Top 5 Centers in the NHL

[CanucksSayEh]

Canucks top center being disrespected here.

 

[BullyHockey]

People saying Barkov is better than Matthews are insane. No GM in the league would EVER take Barkov over Matthews. Barkov has 54 points, Matthews has 52 GOALS. Just come on.

My top 5.

1. McDavid
2. Mackinnon
3. Matthews
4. Drai
5. Hughes/Petterson

 

[Regal]

Crosby isnt top 5

He is bareky ppg


Get ready for a rematch

See you guys in the playoffs

I don’t have him in my top 5 (I have Barkov 5th), but the Pens are a low scoring team and their PP is a mess. Sid is still one of the best 5v5 point producers and possession players in the league. Not that he shouldn’t be blamed for the PP struggles but I imagine he’d pick it up in a different situation. He’s also pretty damn consistent. Compared to someone like Pettersson, who is getting a large percentage of the vote, he doesn’t have as many multi-point games, but also has fewer scoreless games, and I’ve never seen him look as useless as Pettersson does some nights like tonight

 

[Xspyrit]

ESP (Even Strength Points) this season for Centers :

Nathan MacKinnon
Connor McDavid
Auston Matthews
Elias Pettersson
Robert Thomas
J.T. Miller
Tim Stützle
Matt Duchene
Sidney Crosby
Leon Draisaitl
Nazem Kadri
Mathew Barzal
Brayden Point
Casey Mittelstadt
Charlie Coyle
Mark Scheifele
Vincent Trocheck
Sebastian Aho
Bo Horvat
Etc.

 

[McPoyle]

4 series out of 7 he’s scored 4 or 5 goals, once as a rookie and every series against a Vezina winner.

Quick correction, Matthews has played in 8 playoff series and scored 4 or 5 goals 4 times. Hes also scored 0, 1, 1, and 2 goals in other series. 22 goals in 50 playoff games is simply not good enough for an almost pure goal scorer.

Matthews needs a dominant playoff run to be considered on the same level as the other top centers in the league in clutch games. McDavid, Drai, MacK all have several dominant runs in the playoffs.

 

[lipstickjunkie]

LOL Matthews wasn't on the ice for any of those goals. And how long ago was that, five, six years ago? You're reeeeally reaching here.

 

[ACC1224]

McDavid, Mackinnon and Matthews not being unanimous choices sums up this place really well.

 

[Busher]

Draisaitl should have more votes. He’s clearly in the top 4. Track record still matters, and he (like McDavid, Matthews and Mackinnon) has it.

 

[authentic]

Quick correction, Matthews has played in 8 playoff series and scored 4 or 5 goals 4 times. Hes also scored 0, 1, 1, and 2 goals in other series. 22 goals in 50 playoff games is simply not good enough for an almost pure goal scorer.

Matthews needs a dominant playoff run to be considered on the same level as the other top centers in the league in clutch games. McDavid, Drai, MacK all have several dominant runs in the playoffs.

Great, he’s also played injured in 3 of them, leaving one bad series when he was able to actually shoot the puck. Trust me, Leaf’s fans are the last you need to tell that he still needs that one (or two) dominant and lengthy playoff run, but people here act like he lays eggs every single round

 

[Dion TheFluff]

so ATM the votes would have the top 10 as

1) MacKinnon
2) McDavid
3) Matthews
4) Draisaitl
5) Pettersson
6) Hughes
7) Crosby
8) Barkov
9) Miller
10) Eichel
HM) Point

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Great, he’s also played injured in 3 of them, leaving one bad series when he was able to actually shoot the puck. Trust me, Leaf’s fans are the last you need to tell that he still needs that one (or two) dominant and lengthy playoff run, but people here act like he lays eggs every single round

A 36 goal pace in his career playoffs could be fairly called laying eggs. I don't care much for excuses for lack of production. Draisaitl played the 2022 playoffs injured and put up 32 points in 16 games.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

LOL Matthews wasn't on the ice for any of those goals. And how long ago was that, five, six years ago? You're reeeeally reaching here.

 

[WillTheThrill]

McDavid
Mack
Matthews
Drai
Hughes

 

[bossram]

Canucks top center being disrespected here.

No, they're not. They're not top-five. They are still very good-to-elite. It's not disrespect.

I'm from Vancouver.

 

[WillTheThrill]

you must've threw up a little in your mouth to even put McDavid 3rd, I can't imagine how horrible that internal struggle to not leave McDavid off that list entirely must have been for you.

but not surprised to see you have Auston "one-trick pony" Matthews as your number #1. pretty sure he'd be higher than that if you could find a way to do it.

Sure, Matthews is a one-trick pony at doing literally the objective of the game- scoring goals. This sounds so silly.

 

[bossram]

Draisaitl should have more votes. He’s clearly in the top 4. Track record still matters, and he (like McDavid, Matthews and Mackinnon) has it.

The issue about voting him as top-five center is that a significant portion of his strong track record comes when he's playing the wing with McDavid.

If you look at Draisaitl's outputs and results exclusively as a center, without McDavid, they are not top-five calibre.

If you just had a list of like "best offensive players", then yes, Drai would surely be top-five.

My votes: The three Ms are first. They're obvious.

1. McDavid
2. Mackinnon
3. Matthews.

After that it gets tougher. I'm putting Barkov 4th, because he is truly, now that Bergeron is gone, the platonic ideal of a Selke calibre top-line center. I'll give Crosby 5th, based on deference to his career, but could be swayed to someone else.

4. Barkov
5. Crosby

 

[authentic]

Sure, Matthews is a one-trick pony at doing literally the objective of the game- scoring goals. This sounds so silly.

Also amazing defensively

 

[lipstickjunkie]

Cool. Barkov's team won a series. Let me know when he's entering the record books next to Gretzky and Lemieux.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

If I was starting a team:

McD
MacK/Matthews
Hughes/Pettersson

 

[AKL]

McDavid
MacKinnon
Matthews/Hughes/Pettersson/Draisaitl

Flip some coins or something for which one you're going to exclude. For me it'd be between Pettersson and Matthews, but it's hard to ignore what Matthews is doing this year in the goal department. But when he's not a 70-80 goal scorer, it's back to Pettersson.

 

[crosby87]

I don't think Crosby has a serious argument for top 5 at this stage of his career. Just don't see what he possibly has over Barkov, Hughes, EP.

i think if this was asking what top 5 do you take for the playoffs crosby easily makes it in the top 5.

 

[Sasso09]

Clear top 4 of

McDavid
Mack
Matthews
Drai

5th came down to EP, Hughes for me and i went with EP as he's more complete imo

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Based on the voting, OP got his order of 1-10 almost bang on with the majority opinion. Only change would be Crosby moved above Barkov and Miller.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Top 4 are egregiously obvious and anyone leaving any of them off (including the tards who left McDavid off) should sign off

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Also amazing defensively

Amazing is a stretch. Matthews is so dangerous out there offensively that when he's out on the ice, the other team is kind of just worried about shutting him down instead of pressing for offense. He doesn't really have to do much defending compared to most C. He's competent when he needs to be but it's not really a huge part of his game.