HFBoards Top 25 Centers in the NHL - #24

[Lavar Ball]

Barzal takes the tiebreaker

For clarification, this is for who you think are the best players in the league going into next season. Players are placed in the position they played the most in last year according to Leftwinglock.com

Poll options listed alphabetically, let me know who to add.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Team	Age	% of Vote
1	Connor	McDavid		26	148/166 (89.2%)
2	Leon	Draisaitl		27	88/196 (44.9%)
3	Nathan	MacKinnon		27	188/233 (80.7%)
4	Auston	Matthews		25	126/230 (54.8%)
5	Sidney	Crosby		35	57/219 (26.0%)
6	Elias	Pettersson		24	61/196 (31.1%)
7	Jack	Hughes		22	57/132 (43.2%)
8	Aleksander	Barkov		27	63/174 (36.2%)
9	Brayden	Point		27	46/157 (29.3%)
10	Tage	Thompson		25	69/194 (35.6%)
11	Jack	Eichel		26	58/167 (34.7%)
12	Tim	Stutzle		21	53/166 (31.9%)
13	Sebastian	Aho		25	55/182 (30.2%)
14	Roope	Hintz		26	86/183 (47.0%)
15	Nico	Hischier		24	48/165 (29.1%)
16	Mika	Zibanejad		30	62/202 (30.7%)
17	Evgeni	Malkin		36	40/128 (31.3%)
18	Anze	Kopitar		35	67/147 (45.6%)
19	J..T	Miller		30	43/114 (37.7%)
20	Elias	Lindholm		28	32/136 (23.5%)
21	Dylan	Larkin		26	38/120 (31.7%)
22	John	Tavares		32	35/78 (44.9%)
23	Mathew	Barzal		26	23/93 (24.7%)

To Add:
Logan Couture
Evgeny Kuznetsov
Phillip Danault
Sam Bennett
Matty Beniers
Brayden Schenn

Click to read more...

 

[Coffee]

I already said Robert Thomas

 

[Bouboumaster]

Suzuki again

 

[tarheelhockey]

I'm no Scheifele fan but at this point it feels like we're penalizing him for being a jerk. The guy has scored at a 31 goal pace for his entire career.

 

[heretik27]

I'm no Scheifele fan but at this point it feels like we're penalizing him for being a jerk. The guy has scored at a 31 goal pace for his entire career.

He really does himself no favors any time he opens his mouth.

 

[MasterMatt25]

Scheifele easily

 

[teravaineSAROS]

I'm no Scheifele fan but at this point it feels like we're penalizing him for being a jerk. The guy has scored at a 31 goal pace for his entire career.

Hey Barzal might've not reached 20 goals since 2018 but he looks exciting while not doing anything!

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Hey Barzal might've not reached 20 goals since 2018 but he looks exciting while not doing anything!

Man, remember those "we don't need you" chants?

In hindsight, I think it would have been better for all parties if John had just stayed in NYI and bumped Barzy back down to 2C.

 

[MasterMatt25]

Add Beniers

 

[NiagaraKraken]

Matty Beniers

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

The guys on this list I would not trade Robert Thomas for in 23-24....I think we need more Blues fans on this site lol.

Matty Beniers

Point exactly. How is he not an option?

 

[emptyNedder]

I can't say I have watched all the contenders at this point more than once or twice. But based on production and level of competition (puckiq.com), I think Cozens is the best two-way center left.

Scheifele is amazingly sheltered, Thomas is slightly sheltered, and Suzuki has 5:00 more TOI with similar production both overall and even strength.

For 23-24 Cozens is likely a top 20 C.

 

[Aladyyn]

I wouldn't say Cozens is the best two-way center of the options (he's got all the tools to be good defensively and I'm confident that he will be eventually) but I do think there's a pretty strong argument that he's the strongest offensive guy on the board.

Unrelated but honestly have no clue why Barzal went before Thomas, is that still the rookie year hype in action???