ESPN Top 25 NHL Players of the 21st Century

[daver]

Kane won 3 cups, has the most points in the 2010s in the regular seasons, second in the playoff, post operation 17th season in a career that started with the Calder he is still able to score, great on a stacked team with a Panarin, great once the Hawks were an offensive hole, if something like clutch exist he had it.

No problem with Malkin (if he does not miss that many game he would be there) or old Lidstrom > Kane, but acting like it is scandalous to have him really high seem a stretch, until recently he felt like a clear top 4 of the 21th century, Kucherov-Mack and specially McDavid throwing wrench at it now.

Malkin also won 3 Cups and has the better Cup runs between the two

Malkin has MORE points, period, in both the regular season and the playoffs.

Malkin's peak season came when Crosby only played 22 games

Two Art Rosses to One

Higher PPG in both the RS and the POs

Contributed more defensively than Kane.


Kane vs. Kucherov is the better comparable.

 

[bobholly39]

Ranking the top 25 NHL players of the 21st century

From Crosby to Thornton, Ovechkin to Chara, here are hockey's best from the past 25 years.

www.espn.com

ESPN's Top 25 NHLers of the 21st Century:

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Alex Ovechkin
3. Connor McDavid
4. Patrick Kane
5. Nicklas Lidstrom
6. Nathan MacKinnon
7. Martin Brodeur
8. Henrik Lundqvist
9. Evgeni Malkin
10. Patrice Bergeron
11. Zdeno Chara
12. Steven Stamkos
13. Leon Draisaitl
14. Joe Thornton
15. Auston Matthews
16. Erik Karlsson
17. Nikita Kucherov
18. Marc-Andre Fleury
19. Andrei Vasilevskiy
20. Jarome Iginla
21. Anze Kopitar
22. Pavel Datsyuk
23. Duncan Keith
24. Victor Hedman
25. Jonathan Quick

Alright here goes with a more in-depth criticizing....

McDavid #3 behind Crosby/Ovi? Absolutely no problem. Career-wise and length this is a super rationale take, even if many might say he's better. So top 3 is fine.

#4 Kane. No. Malkin and Kucherov are better. But....devil's advocate....if you really love Kane, you could potentially argue him for #4 so long as the others were 5 & 6 but...

Lidstrom? Ok - let's ignore him. A bit weird since he's 50/50 90s and 2000s - is this his whole career or what? If it's his whole career - him being behind Kane is idiotic. If it's half his career...no idea, don't even want to try to do that math. So - I'll ignore

MacKinnon....what? Over Malkin? Kucherov? Makes absolutely no sense. Even if you think he's better than both of them (he's not) - his career isn't yet since it's only half a career. If you're going by peak, McDavid could be #1 too - so huge logic gap there. (even for peak/prime, I'd have him behind Malkin and Kucherov, but at least it's closer).

Brodeur...i'll be generous and ignore him too for same reasons as Lidstrom. If it's ful career....idiotic he should be higher. If it's half career...no idea, maybe.

Lundqvist? Huh? Above Malkin/Kucherov? Absolutely brutal and ridiculous take. Also - all-time, Lundqvist/Price are very close. I could see some ranking Henrik's career higher - but him being #8 while Price isn't even on this list is idiotic.

Malkin at 9 - he should be 4

I'll skip a few

Kucherov at 17 - behind all of Matthews, Draisaitl and MacKinnon is the worst thing I've seen on the Internet today.

Fleury as the second best goalie - above Price and all the others? Again, stupid.

I could go on - but like I said in my earlier post, this is legitimately one of the worst rankings I've ever seen,

 

[VanIslander]

One thing is for sure...

Goalie greatness isn't front and foremost in telling the history of this quarter century.

 

[jigglysquishy]

How I currently rate these players

1. Crosby
2. Ovechkin
3. McDavid
4. Lidstrom
5. Brodeur
6. Malkin
7. Kucherov
8. Kane
9. Chara
10. MacKinnon
11. Karlsson
12. Iginla
13. Draisaitl
14. Keith
15. Thornton
16. Hedman
17. Doughty
18. Datsyuk
19. St. Louis
20. Bergeron
21. Kopitar
22. Matthews
23. Lundqvist
24. Makar
25. Zetterberg

Edit. Assuming Pronger and Selanne are structurally excluded

 

[MadLuke]

Lidstrom? Ok - let's ignore him. A bit weird since he's 50/50 90s and 2000s - is this his whole career or what? If it's his whole career - him being behind Kane is idiotic. If it's half his career...no idea, don't even want to try to do that math. So - I'll ignore

Lidstrom won all of his 7 Norris after january 1, 2001 and his Smythe I think.

Would it be whole career he would be higher. And a player like Jagr would near the top instead of absent.

 

[bobholly39]

Lidstrom won all of his 7 Norris after january 1, 2001 and his Smythe I think.

Would it be whole career he would be higher.

Yeah I hate the idea of ranking partial careers. To me you decide if a player is eligible or not in whatever ranking you're doing - and if he is, you should look at full career. That goes for both Lidstrom and Brodeur in this list.

Maybe Lidstrom 2000+ and Brodeur too are close to correctly ranked, I'm not sure - I really prefer looking at whole careers.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Where is Chris Pronger?

 

[VanIslander]

Where is Chris Pronger?

Somewhere below:

17. Doughty
24. Makar

... apparently.

 

[jigglysquishy]

Somewhere below:

17. Doughty
24. Makar

... apparently.

You need to read the post closer.

ESPN didn't have him eligible.

For whatever it is worth, I have Pronger between Kucherov and Kane.

 

[Dingo]

its pretty good overall

Kucherov and Kane could switch and id be happy.

Other than that its just the guys who fizzled out in the early century who are getting shortchanged as far as peak at least. Forsberg and Sakic had brilliant seasons, as did Jagr. Lidstrom and Pronger might be getting shortchanged.

It feels more like a 'best since 2005' list, in which id be happy to just switch Kooch and Kane, and it would be more or less good.

 

[MadLuke]

ESPN didn't have him eligible.

Edit. Assuming Pronger and Selanne are structurally excluded

If it would be because of more game played in the 20th vs 21th century, Pronger played 541 regular season games in the 20th century:

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

vs 626 after, not sure if it is that different of a ratio than Lidstrom.

Missing the Hart season hurt him quite a bit.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Yeah I hate the idea of ranking partial careers. To me you decide if a player is eligible or not in whatever ranking you're doing - and if he is, you should look at full career. That goes for both Lidstrom and Brodeur in this list.

Totally agree. What are supposed to do - pretend 8.5 seasons of Lidstrom didn't happen? We're basically talking about a whole different player at that point.

Lidstrom minus 8.5 years of Lidstrom isn't nearly as valuable as the actual real life Lidstrom.

 

[MadLuke]

Totally agree. What are supposed to do - pretend 8.5 seasons of Lidstrom didn't happen? We're basically talking about a whole different player at that point.

Lidstrom minus 8.5 years of Lidstrom isn't nearly as valuable as the actual real life Lidstrom.

We need to not get too anal about this, ignoring pre january 1, 20001 games seem not only the simplest but only way too go.

You could consider everyone that played 50% of their career or more than X games after 2001 and then consider all their career, but what do you with Jagr here ?

Jagr-Lidstrom would have a good argument to be 1-2 of the 21st century with that system, Pronger-Brodeur could be really really high (Jagr played way more game in the 21th century than in the 20th, almost 1000 versus 763) but would make for more controversy and a worst list for what they are going for and its title here imo.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

"Top players of the 21st Century" says to me those players in the 21st Century.

 

[JackSlater]

Kane won 3 cups, has the most points in the 2010s in the regular seasons, second in the playoff, post operation 17th season in a career that started with the Calder he is still able to score, great on a stacked team with a Panarin, great once the Hawks were an offensive hole, if something like clutch exist he had it.

No problem with Malkin (if he does not miss that many game he would be there) or old Lidstrom > Kane, but acting like it is scandalous to have him really high seem a stretch, until recently he felt like a clear top 4 of the 21th century, Kucherov-Mack and specially McDavid throwing wrench at it now.

I don't buy at all that Kane was clear top four of the 21st century or even just the post-lockout generation. People started saying that after the fact really, but that doesn't make it accurate. Pretty much the textbook definition of a guy who brings nothing, and probably takes some stuff away, outside of offence.

Sure he belongs in the top 25 players this century, his offence is enough to get him there, but he's not four, he's certainly not ahead of his contemporary Malkin.

 

[tabness]

ignoring the nitpicking on who is where and who isnt on this 21st century first quarter really not looking hot compared to just the nineties or especially last quarter of 20th century 1975 to 1999

maybe wouldnt look so hot even against just the original six although just mentally going through some players looks like the depth starts to lack with many less players to choose from

ah new nhl... how you never impressed me

still regret buying that "05-06" hat as the lockout ended due to excitement lol

 

[Crow]

I can't believe that a list with Fleury ahead of Iginla was not only made, but then proofread by the editor and allowed to be posted online for all to see

Iginla's resume is on-par with Patrick Kane's

Do the playoffs not count? Patrick Kane is too high but I completely disagree that they are on par.

 

[Crow]

How I currently rate these players

1. Crosby
2. Ovechkin
3. McDavid
4. Lidstrom
5. Brodeur
6. Malkin
7. Kucherov
8. Kane
9. Chara
10. MacKinnon
11. Karlsson
12. Iginla
13. Draisaitl
14. Keith
15. Thornton
16. Hedman
17. Doughty
18. Datsyuk
19. St. Louis
20. Bergeron
21. Kopitar
22. Matthews
23. Lundqvist
24. Makar
25. Zetterberg

Edit. Assuming Pronger and Selanne are structurally excluded

Anyone could probably nitpick this list to death too but I would say it’s a lot better, very good job. Still think Toews should be on there somewhere near the end and not makar for example. Toews had the better career to this point. Also don’t think Zetterburg had a better career than Toews.

 

[MadLuke]

I don't buy at all that Kane was clear top four of the 21st century

Crosby-Ovechkin-Malkin then Kane would have been common, no ?

 

[JackSlater]

Crosby-Ovechkin-Malkin then Kane would have been common, no ?

At some point it would have been popular, but I don't think that Kane was ever clearly top four to the degree that the others were. Some time after 2016 but before McDavid took off t a much higher level, like 2021. That's just looking at popular opinion, not whether he deserved to be considered in that spot, which is a definite no.

 

[jigglysquishy]

A thing that hurts Kane is that so quickly after his prime he was overtaken by McDavid and Kucherov. And will shortly be overtaken by Draisaitl and MacKinnon.

 

[wetcoast]

I've seen a few media things now with Kane above Malkin.

Am I alone in thinking not only is Malkin still ahead, but it's a fairly significant gap?

I agree Malkin at 9 seemed really low and while I love Lidstrom the article did mention his 4 SC runs 2 of which happened last century.

That being said it's hard to make lists like this without a lot of research and I doubt the people involved idid a ton of it and we have all seen worse lists.

Mack at #6 seemed really high right now as well.

 

[wetcoast]

One of the worst rankings I've seen

Scotty Bowmans top Canadian player ranking is probably worse but yes there are some weird rankings on this list.

 

[wetcoast]

How I currently rate these players

1. Crosby
2. Ovechkin
3. McDavid
4. Lidstrom
5. Brodeur
6. Malkin
7. Kucherov
8. Kane
9. Chara
10. MacKinnon
11. Karlsson
12. Iginla
13. Draisaitl
14. Keith
15. Thornton
16. Hedman
17. Doughty
18. Datsyuk
19. St. Louis
20. Bergeron
21. Kopitar
22. Matthews
23. Lundqvist
24. Makar
25. Zetterberg

Edit. Assuming Pronger and Selanne are structurally excluded

Is this for the 2000s or overall?

Pretty good list BTW for 2000s, although I would move up Mack and Draisitl a couple of spots....maybe depending on the day.

 

[BenchBrawl]

My conviction is that Pronger was the most valuable playoff player in this century. Tilted the ice moreso than anybody else.

Toews is also very underrated.