Who Is The Best Player That Nobody Talks About?

[Maladroit]

Jaccob Slavin. He's already a top 20-25 defenseman in the league at 24 and only going to get better. Not only a top 5 shutdown defenseman in the NHL but an insanely gifted passer. Carolina's blueline as a whole is extremely underrated. Hamilton is elite but gets dismissed as a one-dimensional player, Faulk and Pesce are both terrific as well. Jake Bean is one of the more underrated defense prospects too.

 

[Todd Parchment]

Probably Tyler Seguin. His hypetrain has derailed in Dallas. Still a phenomenal player and emerging leader.

 

[Android 16]

These two quietly get better every year.

Vincent Trocheck
25g 53 pts
23g 54 pts
31g 75 pts

Jonathan Huberdeau
20g 59 pts
10g 26 pts (31 games missed most of year due to torn achilles)
27g 69 pts

Both 25 just entering their prime years.

 

[Hivemind]

Matt Niskanen

 

[snipes]

Jared Spurgeon

Put up .61 ppg last year as a D man and is hardly ever talked about.

 

[Pez68]

Has to be Barkov....

 

[Freedom]

Voracek, Kessel, Rantanen ( Think he can reach PPG in some years again)... PPG players but 2nd or 3rd in their own teams...

 

[Riddum]

Malkin. He's better than Ovechkin and Crosby but his name is never mentioned.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Travis Konecny. Hard to believe this guy only gets 14+ mins a game. Maybe his coach doesn't notice him either.

 

[CartographerNo611]

Jaccob Slavin. He's already a top 20-25 defenseman in the league at 24 and only going to get better. Not only a top 5 shutdown defenseman in the NHL but an insanely gifted passer. Carolina's blueline as a whole is extremely underrated. Hamilton is elite but gets dismissed as a one-dimensional player, Faulk and Pesce are both terrific as well. Jake Bean is one of the more underrated defense prospects too.

Defense wins championships and Carolina missed the playoffs. An excellent defense in Chicago made Darling look like a starter. Something ain't adding up in Carolina with their insanely overrated group of bottom paring D-man and decent 2nd paring player in Slavin... Also lets not forget that an opposing players sneezes this group of D-man they go running to mommy. S.o.f.t., butter in 100 degrees soft, so soft it transcends a solid state and goes to liquid type soft.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Auston Matthews

 

[Nadal On Clay]

I disagree with that. He gets fawned over, he's just always shared a roster with a guy that was fawned over more than anyone else in the league (up until the birth of McDavid). There's only so much airtime to devote to fawning.

Pittsburgh medias and NHL media’s aren’t the same people.

 

[ABCUser]

Auston Matthews

Completely agree. I'd throw in Mitch Marner and John Tavares as well. There's very little talk about these "Cup Favorites".

 

[Skolman]

Matthews

Wrong thread

 

[Maladroit]

Defense wins championships and Carolina missed the playoffs. An excellent defense in Chicago made Darling look like a starter. Something ain't adding up in Carolina with their insanely overrated group of bottom paring D-man and decent 2nd paring player in Slavin... Also lets not forget that an opposing players sneezes this group of D-man they go running to mommy. S.o.f.t., butter in 100 degrees soft, so soft it transcends a solid state and goes to liquid type soft.

You have no idea what you're talking about. Carolina allowed the second fewest even strength shot attempts in the league behind only Boston. It's not the defense's fault that Darling put up a horrendous save percentage.

 

[Lays]

From the Rangers-Zuccarello. 55-60 point 2 way beast who’s fun to watch in game and in shootouts. Plays with a ton of passion as well

Around the league-Barkov, Schwartz, Trocheck (all have been said)

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Well getzlaf doesnt even make top 50 list, so ill go with him

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Defense wins championships and Carolina missed the playoffs. An excellent defense in Chicago made Darling look like a starter. Something ain't adding up in Carolina with their insanely overrated group of bottom paring D-man and decent 2nd paring player in Slavin... Also lets not forget that an opposing players sneezes this group of D-man they go running to mommy. S.o.f.t., butter in 100 degrees soft, so soft it transcends a solid state and goes to liquid type soft.

Did Pittsburgh have the best defensemen when they became the only team to win back-to-back in the last 20 years?

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

You have no idea what you're talking about. Carolina allowed the second fewest even strength shot attempts in the league behind only Boston. It's not the defense's fault that Darling put up a horrendous save percentage.

You’re out to lunch. The defense was constantly letting Darling down. Nothing he could have done here.

 

[SirQuacksALot]

Well getzlaf doesnt even make top 50 list, so ill go with him

Lots of west coast players could be in this thread. Gibson would probably have been in the core group of potential Vezina nominees, instead of on the fringe, if he was on an Eastern team last year. Likewise with Vlasic in San Jose, he'd probably have a few Norris noms under his belt if he played for an O6 team or another prominent Eastern team.

 

[ChuckLefley]

This thread started off with an interesting concept, then immediately morphed into another thread about who doesn’t get hyped all the time on HF.

Oh well.

 

[Plural]

Auston Matthews

Along with Laine.

 

[Section88]

I dont know about you guys, but I feel like people talk about rantanen alot. He got a decent amount of exposure (deservedly so) from the great year he had with MacKinnon

 

[Fire Benning]

Seth Jones

 

[NoMessi]

Malkin. Outside of a few posters around here, he gets no love. He gets excluded in most lists including the top100.