HFBoards Top 31 NHL Centers - #23

[LT]

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%
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[TBODY] [/TBODY]

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

Suggested Additions:
Kevin Hayes
Paul Stastny
Derek Stepan

Click to read more...

 

[LarKing]

Trotz tries to keep Barzal away from Larkin when the Wings play the Islanders

 

[habbyboolin]

Larkin vs Barzal is tough. Went with Larkin as he's a much better two way player. The skating on both of these guys is phenomenal.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

This is a way better list then places like NHl network hockey news nhl.com

Why is it that’s that the consensus of fans on the forums can do a better job then “experts”

 

[NetflixandPhil]

This is a way better list then places like NHl network hockey news nhl.com

Why is it that’s that the consensus of fans on the forums can do a better job then “experts”

Tbh I think some of the people doing the nhl network rankings have a very strong knowledge and make quite good lists. They're the people that point out a player that should be in the top 20 for their position. However I believe some of their panel are not experts and have a very surface level amount of information and just right down the first 20 names that come to mind (cough *Tony Luftman* cough). That's why guys like Sean Couturier and Jaccob Slavin just missed the top 20 for C and D respectively

 

[islandurrs]

Gotta be Barzy here

 

[Machinehead]

Trotz tries to keep Barzal away from Larkin when the Wings play the Islanders

A coach tries to keep his best player away from the other team's best player?

Big if true.

 

[NotLeddy]

A coach tries to keep his best player away from the other team's best player?

Big if true.

The way Blashill utilized Larkin this season was that he was double shifted so there were few instances where either of the top two lines of the opposition were out and Larkin wasn't at 5v5 (similar to how McDavid and Barkov during Trocheck's injury were utilized). And yet he still drove play and possession at a very impressive level on the 4th worst possession team, even not having another center to take on these matchups until mid March, when AA was switched to center. And Barzal wasn't even Trotz's go-to matchup center, Nelson was.

 

[LarKing]

A coach tries to keep his best player away from the other team's best player?

Big if true.

I prefer my top players able to go against any competition and come out on top most of the time, what can I say?

 

[CanadienShark]

Hertl this time. Arguably better than Couture.

Larkin or Barzal next.

 

[LT]

I prefer my top players able to go against any competition and come out on top most of the time, what can I say?

I prefer my top players not having to play those minutes so they can focus on offense.

Just because they can play them doesn't mean they should. So if a #1 center doesn't play PK minutes, is that because he can't, or because he doesn't have to?

 

[NotLeddy]

I prefer my top players not having to play those minutes so they can focus on offense.

Just because they can play them doesn't mean they should. So if a #1 center doesn't play PK minutes, is that because he can't, or because he doesn't have to?

No other center on Detroit is as useful or effective at neutralizing top competition and making them spend more time in their own zone as Larkin though... if Blashill used Nielsen or Glendening in those minutes, Detroit would've been a lot worse than Ottawa last season.

 

[Aladyyn]

This is a way better list then places like NHl network hockey news nhl.com

Why is it that’s that the consensus of fans on the forums can do a better job then “experts”

That's the lowest bar I've ever seen tbh. In a few weeks we'll get Berkshire's lists which are pretty much the only actually good ones so we'll see how they compare.

 

[LarKing]

I prefer my top players not having to play those minutes so they can focus on offense.

Just because they can play them doesn't mean they should. So if a #1 center doesn't play PK minutes, is that because he can't, or because he doesn't have to?

It’s not like he can’t do both. Yeah the coach utilizes him like that but give that to me over the player who has to be sheltered to produce any day.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

It’s so weird to me that Couture won the last poll and Hertl has less than 4% of the vote in this one.

 

[LT]

That's the lowest bar I've ever seen tbh. In a few weeks we'll get Berkshire's lists which are pretty much the only actually good ones so we'll see how they compare.

It’s not like he can’t do both. Yeah the coach utilizes him like that but give that to me over the player who has to be sheltered to produce any day.

You both missed the point.

Larkin is utilized in that role precisely because Detroit’s other centers aren’t as good at it. What if Detroit was a better team and had a great 3rd line center who took on the toughest defensive roles? Would the argument be any different? For Barzal, the Isles do have centers who are better than him at defensive roles. That doesn’t mean Barzal isn’t good defensively. He simply isn’t good enough to warrant playing extra minutes on top of his offensive load over other players.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

That's the lowest bar I've ever seen tbh. In a few weeks we'll get Berkshire's lists which are pretty much the only actually good ones so we'll see how they compare.

Berkshire ranked Leon Draisaitl the 15th best center in the NHL last season.

 

[Aladyyn]

Berkshire ranked Leon Draisaitl the 15th best center in the NHL last season.

And HF ranked him ahead of Mark Stone. Berkshire's list isn't perfect, far from it. But it's the best by far.

 

[tony balogne]

Definitely Barzal

 

[NotLeddy]

You both missed the point.

Larkin is utilized in that role precisely because Detroit’s other centers aren’t as good at it. What if Detroit was a better team and had a great 3rd line center who took on the toughest defensive roles? Would the argument be any different? For Barzal, the Isles do have centers who are better than him at defensive roles. That doesn’t mean Barzal isn’t good defensively. He simply isn’t good enough to warrant playing extra minutes on top of his offensive load over other players.

But also because Larkin is really, really, really good at neutralizing opposition and keeping the top competition from opposing teams in their own zone.

Check out his CF and xgf stats from this season, they're very impressive when the context is provided that Detroit was the fourth worst possession team in the league and Detroit's blueline was atrocious at breaking the puck out of the zone and exiting the zone with possession (the lone defenseman on the team to have a zone exit breakout rate with possession above 35% was Cholowski at 83%, which is very sad). Imagine if he had a better defense behind him breaking the puck out of the zone and creating offense instead of Green, Kronwall, Dekeyser, Ericsson or Daley.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

I don’t see what metrics Detroit fans are looking at that show Larkin is this defensive super stud...

 

[NotLeddy]

I don’t see what metrics Detroit fans are looking at that show Larkin is this defensive super stud...

16-17 he wasn't playing in the top 6 nor at center (Tatar-Zetterberg-Nyquist/Mantha and AA-Nielsen-Vanek were the top two lines and had great chemistry at the time), and Larkin was mostly playing on the third line with Sheahan. It's had a negative effect on any three year sample size of data, unfortunately. He's become a better player in spite of this since.

Larkin was fantastic defensively this season, and given that he developed even eating a lot of tough minutes and no longer being held back by Zetterberg being prioritized by Blashill, he's become a stronger defensive player. If someone wants to see him do it again for next season, that's fair enough, but there's no reason he shouldn't have a very similar season again, especially if his and Mantha's low PDOs balance out.

 

[Ace of Hades]

Barzal and then Larkin

 

[Machinehead]

I don’t see what metrics Detroit fans are looking at that show Larkin is this defensive super stud...

We just decided he is, like Barkov.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

We just decided he is, like Barkov.

barkov actually is tho