Sportsnet released its full ranking of the Top 100 NHL Players of 2018-19 today, and to almost no one’s surprise Connor McDavid is at the very top. The Edmonton Oilers star center edged out Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Victor Hedman and Nathan MacKinnon in the top five, after winning his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer. The Boston Bruins, Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators lead the way with six players each, while the Detroit Red Wings were the only team to not have a single appearance on the list.
Amazingly, the New Jersey Devils had just a single player—Taylor Hall—appear on the list despite reaching the playoffs last season. Hall was awarded the Hart Trophy as league MVP after registering 93 points, and clearly the Sportsnet staff believes he deserved it for carrying the team without any other top 100 player on the roster.
- The KHL have moved to a different point system for this season according to Russian reporter Aivis Kalnins, just days before games are about to begin. The league will abandon their previous scoring system that awarded three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, and one point for an overtime or shootout loss in favor of the same two-point model the NHL currently uses. This system, critiqued by fans at times in North America, creates a level of virtual parity among all teams by keeping the standings squashed together for a longer period of time. In the KHL last season the first place team, SKA St. Petersburg, finished with 138 points in 56 games while last place, HC Yugra, collected just 48. In the new system, those extremes would have been 98 to 41.
- Par Lindholm is ready to fight for a spot in the NHL this fall, but that wasn’t true just a year ago. As Kristen Shilton of TSN reports, Lindholm had an offer to come over from the SHL in the spring of 2017, but decided it was better for his career to stay in Sweden for another season. It looks like he was right, as the now 26-year old center registered a career-high 47 points in 49 games during the 2017-18 season and proved that he was one of the most dependable offensive leaders in the entire league. Those 47 points put him fourth in the SHL and only nine points behind young phenom Elias Pettersson. He’ll now try to battle for the fourth-line center role with the Maple Leafs, behind a trio of stars that should get the vast majority of minutes.
Count me as one of “almost no one”.
Crosby has won 2 Stanley Cups and a World Cup in the past 3 years. That outweighs piling up a few extra points against Arizona in February.
I’d have to agree with you there. Mcdavid led his team to another draft lottery finish last year. Crosby is still tops.
McDavid is doing it almost by himself. Crosby has Malkin, Kessel, and Murray