajectory we have a new entry in Jason Robertson, who followed up his near-Calder year last season with an epic campaign for Dallas, 41 goals and 79 points in just 74 games. He is rapidly becoming one of the game’s best players around the net, and his 11 game-winning goals are indicative of a player who carried his team to the postseason. A budding star before our eyes.

Kyle Connor and Mika Zibanejad nestle in the top 40 because they score a lot of goals. Zibanejad has potted the ninth-most goals in the NHL over the past three seasons and then scored 10-14-24 in 20 playoff games, which boosted him up further. Connor actually ranks fifth on that list of goals over the past three seasons, thanks in part to his gargantuan 47 goals this year. Few guys are better at scoring off the rush than Connor, using that great skating and lethal shot to punish teams relentlessly in transition. He’s docked some for playing zero defense (like Scheifele), but if half the objective in hockey is to score goals, Connor does that at an elite rate.

Dougie Hamilton rounds us out as another faller due to injury. Hamilton’s stock fell in his first season in New Jersey, missing 20 games and scoring only 30 points, with his defensive metrics cratering in particular. I’m going to chalk it up to injury and there’s enough here over the past three years (two top eight finishes in Norris voting from 2020-21) to keep Hamilton in the upper echelon of defensemen in the league, even if this is lower than last year.

35. Jonathan Huberdeau, LW, CGY (formerly FLA)

34. Kris Letang, D, PIT

33. Alex DeBrincat, RW, OTT (formerly CHI)

32. MacKenzie Weegar, D, CGY (formerly FLA)

31. Matthew Tkachuk, RW, FLA (formerly CGY)

Three of the five players listed here were involved in the blockbuster trade a couple weeks ago between Calgary and Florida. Based on my rankings, it was a clear win for Calgary (the contract situations do muddle the picture a bit, I will say). Tkachuk is the best player of the group, coming off an incredible 42 goals and 104 points season while playing his hard-nosed, irascible game and competing in all 200-feet. He’s a sweet player, but let’s not blow it out of proportion: this was his first year of elite production and he (for the most part) flopped in the playoffs. #31 was as high as I could go. Getting him and locking him up for eight years is good business for Florida.

Problem is, the Panthers gave up two really good players to do it. Huberdeau might be a top three passer in the game, with brilliant vision that allowed him to lead the league in assists while scoring a staggering 115 points (!), but his inability to contribute anything defensively knocks him down quite a few notches. Weegar is a player I absolutely love, and he will be the big loss for Florida to me. Yes, he occasionally makes the very stupid error that looks bad on a highlight reel, but if you consume hockey in any other manner than watching the Steve Dangle “Dang-It” videos, you will see he’s an impeccable defenseman. Weegar is an elite rush defender and his offensive ability is quite solid despite getting limited PP time. It’s not going to be easy for Florida to move on without a defenseman who played nearly 23.5 minutes per night on the top pair and did it with superb results.

Alex DeBrincat also changed teams this summer, with Ottawa getting a steal on the young, bite-sized winger. Over the past two seasons, only Matthews, Draisaitl, McDavid, Kaprizov, and Ovechkin have scored more goals than DeBrincat, after scoring 40+ for the second time in his career. DeBrincat will miss getting feeds from Patrick Kane, but he should be just fine playing with Giroux and Stützle in Ottawa. That shot will play anywhere.

Kris Letang finishes it out after a very good 68-point season for the Penguins. The defensive impacts are not what they once were (I do think the eye test is more favorable here) but Letang still drives offensive play 16 years into his NHL career.

30. Aaron Ekblad, D, FLA

29. Patrice Bergeron, C, BOS

28. Miro Heiskanen, D, DAL

27. Sidney Crosby, C, PIT

26. Steven Stamkos, F, TBL

This is the Oldies and young(ish) defensemen grouping. Starting with the blueliners, Aaron Ekblad dealt with another injury but navigated around it to put up career highs, scoring 57 points in 61 games. He’s a decent defensive player but a tremendous offensive one, among the game’s best shooters and PP-men at the defensive position. Ekblad fit comfortably in Florida’s all-offense system. He also gets points for averaging ~25 minutes per night the last two years.

Heiskanen, just turning 23, is on the verge of jumping into the ranks of the truly elite defensemen, but he’s already top ten in my view. His playoff zone exit data as tracked by Dmitri Filipovic is off the charts, using his puck-handling and elite skating to lead Dallas in transition, while also being one of the best rush defenders as well, lock-down in his own zone. With John Klingberg on the way out, I’d expect Heiskanen’s point totals to skyrocket with more PP time, which should get him more in the Norris conversation. At this point, I’d be shocked if, in ten years time, Heiskanen hasn’t won a Norris at least once.

As for the Oldies, what more can you say about Patrice Bergeron? Five selkes? All-time record. And this most recent one came in what was his best defensive year yet according to the analytics. His offensive production is down from its peak, but he’s still within shouting distance of a point-per-game and more of his offense comes through goals, the most valuable kind of point. Not bad for one of the five best defensive forwards to ever play in the NHL.

Crosby is a living legend himself, still chugging along. He scored 1.22 points per game this season, with over 30 goals and is respectable in his own end. Crosby just turned 35 and there’s not much else to say other than “how much longer can he keep this up?”. He will likely cross 900 assists and could hit 550 goals this coming year, while 1500 points is also within the realm of possibility. One of the best to ever do it is still sharp in his mid-30s.

Steven Stamkos is my #1 candidate for PED testing. After seeming to be in decline over the preceding couple seasons, Stamkos, at age 32, had arguably the best year of his career since the 60-goal season. He scored 42 goals and hit 100+ points for the first time in his career, matching Jason Robertson’s total of 11 game-winning goals. That bomb of a slapshot is still there, but it was the rest of his game improving that made it so startling. 64 assists was a carer high and ya just gotta wonder, how is he doing this? This coming year should be a milestone season for Stammer, like Crosby, as he’s in line to hit 500 goals, 500 assists, and 1,000 points if he stays healthy. We’re at the point where 600 goals seems extremely likely before it’s all said and done for Stamkos.

Honorable Mentions

That’s the end of 100-26. You can probably guess who the top 25 are going to be based on process of elimination and so I wanted to spend this last section throwing bones to those who just missed out on inclusion. Think of this as the group of names who would be populating the 101-125 space if that were a thing. I’ll do them by position:

FORWARD: Anthony Cirelli, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrik Laine, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen, Andre Burakovsky, Brock Nelson, Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Clayton Keller, Nick Suzuki, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Josh Norris, Alex Tuch, Evander Kane

DEFENSE: Brent Burns, Rasmus Andersson, Mattias Ekholm, Rasmus Dahlin, Justin Faulk, Mark Giordano, Dmitry Orlov, Cam Fowler, Noah Dobson, Matt Grzelcyk

GOALIE: Darcy Kuemper, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko