HFBoards Top 31 NHL Centers - #7

[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
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30
#31

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

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

Suggested Additions:
Max Domi (1)
William Karlsson (1)

Click to read more...

 

[snipes]

Matthews

 

[LT]

Stamkos for me. Don't really know why he isn't getting more hype. 45 goals and 98 points last year, and his history shows that he clearly isn't simply riding his teammates' coat tails - they're just all good players that make each other better. Same thing that players like Matthews and Bergeron benefit from.

 

[Snippit]

Matthews for me

 

[deca guard]

i dont know enough about hockey to say so i present this as a question : how many other centers can haul the puck up ice and make succesful set up passes , plus hound any opponant center all 60 minutes like larkin can ? haulin the mail and shuttin down opponant stars doesnt show in stats , ecspecially when larkins bringing the puck into opponant zone with no good teammate dmen to play catch with , but is extremely important to winning . and larkins up there near mcdavid level at these two aspects . throw in 30 goals and ide bet coaches rank him in the top 10

 

[HabsMD97]

Has to be Matthews here, and this is coming from a habs fan

 

[Halla]

Stamkos for me. Don't really know why he isn't getting more hype. 45 goals and 98 points last year, and his history shows that he clearly isn't simply riding his teammates' coat tails - they're just all good players that make each other better. Same thing that players like Matthews and Bergeron benefit from.

30pts less than the leading scorer on the team doesnt scream top 10 player

 

[Halla]

7 - Matthews
8 - Schiefele
9 - Tavares
10 - Stamkos

 

[LT]

30pts less than the leading scorer on the team doesnt scream top 10 player

Yep, let's punish him for his teammate having arguably the best single season we've seen a player have post-lockout. Makes perfect sense.

Matthews played with Tavares, Marner, and Rielly; should we knock him down a few pegs for that as well?

 

[Krewe]

Stamkos for me. Don't really know why he isn't getting more hype. 45 goals and 98 points last year, and his history shows that he clearly isn't simply riding his teammates' coat tails - they're just all good players that make each other better. Same thing that players like Matthews and Bergeron benefit from.

I love stammer and he is the 2nd best sniper around for me, but he isn’t great at driving his own line IN MY OPINION. He is a monster when paired with a good winger (MSL, Kuch), but I think I like him now more as our 2C than if he had to drive a first line on his own. I can see him still being top 10, but I would put Point and Matthews ahead of him, and then him and Scheifele and Tavares are a toss up. If he can put it all together in the playoffs then his production would put him above those two, but his issues are well documented

 

[The Red Line]

30pts less than the leading scorer on the team doesnt scream top 10 player

Huh? This logic makes absolutely no sense whatsoever....

 

[Snippit]

Stamkos for me. Don't really know why he isn't getting more hype. 45 goals and 98 points last year, and his history shows that he clearly isn't simply riding his teammates' coat tails - they're just all good players that make each other better. Same thing that players like Matthews and Bergeron benefit from.

He is a super dangerous player but when I watch him play he’s not as impressive as some of the guys on this list. As someone else alluded to he’s not really a guy to drive the line which I personally value a lot in centres.

 

[Krewe]

He is a super dangerous player but when I watch him play he’s not as impressive as some of the guys on this list. As someone else alluded to he’s not really a guy to drive the line which I personally value a lot in centres.

I think stamkos could actually be a sick (top 3) LW if he took that role. If he took a drai-esque role of being a winger who takes face offs he would be able to just produce with less pressure. However that would require a big step up from cirelli to be able to produce at an adequate 2C level on our team

 

[LeafGrief]

Stamkos for me. Don't really know why he isn't getting more hype. 45 goals and 98 points last year, and his history shows that he clearly isn't simply riding his teammates' coat tails - they're just all good players that make each other better. Same thing that players like Matthews and Bergeron benefit from.

Matthews does not get to play with Kucherov level players at ES, he played all season with Johnsson, Marleau, and Kapanen. Stammer is sick and gets super underrated, I'm with you there, but clumping Matthews in there with Stamkos and Bergeron as benefiting from star wingers is not accurate.

In 2018-2019 Nylander assisted on two of Matthews' goals at ES. Neither Tavares nor Marner recorded an assist on a Matthews ES goal.
Matthews assisted on two ES goals for each of Nylander, Tavares, and Marner.

Out of the 53 points Matthews scored at ES, his elite forward teammates were in on just 8 of them.

Kucherov assisted on 11 Stamkos goals. Stamkos assisted on 4 Kucherov goals. Point and Stamkos linked up for three goals by Point. That's 18 ES points for Stamkos with his elite forward teammates.

 

[Love]

I love stammer and he is the 2nd best sniper around for me, but he isn’t great at driving his own line IN MY OPINION. He is a monster when paired with a good winger (MSL, Kuch), but I think I like him now more as our 2C than if he had to drive a first line on his own. I can see him still being top 10, but I would put Point and Matthews ahead of him, and then him and Scheifele and Tavares are a toss up. If he can put it all together in the playoffs then his production would put him above those two, but his issues are well documented

Point isn’t better than Stamkos. His shooting percentage was ridiculous last season. He’ll have a regression in goal scoring similar to William Karlsson.

 

[LT]

I think stamkos could actually be a sick (top 3) LW if he took that role. If he took a drai-esque role of being a winger who takes face offs he would be able to just produce with less pressure. However that would require a big step up from cirelli to be able to produce at an adequate 2C level on our team

Does Johnson not play center anymore? Couldn't he fill the #2 center role adequately?

 

[Machinehead]

I'm just gonna vote Stamkos because I'm angry at the last poll and Laty brought up some really good points about him.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Matthews, though Kopitar having a bounce back season could put him in the same category as Bergeron/Barkov.

 

[Machinehead]

Shit I forgot Kopitar existed for a minute there. He's right up there.

 

[ccman68]

Imagine thinking Stamkos is better than Point. Feel like no one here ever watches these people play and everyone just pulls up eliteprospects to make their pick.

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

30pts less than the leading scorer on the team doesnt scream top 10 player

There are literally less than 10 players in the league who scored less than 30 points fewer than Kucherov. This is horrible logic.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Matthews or O'Rielly for me. Kopitar should be in the next couple as well. Not necessarily the best hockey players in the list, but the best at playing center.

 

[Ace of Hades]

Schiefele is getting a bit underrated. I would take him over Matthews.

Add Getzlaf next.

 

[Sasso09]

If you remove all the names and just list the numbers both offensively and defensively and look at the last two years the choice at #7 would be the guy that eventually go in the 20's due to being massively underrated on these boards

 

[Sasso09]

Schiefele is getting a bit underrated. I would take him over Matthews.

Add Getzlaf next.

Schiefele has been clearly behind Couturier for 2 years now and Couturier isn't even on the radar