Top 5 Centers in the NHL
- Thread starter Dion TheFluff
- Start date
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
My top 5.
1. McDavid
2. Mackinnon
3. Matthews
4. Drai
5. Hughes/Petterson
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
DJ Dorion
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.
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.
Steven Toast
Registered User
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.
Last edited:
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
Super Elite, Passing ALL Tests since 2002
- Aug 19, 2002
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McDavid, Mackinnon and Matthews not being unanimous choices sums up this place really well. 
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
Registered User
- Jun 22, 2015
- 3,899
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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
1) MacKinnon
2) McDavid
3) Matthews
4) Draisaitl
5) Pettersson
6) Hughes
7) Crosby
8) Barkov
9) Miller
10) Eichel
HM) Point
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
Registered User
WillTheThrill
Registered User
- Mar 2, 2016
- 2,631
- 2,864
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
Registered User
- Mar 2, 2016
- 2,631
- 2,864
Sure, Matthews is a one-trick pony at doing literally the objective of the game- scoring goals. This sounds so silly.
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
Cool. Barkov's team won a series. Let me know when he's entering the record books next to Gretzky and Lemieux.
- Dec 10, 2012
- 39,649
- 18,066
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.
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.
i think if this was asking what top 5 do you take for the playoffs crosby easily makes it in the top 5.
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.
Top 4 are egregiously obvious and anyone leaving any of them off (including the tards who left McDavid off) should sign off
Erik Alfredsson
Beast Mode Cowboy!
- Jan 14, 2012
- 13,072
- 5,110
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.
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