TSN's Top 50

[BB88]

Again stats.
Watching Toews play I as a hockey fan can appreciate what he brings to the table night in and night out. As a Bruin fan I watch Bergeron do similar things that his team asks him to do that actually lower your point totals but help the team win. Proof is in the pudding. Hockey is a team game and he is a team player and a successful Captain of multiple cup winning team.
Toews isn't asked to be the top goal scorer on his team he knows his difficult job and excels at it I know it's not flashy or riddled with individual trophies but it's a part of the game that helps teams win I see it

Toews isn't the best player in the league and I can't understand why Toews is in the top2/top5 when Bergeron is nowhere near to be seen.

Points have been the advatange for Toews over Bergeron when defense/faceoffs have been for Bergeron and this year Bergeron is ppg player while Toews is nowhere near that.

Toews&Bergeron are elite players but not the best.

 

[Btown]

Toews isn't the best player in the league and I can't understand why Toews is in the top2/top5 when Bergeron is nowhere near to be seen.

Points have been the advatange for Toews over Bergeron when defense/faceoffs have been for Bergeron and this year Bergeron is ppg player while Toews is nowhere near that.

I lowered Toews on my list what do you think of it now I want to update it based on people's suggestions.
See if HF can agree alittle bit?

 

[ChiTownCode]

I lowered Toews on my list what do you think of it now I want to update it based on people's suggestions.
See if HF can agree alittle bit?

Better shot at world peace.

 

[WesMcCauley]

I just put together a quick list of top 20 players and would like to listen to you folks rip it apart.

1. Carey Price
2. Sidney Crosby
3. Alex Ovechkin
4. Drew Doughty
5. Jonathan Toews
6. Steven Stamkos
7. Evgeni Malkin
8. John Tavares
9. Jamie Benn
10. Tyler Seguin
11. Claude Giroux
12. Shea Weber
13. Duncan Keith
14.Erik Karlsson
15. Henrik Lundqvist
16. Ryan Getzlaf
17. Anze Kopitar
18. Corey Perry
19. P.K. Subban
20. Vladimir Tarasenko


Better? I can find the perfect top 20 if you guys keep feeding me suggestions

Well Patrick kane is a top 10 player in the league if not better. You dont Even have him in top 20

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Bad list is bad imo.

What on earth is Stamkos doing so high.

 

[BB88]

I lowered Toews on my list what do you think of it now I want to update it based on people's suggestions.
See if HF can agree alittle bit?

There are definitely players that I would take over Toews that are behind him, and again Toews at 5 but Bergeron not in the top20, why?

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

There are definitely players that I would take over Toews that are behind him, and again Toews at 5 but Bergeron not in the top20, why?

sheep man sheep

 

[gnarls barkley]

too much inconsistency between similar players, that's the main problem with most rankings

for example: toews/kopitar/bergeron should all be at the very least within +/- 3 spots of each other, not like 10-15+ spots like every single list seems to have them separated by.

same type of thing with guys like doughty, keith, weber - no real reason to have doughty ranked so much higher.

really hard to take lists seriously when certain cherry picked guys are arbitrarily ranked completely out of place relative to their immediate comparables.

 

[glovesave_35]

Again stats.
Watching Toews play I as a hockey fan can appreciate what he brings to the table night in and night out. As a Bruin fan I watch Bergeron do similar things that his team asks him to do that actually lower your point totals but help the team win. Proof is in the pudding. Hockey is a team game and he is a team player and a successful Captain of multiple cup winning team.
Toews isn't asked to be the top goal scorer on his team he knows his difficult job and excels at it I know it's not flashy or riddled with individual trophies but it's a part of the game that helps teams win I see it

I'm sorry but the whole "Cup team" thing is such bullsh when it comes to comparing Toews to his peers. I really like him as a player but he is basically a poor man's Modano with a slightly more defensive bend. His team won those Cups largely built around two major supporting/core players signed to what would be illegal contracts under the current CBA.

If Toews is really in the discussion for best player in the league then he is in the perfect place now that he is earning a top player in the league contract. Let's see how that effects the building of teams around him.

 

[Osprey]

Toews and Doughty get waaaaaaaay too overrated based on team success.

There's something to that, of course, but you also have to consider that the teams didn't have success until they came along. Both hadn't made the playoffs for about 5 straight seasons, then ended those droughts in only those players' second seasons... and, outside of the Kings last year, haven't missed since. Even Kopitar and Keith didn't do that, since they preceded Doughty and Toews by two seasons and their teams still struggled. Of course, this is circumstantial evidence, and it's possible that Doughty and Toews might have played on struggling teams until Kopitar and Keith came along, if the sets were reversed, but there's really no denying that both really helped to create that team success, rather than simply benefit from it. That's likely a large reason why people hold them in the esteem that they do. I don't think that most fans have entirely forgotten how much these two teams stunk in the 2000s, before these players came along.

 

[Epsilon]

I don't recall Steve Yzerman being widely regarded as one of the top (as in top 5-10) players in the NHL during the 1997-2002 period. And with good reason: because he really wasn't, at least not consistently.

 

[Kranix]

Ovechkin, Malkin, Benn, Datsyuk, Tavares, Kane ahead of Sid at this point.

 

[Mashed Potatoes]

Where's Kadri. He is after all a 70 point player, more than #1 D-man Roman josi.

 

[WTG]

Considering Daniel sedin is top 4 in scoring right now shouldn't the twins be top players in the league?

Tsn shouldn't they be in the top 20 at least?

 

[gnarls barkley]

There's something to that, of course, but you also have to consider that the teams didn't have success until they came along. Both hadn't made the playoffs for about 5 straight seasons, then ended those droughts in only those players' second seasons... and, outside of the Kings last year, haven't missed since. Even Kopitar and Keith didn't do that, since they preceded Doughty and Toews by two seasons and their teams still struggled. Of course, this is circumstantial evidence, and it's possible that Doughty and Toews might have played on struggling teams until Kopitar and Keith came along, if the sets were reversed, but there's really no denying that both really helped to create that team success, rather than simply benefit from it. That's likely a large reason why people hold them in the esteem that they do. I don't think that most fans have entirely forgotten how much these two teams stunk in the 2000s, before these players came along.

yeah, but you can also easily say the Hawks wouldn't have had as much success if they didn't also have Kane, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson this whole time. Ditto for the Kings with guys like Carter, Quick, and Williams.

bottom line, 1-2 guys just don't make a team successful on their own. This isn't basketball where the top superstars can and do influence every game start to finish.

Will a Toews or Doughty put an already talented team over the top? Almost certainly - and yes, it is huge that they both have that championship drive and mentality. But obviously having just a few stars OR a super deep team isn't enough - you almost always need a healthy mix of both. The only outlier cup winner in the last several years from that perspective is probably just PIT, and you see how sustainable that approach has been.

 

[Fantomas]

Crosby will have to pretty much die to fall on TSN's list.

 

[heretik27]

I don't recall Steve Yzerman being widely regarded as one of the top (as in top 5-10) players in the NHL during the 1997-2002 period. And with good reason: because he really wasn't, at least not consistently.

Injuries tend to do that to a player.

 

[Club]

My top 20 just threw it together

1. Kane
2. Seguin
3. Benn
4. Ovechkin
5. Price
6. Malkin
7. Giroux
8. Crosby
9. Tavares
10. Doughty
11. Tarasenko
12. Stamkos
13. Karlsson
14. Datsyuk
15. Zetterberg
16. H Sedin
17. Lundqvist
18. MacKinnon
19. Subban
20. Keith

 

[Addison Rae]

These I agree with. Many others are WONKY!

You agree with Henrik Sedin being the 50th best player in the league? Yeah, he should be pushing the top 30, no actually he should be in the top 30.

 

[Osprey]

yeah, but you can also easily say the Hawks wouldn't have had as much success if they didn't also have Kane, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson this whole time. Ditto for the Kings with guys like Carter, Quick, and Williams.

bottom line, 1-2 guys just don't make a team successful on their own. This isn't basketball where the top superstars can and do influence every game start to finish.

Will a Toews or Doughty put an already talented team over the top? Almost certainly - and yes, it is huge that they both have that championship drive and mentality. But obviously having just a few stars OR a super deep team isn't enough - you almost always need a healthy mix of both. The only outlier cup winner in the last several years from that perspective is probably just PIT, and you see how sustainable that approach has been.

The fact that it takes more than just one or two players doesn't make those one or two players overrated. If it did, then every player in the league is overrated, since no player can take a team from rags to riches on his own, which would render the term meaningless. This isn't an argument of absolutes. Every player on the team contributes a certain value to the team, and some are more valuable (i.e. rated more highly) than others. Every player can conceivably be enough to put a team over the edge--look at 3rd-pairing Martinez scoring the WCF and SCF clinching goals in 2014--but that doesn't mean that every player is worth the same. Even though Doughty needed help from Martinez, Quick, Carter and Williams to win two Cups, he's going to be rated higher than any of them because his value to the team is greater. The same could be said of Toews.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

Lundqvist being only 25th is laughable.

 

[Plub]

I just put together a quick list of top 20 players and would like to listen to you folks rip it apart.

1. Carey Price
2. Sidney Crosby
3. Alex Ovechkin
4. Drew Doughty
5. Jonathan Toews
6. Steven Stamkos
7. Evgeni Malkin
8. John Tavares
9. Jamie Benn
10. Tyler Seguin
11. Claude Giroux
12. Shea Weber
13. Duncan Keith
14.Erik Karlsson
15. Henrik Lundqvist
16. Ryan Getzlaf
17. Anze Kopitar
18. Corey Perry
19. P.K. Subban
20. Vladimir Tarasenko


Better? I can find the perfect top 20 if you guys keep feeding me suggestions

Kane is a pretty obvious number one.

No Perry, no Getz, and crosby is too high.

Not a good list.