Earlier this month NHL Network began their reveal of the top players at every position, starting with the best defensemen in the league. In their estimation, Victor Hedman was the top name this year, something our readership predicted in 2019 when they disagreed with the network’s choice.
We asked those readers to select the best defensemen in the NHL and though Hedman was on top once again, the rest of the list doesn’t quite match up. Our PHR community-voted Top 20 Defensemen list currently looks like this:
- Victor Hedman (958 votes)
- Roman Josi (630 votes)
- Alex Pietrangelo (587 votes)
- Seth Jones (536 votes)
- John Carlson (468 votes)
- Cale Makar (466 votes)
- Miro Heiskanen (359 votes)
- Quinn Hughes (286 votes)
- Shea Weber (247 votes)
- Drew Doughty (230 votes)
- Brent Burns (225 votes)
- Dougie Hamilton (206 votes)
- Shea Theodore (182 votes)
- Jaccob Slavin (173 votes)
- Erik Karlsson (173 votes)
- Zach Werenski (166 votes)
- Torey Krug (155 votes)
- Charlie McAvoy (154 votes)
- Ivan Provorov (152 votes)
- Mark Giordano (149 votes)/Oliver Ekman-Larsson (149 votes)
Next the network released their ranking of the best wingers in the league, always one of the most heated debates among hockey fans. Does consistency and defense come into play, or is the wing just a place where pure offense reigns supreme?
In this year’s list, Hart Trophy finalist Artemi Panarin takes home the top spot after being eighth last time around. Last year’s top-ranked (and 2019 Hart winnger) Nikita Kucherov has dropped to third, despite helping his Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup, while the silky smooth David Pastrnak jumps all the way up to second.
You want newcomers? How about J.T. Miller, who is 17th on this year’s list despite not being ranked a year ago, while veteran Max Pacioretty has made his way onto the list at 15. It’s not often that players in their 30s are making their way up the chart, but that’s exactly what the Vegas Golden Knights forward has done after rebounding to have arguably the best season of his career in 2019-20.
Just like our defenseman poll, we want the PHR community to let us know who the best wingers in the world are. Unlike the last poll however, we’ll ask you to select 20 names because of the huge number of options. Make sure to leave a comment below on who you think deserves to be recognized or your thoughts on how the defenseman poll ended. We’ve included many names that could be considered, but if you think we’ve missed someone important (which we undoubtedly have) make sure to leave his name down below.
[Mobile users click here to vote]
There will always be some crossover with wingers and centers, but we’ve done our best to match what the NHL Network seems to have used. For instance, Leon Draisaitl, though appearing in the winger list last year, will now be listed in the center vote.
The tally’s of this in my eyes proves that the Bruins have the best line in the NHL in PB,DP, and BM
Okay, who was the joker who voted for James van Riemsdyk?
@[TOR]Scott 2 – It wasn’t me! I ran out of votes before I got down that far and had to rearrange the furniture 3-4 times before I submitted my selections. They were so memorable I didn’t even screenshot them for posterity…
#1 Phil “The thrill” Kessel.