Last week the hockey world exploded into debate when the NHL Network released their list of the Top 20 Centers in the league. They had Connor McDavid ahead of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the top of the list, while others like Jonathan Toews were left off completely. At PHR we did our own poll in which readers were asked to rank the ten best, and after more than 10,000 votes the list looked quite different. The PHR community-voted Top 20 Center list currently looks like this:
- Sidney Crosby (1,213 votes)
- Connor McDavid (1,127 votes)
- Evgeni Malkin (817 votes)
- John Tavares (797 votes)
- Patrice Bergeron (732 votes)
- Auston Matthews (696 votes)
- Nathan MacKinnon (689 votes)
- Steven Stamkos (596 votes)
- Anze Kopitar (591 votes)
- Mark Scheifele (435 votes)
- Tyler Seguin (401 votes)
- Evgeny Kuznetsov (335 votes)
- Jonathan Toews (307 votes)
- Nicklas Backstrom (301 votes)
- Jack Eichel (237 votes)
- Aleksander Barkov (160 votes)
- Ryan Getzlaf (156 votes)
- Ryan O’Reilly (100 votes)
- Sean Couturier (99 votes)
- Mathew Barzal (85 votes)
Today, the network released their ranking of the Top 20 Defensemen in the NHL right now. At the very top is Victor Hedman, who has established himself as not only one of the best two-way defensemen in recent history, but an absolute superstar for the Tampa Bay Lightning capable of taking home a Norris trophy in any season. Hedman took home the trophy for the 2017-18 season after averaging nearly 26 minutes a night and recording 63 points in 77 games. Behind him though will bring plenty of controversy, as the rest of the list contains some interesting decisions and leaves out several seemingly deserving candidates.
Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns and P.K. Subban, winners of four out of the five previous Norris trophies before Hedman took home this year’s award round out the top five. Duncan Keith, who won his second Norris in 2013-14, is nowhere to be found on the list after a down year with the Chicago Blackhawks. Taking up spots previously given to older players like Keith are a handful of youngsters, including Zach Werenski, Seth Jones, and Charlie McAvoy.
Just like the center debate, we’d like to ask you at PHR who you think deserves to be on the list. Can others like Ivan Provorov, Hampus Lindholm, Mattias Ekholm or Marc-Edouard Vlasic make it into the top group? Once again we’ll ask you to cast your vote by selecting 10 names. Makes sure to leave a comment below on who you think deserves to be recognized, or your thoughts on how the center poll ended. We’ve included many of the names that could be considered, but if you think we’ve missed someone important make to to leave his name down below.
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I’ll take Ryan McDonagh every day of the week. Most underrated player in the NHL.
Also Brady Skjei will work his way into the conversation in the next few years. I guarantee it.
You can take him and the 25 guys better will sit on your bench
Who voted for Klefbom??
Probably Klefbom’s mom.
PHR beat NHLN on the C list. That’s for sure.
Well at least theirs one Blue on the list even though he was with buffalo last season.
Defenders are always hard to rank for me because of how differently some guys play the role. Some of the best at actually playing effective defense on their end of the ice don’t get quite the same recognition as the defensemen who are like quarterbacks on the other side of the ice.