HFBoards Top 31 NHL Centers

[LT]

The top 31 centers in the NHL as voted on by members of HFBoards.

Rank	Player	Age	Team	Country	GP	G	A	P	%
#1	Connor McDavid	22			78	41	75	116	85.7%
#2	Sidney Crosby	32			79	35	65	100	71.8%
#3	Nathan MacKinnon	23			82	41	58	99	71.3%
#4	Aleksander Barkov	23			82	35	61	96	38.1%
#5	Patrice Bergeron	34			65	32	47	79	50.9%
#6	Evgeni Malkin	33			68	21	51	72	64.3%
#7	Auston Matthews	21			68	37	36	73	35.0%
#8	Mark Scheifele	26			82	38	46	84	28.9%, 53.7% (TB)
#9	John Tavares	28			82	47	41	88	28.2%,46.3%(TB)
#10	Steven Stamkos	29			82	45	53	98	23.6%
#11	Jack Eichel	22			77	28	54	82	22.7%
#12	Brayden Point	23			79	41	51	92	37.2%
#13	Nicklas Backstrom	31			80	22	52	74	18.9%, 45.8% (TB)
#14	Sean Couturier	26			80	33	43	76	18.1%, 54.3% (TB)
#15	Sebastian Aho	22			82	30	53	83	18.1%, 45.7% (TB)
#16	Ryan O'Reilly	28			82	28	49	77	33.3%
#17	Tyler Seguin	27			82	33	47	80	47.1%
#18	Anze Kopitar	31			81	22	38	60	34.2%
#19	Evgeny Kuznetsov	27			76	21	51	72	26.4%, 55.0%
#20	Elias Pettersson	20			71	28	38	66	26.4%, 45.0%
#21	Jonathan Toews	31			82	35	46	81	39.2%
#22	Logan Couture	30			81	27	43	70	33.3%
#23	Mathew Barzal	22			82	18	44	62	36.3%, 57.6% (TB)
#24	Dylan Larkin	23			76	32	41	73	35.0%, 42.4% (TB)
#25	Matt Duchene	28			73	31	39	70	24.7%
#26	Sean Monahan	24			78	34	48	82	28.7%
#27	Ryan Getzlaf	34			67	14	34	48	26.2%
#28	Tomas Hertl	25			77	35	39	74	28.9%, 51.8% (TB)
#29	Mika Zibanejad	26			82	30	44	74	28.9%, 48.2% (TB)
#30	Bo Horvat	24			82	27	34	61	31.5%
#31	David Krejci	33			81	20	53	73	24.5%

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Rank hyperlinks direct to the corresponding voting thread.
Player hyperlinks direct to the corresponding player's hockey-reference.com page.

Honorable Mentions

• Pierre-Luc Dubois
• William Karlsson
• Brayden Schenn
• Eric Staal
• Vincent Trocheck

Click to read more...

 

[Empoleon8771]

Matthews ahead of Tavares and Stamkos, Barkov ahead of Bergeron, Point ahead of Backstrom and Aho above Seguin? I strongly disagree with all of those, that seems to be HF overrating youth.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Not too bad. I don't understand Barkov over Bergeron though. I have my opinion of MacKinnon being ranked over him too, but Barkov is similar in the sense that they're both two-way guys. Also think other two-way guys like Couturier, O'Reilly and Kopitar got underrated (although I understand Kopitar due to the down year).

 

[LT]

Matthews ahead of Tavares and Stamkos, Barkov ahead of Bergeron, Point ahead of Backstrom and Aho above Seguin? I strongly disagree with all of those, that seems to be HF overrating youth.

HF does stand for Hockey's Future. There's pretty much always been a youth-leaning bias in the general HF opinion of players.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Overall a great list. Sure, you could tweak here and there (like Bergeron over Barkov), but it's nitpicky.

 

[Eat The Rich]

Barkov way too high.

 

[TheGuiminator]

Barkov went from underrated to overrated in a span of a year

 

[Mr Tadakichi]

Barkov at 4?

Mite b cool.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Barkov is better than Mackinnon

 

[Khelandros]

This list only works if you base your 31 best centers on point production.

 

[LuckyBoeser]

How does Domi not even make hms?!

 

[bellringer77]

This list only works if you base your 31 best centers on point production.

I am not the biggest fan of lists but what you said I hope is tongue in cheek or you need to dig deeper into hockey

 

[bellringer77]

How does Domi not even make hms?!

Are you serious?

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Barkov is overrated and so is Pettersson, but it's a collective vote so obviously people will have different opinions and biases. I haven't been on HF too long so I hope these votes are an annual thing. They're very fun.

 

[Khelandros]

I am not the biggest fan of lists but what you said I hope is tongue in cheek or you need to dig deeper into hockey

If you actually dug deep and looked at all the factors, Crosby would be #1, Bergeron would be #2 and McDavid would be about 4 or 5.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Barkov is overrated and so is Pettersson, but it's a collective vote so obviously people will have different opinions and biases. I haven't been on HF too long so I hope these votes are an annual thing. They're very fun.

Annual thing? HF does these rankings like every other week.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

If you actually dug deep and looked at all the factors, Crosby would be #1, Bergeron would be #2 and McDavid would be about 4 or 5.

What is even funnier is Bergeron would actually center Crosby if they actually played together

 

[Khelandros]

What is even funnier is Bergeron would actually center Crosby if they actually played together

Except they were on a line together at the World Cup and Crosby centered Bergeron and Marchand.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

What is even funnier is Bergeron would actually center Crosby if they actually played together

Except for that time at the Olympics.

Or that time at the World Cup.

Yeah, other than those two times where they played on the same line and Crosby was the center.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Top 3 is fine, after that the list is a joke.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Actually this is one of the better lists I've seen here. Would probably do a couple swaps but nothing stands out as egregiously bad.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Top 3 is fine, after that the list is a joke.

Let me guess. Any list that doesn't have the Caps' players higher is a joke?

 

[Necrobutcher]

A really nice list overall but i'd switch places of Kopitar and Toews cause of the seasons they just had.

 

[JianYang]

How does Domi not even make hms?!

I'm not sure how these rankings are done.

But he only has one season under his belt at center. Sample size is lacking, and I don't know if people generally perceive him as a center or winger.

Even if we ignore sample size, he would only be a candidate for the lower end of this list, and definitely not a slam dunk.

 

[Barrie22]

Weird not seeing rnh on this list. According to some he should be in the top 25.