I previously ranked the top 10 players in the NHL at the midway mark of the season in an article here: Top 10 players at each position at the mid-way mark
Now given that game 82 was played last night and the playoffs are still a few days away, it looks like the perfect time to re-rank all the players based on this season's body of work.
So it is the top 10 centres, wingers defencemen and goalies with 4 honourable mentions (and no more)
NOTE: this is going by their "listed positions" on NHL.com, not necessarily where they play the bulk of their ice-time.
Centre
1) McDavid
2) Crosby
3) MacKinnon
4) Barkov
5) Draisaitl
6) Bergeron
7) Stamkos
8) Tavares
9) Point
10) Matthews
HM: Eichel, Scheifele, Monahan, Giroux
Winger
1) Kucherov
2) P. Kane
3) Marchand
4) Gaudreau
5) Ovechkin
6) Pastrnak
7) Marner
8) Rantanen
9) Huberdeau
10) Panarin
HM: Wheeler, Landeskog, Kessel, Radulov
Defense
1) Giordano
2) Burns
3) Rielly
4) Letang
5) Josi
6) Carlson
7) Hedman
8) E. Karlsson
9) Chabot
10) Krug
HM: Suter, Doughty, Yandle, Jones
Goaltending
1) Vaslivskiy
2) Bishop
3) Lehner
4) Kuemper
5) Andersen
6) Price
7) Rinne
8) Greiss
9) Murray
10) Fleury
HM: Bobrovski, Binnnington, Dubnyk, Gibson
NOTE: Goalie seems especially subjective given the need to strike a balance when weighing being a work-horse vs raw sv% and GAA over a more limited amount of games started (and thus a fresher, more rested goalie).
Rookies
1) Petterson
2) Dahlin
3) B. Tkachuck
4) Heiskanen
NOTE: for the top-4 rookies I just looked at teenagers. Rookies in their 20s are much more physically developed so comparing them is apples to oranges.
So what do you guys think? What are your own 2018-2019 season top-10 lists? If someone raises a convincing argument, I am totally willing to modify my lists; I admit, I don't regularly watch all 31 teams, so I might have missed something here having just relied on the paper stats for a bunch of these guys. Just remember, if you want to move someone up into the top-10, you also have to say who you would move out to make room for him.
NOTE: After feedback, I will make any changes in an edit and highlight how those changes affected the overall rankings of all guys in the top-10 (+ or - from original position).
Now given that game 82 was played last night and the playoffs are still a few days away, it looks like the perfect time to re-rank all the players based on this season's body of work.
So it is the top 10 centres, wingers defencemen and goalies with 4 honourable mentions (and no more)
NOTE: this is going by their "listed positions" on NHL.com, not necessarily where they play the bulk of their ice-time.
Centre
1) McDavid
2) Crosby
3) MacKinnon
4) Barkov
5) Draisaitl
6) Bergeron
7) Stamkos
8) Tavares
9) Point
10) Matthews
HM: Eichel, Scheifele, Monahan, Giroux
Winger
1) Kucherov
2) P. Kane
3) Marchand
4) Gaudreau
5) Ovechkin
6) Pastrnak
7) Marner
8) Rantanen
9) Huberdeau
10) Panarin
HM: Wheeler, Landeskog, Kessel, Radulov
Defense
1) Giordano
2) Burns
3) Rielly
4) Letang
5) Josi
6) Carlson
7) Hedman
8) E. Karlsson
9) Chabot
10) Krug
HM: Suter, Doughty, Yandle, Jones
Goaltending
1) Vaslivskiy
2) Bishop
3) Lehner
4) Kuemper
5) Andersen
6) Price
7) Rinne
8) Greiss
9) Murray
10) Fleury
HM: Bobrovski, Binnnington, Dubnyk, Gibson
NOTE: Goalie seems especially subjective given the need to strike a balance when weighing being a work-horse vs raw sv% and GAA over a more limited amount of games started (and thus a fresher, more rested goalie).
Rookies
1) Petterson
2) Dahlin
3) B. Tkachuck
4) Heiskanen
NOTE: for the top-4 rookies I just looked at teenagers. Rookies in their 20s are much more physically developed so comparing them is apples to oranges.
So what do you guys think? What are your own 2018-2019 season top-10 lists? If someone raises a convincing argument, I am totally willing to modify my lists; I admit, I don't regularly watch all 31 teams, so I might have missed something here having just relied on the paper stats for a bunch of these guys. Just remember, if you want to move someone up into the top-10, you also have to say who you would move out to make room for him.
NOTE: After feedback, I will make any changes in an edit and highlight how those changes affected the overall rankings of all guys in the top-10 (+ or - from original position).
