Top 10 teams by centre strength (Both raw power and depth combined).

[Banana duck]

I know Columbus has historically been abysmal at the C position, but they belong in this conversation now.

Monahan - 57 points in 54 games
Fantilli - 30 goal scorer
Cole Sillinger / Boone Jenner
Sean Kuraly

Additional centers who more often play wing:
Kent Johnson, Aston-Reese, Kunin

Kunin is not coming back. Neither is Kuraly. Aston Reese probably shouldn’t be here.

I’d be thinking of Danforth - who has a good shot at returning and played center frequently, Voronkov who is a center currently playing in the NHL, Del Bel Belluz who is a center - and played in the NHL this season and Lindstrom who is a center in the pipeline.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

You didn't entertain it at all, skip this act instead. I guess if you really need to start by unpacking whatever small difference remains between Crosby and Strome it might make you feel better, but it's really just a waste of time before having to confront the rest of the depth chart. Surely if Pittsburgh's centers are better than "anything Washington has to throw out there" we wouldn't need to start with the most obvious guy?

So is there a real discussion to be had or did you just want the conversational equivalent of wheeling grandpa to the window and humoring him about the "good ol' days" because he's unwilling to update his world views?

2024–25 NHL centre depth rankings - The Win Column

A comprehensive ranking of the NHL's 32 teams based on their centre depth charts for their NHL rosters for the 2024–25 season.

thewincolumn.ca

It isn't just my bias here. Any fan can see that Strome/PLD is weak.

 

[HTFN]

2024–25 NHL centre depth rankings - The Win Column

A comprehensive ranking of the NHL's 32 teams based on their centre depth charts for their NHL rosters for the 2024–25 season.

thewincolumn.ca

It isn't just my bias here. Any fan can see that Strome/PLD is weak.

That's from October 1st, buying as low as you can on both players and optimistically inflating the Pens (Malkin still has 70 point potential?), so why not work with what happened instead of a projection of the season we just watched?

Tell me right now that Evgeni Malkin had a better season than PLD this year or that it looks better going forward.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

That's from October 1st, buying as low as you can on both players and optimistically inflating the Pens (optimistically Malkin still has 70 point potential). Let's work with what happened instead of a projection of the season we just watched.

Tell me right now that Evgeni Malkin had a better season than PLD this year or that it looks better going forward.

Its the most recent ranking of center depth and shows how far down the list the Capitals centers are.

When a new list comes out this year, I wouldn't expect much of a jump. Especially not anywhere near the top 10. Which is what the whole point was.

And yes, I would still take a package of Crosby/Malkin any day of the week over Strome/PLD.

 

[HTFN]

Its the most recent ranking of center depth and shows how far down the list the Capitals centers are.

When a new list comes out this year, I wouldn't expect much of a jump. Especially not anywhere near the top 10. Which is what the whole point was.

And yes, I would still take a package of Crosby/Malkin any day of the week over Strome/PLD.

In that "most recent ranking" (October of 2024 by a source I've never seen) Lars Eller was being counted as a Penguin. Not bothering with this anymore, it's either the sad sentimentality I mentioned earlier or bad trolling at this point, nobody who watched hockey last year thinks the Penguins are better 1-4 than the Capitals right now.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Exceptional display of bias, that's absolutely crazy. Dubois blew Malkin out of the water this year and if there's any fan base in the league that should know how effective Dowd is it would be Pittsburgh.

Seriously, let's skip the Crosby thing for now and have you justify any other center on the team outperforming their counterpart.

1. This is the only year that Dubois has ever sniffed Malkin's production.
2. Malkin was injured, his wingers were absolute dogshit, and he was still only 6 points off Dubois' pace.
Let's see what happens this year.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

You didn't entertain it at all, skip this act instead. I guess if you really need to start by unpacking whatever small difference remains between Crosby and Strome it might make you feel better, but it's really just a waste of time before having to confront the rest of the depth chart. Surely if Pittsburgh's centers are better than "anything Washington has to throw out there" we wouldn't need to start with the most obvious guy?

So is there a real discussion to be had or did you just want the conversational equivalent of wheeling grandpa to the window and humoring him about the "good ol' days" because he's unwilling to update his world views?

 

[Jared Grayden]

Yeah only trait Strome has over Crosby is height. Strome is a capable 1C, but Crosby even in his geezer age is still superior physical tools, skills, and a brilliantly intelligent player. 33/32 teams take Crosby over Strome at least for next season.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

If we go by 2023-24, Miller- Trochek - Zibanejad is strong

But we’ll see how they look next season . They’re all 2011 draftees so they may all fall off a cliff together lol (Zib already has tbh)

 

[Beauterham]

How many teams have a better 1-2 combo than Thomas - Schenn?

Quite a few actually.
Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Florida, New Jersey, NY Rangers, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Vegas, Washington... I'm probably forgetting 2-3 more teams.

And this is just the 1-2 combo, it gets even worse when you add the 3rd and 4th best center to the mix (not counting Faksa, as he's a UFA now).
- Thomas: elite 1st line C. No complaints, he's great.
- Schenn: a 2C who would be a 3C on a contender
- Sundqvist: 3C who would be a healthy scratch on some other teams
- Dvorsky: He needs another year in the AHL before he's ready for a fulltime NHL rosterspot.

I really think there are more than 20 teams who have a better centerdepth. We're probably 'middle of the pack' with our 1-2 combo, but somewhere near the bottom of the league with our 3-4 combo (Sundqvist-Dvorsky).
On the bright side, the fact that our forward core as a whole did really well since the 4 nations is interesting, imagine what they might be capable of if Army is able to get a legit 2C and potentially sign a upgrade over Sundqvist on 4C. Here is the '5%' Army was refering to, even if you keep Schenn at 2C and just get a substantially better 3C.

 

[HTFN]

1. This is the only year that Dubois has ever sniffed Malkin's production.
2. Malkin was injured, his wingers were absolute dogshit, and he was still only 6 points off Dubois' pace.
Let's see what happens this year.

The production is only half the reason, Dubois was visibly more impactful at both ends of the ice and deployed as a matchup center.

Yeah only trait Strome has over Crosby is height. Strome is a capable 1C, but Crosby even in his geezer age is still superior physical tools, skills, and a brilliantly intelligent player. 33/32 teams take Crosby over Strome at least for next season.

This is my last response to this little brigade but it's not enough to overpower the depth between them, which is the whole point. I think the gap in their defensive impacts is cumulatively overpowering, since I'm also contending that Dubois had more value than Malkin and that Nic Dowd remains one of the best bottom 6 centers in the league (which the OP recognizes).

I don't think Crosby has a particularly strong advantage on Strome in that regard based on what I could look up for free and definitely not enough to carry water for the whole team. When taken as a group, which is what this is all about, I think most teams would also prefer Washington's centers (which should technically include McMichael and arguably Protas) and that anyone who says they'd take the Pens depth from 1 to 4 is just... not being honest

 

[Jared Grayden]

The production is only half the reason, Dubois was visibly more impactful at both ends of the ice and deployed as a matchup center.

This is my last response to this little brigade but it's not enough to overpower the depth between them, which is the whole point. I think the gap in their defensive impacts is cumulatively overpowering, since I'm also contending that Dubois had more value than Malkin and that Nic Dowd remains one of the best bottom 6 centers in the league (which the OP recognizes).

I don't think Crosby has a particularly strong advantage on Strome in that regard based on what I could look up for free and definitely not enough to carry water for the whole team. When taken as a group, which is what this is all about, I think most teams would also prefer Washington's centers (which should technically include McMichael and arguably Protas) and that anyone who says they'd take the Pens depth from 1 to 4 is just... not being honest

I would take Washington centers overall as well. But the notion there is little difference between Crosby and Strome would be ridiculed league wide. Crosby is still considered a top 10 center. Strome never will be so you're projecting a lot of age decline into Crosby's next season which might be the case, but still wouldn't be counted on to make up the difference.

 

[AfroThunder396]

For the Devils, Mercer isn’t a center, and if he plays center, he stinks at it. Haula was mostly the 3C this past season. He also stinks.

In addition to this, Hughes is constantly injured, so while it's a phenomenal 1-2 punch when they're both healthy that's rarely the case.

Center is an area that NJ desperately needs to improve at because too often it's just Hischier having to drag the whole roster by himself.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

The production is only half the reason, Dubois was visibly more impactful at both ends of the ice and deployed as a matchup center.

Great. I wonder how he'd do with a grab bag of Bunting, Beauvillier, and Glass instead of a steady diet of Wilson and McMicheal.

 

[Chel Guy]

Utah is gonna be top 10 in center depth very soon.

 

[wetcoast]

1. This is the only year that Dubois has ever sniffed Malkin's production.
2. Malkin was injured, his wingers were absolute dogshit, and he was still only 6 points off Dubois' pace.
Let's see what happens this year.

That being said Malkin is declining quite fast but yes the Washington top 3 is hurt by lower value 1 and 32 centers and Dowd doesn't fix that enough.

This poll is 75-80 on the top 2 guys.

It's not a 1/3rd split.

 

[NYRnine94]

How many teams have a better 1-2 combo than Thomas - Schenn?

Miller-Trocheck is a good 1-2 combo

 

[NYRnine94]

The production is only half the reason, Dubois was visibly more impactful at both ends of the ice and deployed as a matchup center.

This is my last response to this little brigade but it's not enough to overpower the depth between them, which is the whole point. I think the gap in their defensive impacts is cumulatively overpowering, since I'm also contending that Dubois had more value than Malkin and that Nic Dowd remains one of the best bottom 6 centers in the league (which the OP recognizes).

I don't think Crosby has a particularly strong advantage on Strome in that regard based on what I could look up for free and definitely not enough to carry water for the whole team. When taken as a group, which is what this is all about, I think most teams would also prefer Washington's centers (which should technically include McMichael and arguably Protas) and that anyone who says they'd take the Pens depth from 1 to 4 is just... not being honest

Crosby is way better at 37 then Strome is at 28. Wayyy better. What are you even trying to say?