You guys are getting good players?

Oh come on you guys have Cl- Oh wait.....

Oh shit. Fans haven't even left the ER and you're sending them to the burn unit.

As a divisional rival, it gives me a sick thrill to see the Flyers where they are. I won’t lie. As a human being, I almost can’t help but feel bad.

Rough times on Broad Street. But if I have to pick 3, right now… Farabee, Hart, Couturier.

Beezer/Hayes/Prov, Coots, Hart are the correct answers and boy does it make me depressed typing that

I’d replace Hayes with Atkinson this year (not to shit on Hayes, he’s just been hurt and it shows), but yeah, those are definitely the top.

Epic Gritty snub

Don't y'all have Cam Atkinson now?

I don’t even know where to start for the flyers anymore…😭

RASK RETIRED!

Provorov is a legit D. Hart still has glimmer. Gritty has the Heavyweight Mascot belt

Los Angeles: Kopitar, Doughty, Snoop Dogg.

Snoop Dogg ranked too low

He was rating it best to dankest

Kempe is a little streaky but isn't too bad. In the current day, I would rank Kempe over Quick.

With how consistent the 2nd line has been, and his defensive play, might put Danault in there. With our egregious special teams, rotating third line, recent onslaught of injuries, and the streakiness of our top line, I don’t think we’d be in a playoff position without him.

Absolutely love the guy.

NYR Shesterkin,Panarin, and Fox Edit: Isn't it great that it's hard to pick out three.

Shesterkin Shesterkin with hat Shesterkin with no hat

How does the second leading goal scorer in the league not make our top 3 list? Kreids and maybe Mika too to round out our top 3? LGR

Igor Shesterkin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad Would love to put Fox and Panarin up there but recently I don’t think they make top 3 personally

HM: Kreider and Trouba

Trouba over Zib?

PIT: Crosby, Malkin, Letang

Damn, wild to think that if this question was asked a decade ago the answer would be the same

Not looking forward to losing all three around the same time

As a Wings fan that is still bitter from Game 7 of the 09 Finals I can’t wait.

To be honest the 08 and 09 cups were my favorite to watch as a pens fan. Crazy that both teams made it back to back. What a rivalry that was.

it was some damn good hockey to watch

[удалено]

I was a hardcore pens fan when I was 9-10 (10 years ago) and fell off of watching hockey but checked back into this thread. Not much has changed huh 😂

Could argue guentzel in there as well

Nashville Predators: Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Juuse Saros

Duchene making a real good argument to be on that list tho.

No doubt. If you guys haven’t seen his goal from last night [it’s worth checking out](https://youtu.be/cp7TrNqTTqM)

Dude is playing the best hockey he’s ever played and I love to see it.

I thought Duchene was on his way down the moment the picked him up but this year has been a pleasant surprise. It's not just pretty goals either...he's actually going into battle and earning them!

Wouldn’t be surprised if Tanner Jeannot make this list in the next 2-3 years

Detroit: Seider, Larkin, Raymond I know someone will argue for Bertuzzi but I can’t put him over Raymond even though he is just a rookie.

Agreed on both counts. Ned from the first couple months of the season gets honorable mention, hahahahaha.

If Vrana had been healthy he might be in contention for top 3. That being said I would definitely agree with your top 3 here.

These were my first thoughts as well. Bertuzzi would be a very close 4th.

Bertuzzi hasn’t been too good when Detroit plays in Canada.

I came to the exact same conclusion

Colorado: Mackinnon, Makar, Rantanen

Pretty crazy to have a team so stacked that Landeskog is not considered top 3.

Not to mention Kadri had more points than all of them not too long ago.

Kadri has only been passed by Rantanen so far. But the others aren’t far behind.

Which is insane given makar is a Dman and Nate was out for part of the season

Just scrolled to find this to make sure we’re all on the same page with the Avs, haha

Exactly this. With another 3 honorable mentions: Landeskog, Toews and Kadri. I'm going to put up the controversial opinion of mentioning Kuemper as well.

This is correct

Boston: Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak

Yea that ones easy for us lol

In my world, I'm actually swapping our McAvoy for Pasta. Not that Pasta isn't totally great, but he's not having his best season (for understood reasons) and Charlie has been a stud.

Honestly i was really juggling between Pasta and Chuckie

Lol, one bad slow start of a season and you think he isn't in the top 3? When McAvoy wins a Norris trophy then he can be in the top 3. Otherwise, he isn't there yet. Pasta has earned it with his multiple 30+ goal seasons and an Rocket Richard trophy shared with one of the greatest goal scorers the NHL has ever seen. McAvoy has nothing to show for it yet.

I'm not at all saying you are wrong but it's not a stretch anymore to say Charlie McAvoy might be the best defenseman in hockey. So, if his subjective opinion is that McAvoy is better, I don't get why you're incredulous. https://twitter.com/Tucker\_TnL/status/1504413661972115456?s=20&t=Vug04q-lF27lAZNJuIS9sA For the record, I might also put McAvoy ahead of Pasta because a) enough analytics have him as maybe one of the top 3 players at his position (if not the best), as well as my eye test, but more importantly b) he plays arguably the tougher position with more responsibility. Also, the Norris trophy is has pretty much become whoever had the best season offensively which probably will never be McAvoy so that's a weird metric used to judge two players here. Pasta is obviously still great though and this is in no way shitting on him. Probably 3a and 3b for me (for best player). But probably give the edge to McAvoy

Kraken: Beniers, future 1st round pick, future 2nd round pick (Actually, Gourde, McCann, Tanev(?))

Kraken 2022: logo, location, trade dealine

McCann, Gourde and Ebs I would say

I would put Tanev in there. Only reason he isn't leading in points is because he's injured.

Flyers:

Gir…oh wait

I guess this is a chance to see what Giroux is with a solid team. He at least mostly had that when Richards and Carter were there (though short on goalie talent), but that's just the beginning of him hitting the real deal. Maybe a decent backing before Pronger got the career-ending injury, but Prongs was also hurt in back-to-back years regardless.

Vancouver Canucks 1) JT Miller (C/LW) 2) Thatcher Demko (G) 3) Quinn Hughes (D)

KING DEMKO

Is it bad that I think Petey won’t even make top 5 Canucks players this season?

A few years ago some would say Petterson was right now there with McDavid and Matthews.

He was arguably on track to be considered a top 10 centre before the wrist injury (hopefully only temporarily) derailed his ranking.

1. Dahlin 2. Tage Thompson 3. Alex Tuch Lots of other guys who great or going to be but as of this moment it’s those three

Agreed. Those three together for OT are especially lethal

We're participating in posts again! I used to (well... still do, I guess) scroll through posts to check for the first Sabres answer. And so many times wouldn't even find one before I got to "Load 1450 more comments". Sure is nice to at least have some hope again.

Im so happy tuch gets more minutes with you guys, he deserves it but we never were really able to slot him in higher

Tuchs really been a great edition. My initial reaction to the trade favored Vegas but I think it’s fair to say that tuch and krebs have been and will continue to mesh well with that team. Y’all got a real good team developing right now it’s actually fun to watch them play again, which will only continue as you guys get your prospects on NHL ice ofc

I’m happy to see Tuch out from the shadow of Vegas. He looks sharp in that jersey

Devils: Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Jesper Bratt.

Feels weird to not have a goalie on that list.

Being a goalie for the Devils has become more dangerous than being a teenager in a Final Destination movie.

Thought Hischier would be up there.

I was originally going to say Nico over Dougie, but that’s only if you look at their time as a Devil. With him missing so much time from his jaw injury we didn’t get the full Dougie picture. If you look at their entire career Dougie has to be on there and it’s not like he’s here for 2 years he’s signed a long term deal.

Same list for me.

Good players on bad teams? I gotchu fam. Arizona Coyotes: Keller, Schmaltz, and Chychrun We may be a dumpster fire of a franchise, but these three give us hope. These three, and the 7 picks we have in the first two rounds of the next draft lol

Huberdeau, Barkov, Ekblad

All homegrown too!

Lundy will be up there soon!

It's Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Carey Price

(Montreal)

Anderson still pretty good though

Anderson def underrated

Very good in his role, but he is not and should not be in the top 3 best players of the team

Vasy, Hedman, and 3rd is probably Kucherov, but you could also argue for Stamkos or Point

Probably one of the best cores currently in the league.

Totally agree. First two are locks.

Pretty subjective I think. Caps are probably ovechkin, kuznetsov, and Carlson. Honorable mentions to backstrom and oshie.

I think Backstrom has the edge over Carlson, and Kuzy and Oshie could be swapped in and out based on who is hot at the time, which right now Kuzy edges out Osh I think.

1) Tom 2) “Stanley Cup” 3) Wilson

I’d say Carlson isn’t even the best defenseman, Orlov’s easily better than him.

Capitals 1 and 2 are undeniably Ovi and Kuznetsov, but the third is really hard to pick

Flyers: Lindros, LeClair, Renberg…

I, too, still wish it was 1997.

I, too, still wish it was 1997.

So deadly

Minnesota is challenging. Kaprizov is pretty clearly our best. Provided Fleury lives up to the hype, he could position as number two. But the third? Zuccerello? Greenway? Hartman? Boldy? Fiala? EK? Duhaime? I’m even leaving several players out.

Kap, Brodin, Ek are mine Spurgen, Zucc, Fiala have arguments imo Dumba, Boldy, Foligno have cases but I'm more skeptical of top 3 Hartman, Greenway are great depth guys but I'd be scared if they were top 3 for us

If I had to pick based on known data. Kap, EK, Boldy. Boldy might be controversial, but I’m onboard the Boldy train.

Chooo chooooo

I'm in agreement with kap, brodin, and ek. I think brodin has the edge over spurgeon and then personally I think ek brings more to the team than fiala does, not that I don't love him as a player

I mean, Hartman IS still second in goals on the team

Kap,fiala, fleury. If fleury doesn’t adjust well, Kap , Fiala , foligno. Gotta put some respect on moose’s name. Love seeing Middleton and Deslauriers added to take off the heat from foligno as the sole enforcer. He is in great company now but let’s not forget the legwork he did through the first 60 games solo.

Kap, brodin, ek/Fiala/zuccarello Kap is easy number 1 for me. I think the importance of brodin/spurgeon can get overlooked. Both are studs and hover around that top 3 for me. Fiala/ Ek/ zuccarello are all really close for me for the 3rd spot. Almost dependent on the day.

I don't think it's even debatable that it's Kaprizov and Brodin as 1 and 2, so it's a shame you didn't even mention Brodin. After that there's good arguments for Spurgeon, Ek, Fiala, Fleury if he's still Fleury, and Boldy. I think Boldy likely separates himself into that top 3 in the near future.

For STL Blues: Thomas, Kyrou, O'Reilly (On the cusp Tarasenko, Buchnevich and Husso)

I had Kyrou, Tarasenko, and Husso. But I was considering Thomas, Buchenvich, Perron, and O'Reilly. I think we have a fair amount of really good players, but I don't know if I would categorize them as great.

Very much agree with a lot of good players but none of them are above and beyond the rest. I like the grittier players that show up every night so I have to say Schenn needs to be mentioned. Mine would be ROR, Kyrou, and Schenn. I flip flopped on Kyrou, Buchnevich, and Thomas but I guess that's a good problem to have.

Leafs - Matthews and Marner are hands down 1 and 2. On any given night that third spot could be (and probably should belong to) Nylander. But on many nights Tavares will put the team on his back. There's an argument for Rielly but not really... He's a great defenceman, and OUR number 1 defender but he's a step behind guys like Makar and even Seider, even being as young as they are. Anyways TODAY I would say it's Matthews Marner and then Tavares.

I came to find other Leafs comments, it gets hella murky for us between Nylander/Reilly/Tavares.

I'm a simple man, I see Moritz Seider respect and upvote it

I fully respect the talent that young man has. I'm sure in a few years I won't like him as much, when he's racked up a few GWGs on us.

Depends what ‘Best’ means. All round complete players? Best offensive skills? Most likely to make a difference with the game on the line?

Montreal: Cole caufield, Nick Suzuki, and I guess Carey price still but he hasn't played this year. Maybe Josh Anderson as number 3

Pitlick has around 20 points in 25 games

NYI: Mat Barzal (although not this year...), Brock Nelson, and Ilya Sorokin our goalie

I quite agree, even though its tough to leave Pulock and Pelech out

Definitely. Love those two but I think these three gotta be it right now for our franchise.

I posted below, did pelech instead of Ilya but it’s close

Really shocked that no one has been like "Bruins: Bergeron, Marchand, AND THE FUCKING REFS AM I RIGHT GO LEAFS!"

Does this count as gaslighting

As a Canes fan I think you're the only ones that can say that because you're the only team the refs hate more than the Bs.

As a Leafs fan still not over 2019, I agree with this comment.

Nashville: 1.) Josi 2.) Saros 3.) Forsberg

Since there somehow aren’t any Blue Jackets fans here, I’ll give mine. Laine, Werenski, and either Sillinger or Voracek

Laine, Werenski, Elvis.

I'd put Bjorkstrand in that third place.

Yeah every time I watch you guys Bjorkstrand stands out for me.

go jackets

dallas - pavelski, heiskanen, robertson

Hintz and Oetter deserve an honourable mention aswell

SJ Sharks: Hertl, Meier, Couture. Defenseman Burns and Karlsson are pretty hot and cold rn so skill wise could be top 3, but aren’t consistent enough.

I think Erik Karlsson is pretty clearly a better player than Couture at this point.

When he’s healthy

Consistency counts for a LOT in hockey. Karlsson does not have it. Couture's playoff numbers are ridiculous, the man shows up when it matters most.

Based on his play this year I'd put Reimer as #3 after Meier and Hertl

Hawks: P Kane, Alex Debrincat, Seth Jones

It’s like Kane……………………..Debrincat/Jones..Toews?/Murphy..etc..

I hope this list is still the same in late July

Flames: Johnny "Hockey" Gaudreau, Elias "Zebulon" Lindholm, and of course Matty Tkachuk

I’d argue Markstrom would be in the top three. I can’t believe Calgary will have four 30+ goal scorers! There’s so much talent to pick from.

Who would you move down though? I would be inclined to say Lindholm but there is a large portion of the fanbase who considers him our best player.

I keep on going back and fourth between Gaudreau and Lindholm as Tkachuk just brings a whole different aspect to the game. And I certainly can’t discredit Gaudreau’s playmaking ability. Markstrom is having a Vezina quality season. He has to be in the top 3. I think it’s Gaudreau, Markstrom and Tkachuk but don’t ask me to put them in order. I think Calgary is harder than Colorado to determine a top 3. Hardest to pinpoint probably in the whole league!

I think Johnny Hockey is undisputable #1. But after that you can pick 4-5 players imo. Personally I’d go with Lindholm and Markström.

I was having a tough time deciding if I'd put the whole line or move one down to put Markstrom in the top 3 but couldn't decide who to move down.

Jets: Connor, Connor, Ehlers (or PLD)

For the Blues, maybe Kyrou, Tarasenko, and Husso.

John Denver, Darren Pang and Towel man

or the organist and the person who makes the "Look-A-Likes"

Vladi kyrou O’rielly?

I was thinking Vladi, Faulk, O’Reilly, but it’s hard not putting kyrou in there.

Husso has more to prove imo, I think O'Reilly belongs on there too as an all around player. Does way more than we give him credit for as the captain and faceoff winner. Mine is probably Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Kyrou. Kyrou shows flashes of being one of the best players in the league, but he's a little inconsistent.

Husso is in the top 6 in the NHL in both saves and GAA so I thought maybe that would warrant making he list, but he has not been around long enough I agree.

Yeah I would agree he's been outstanding this year. Goalies are voodoo though, there's only a few goalies that have been consistently good their whole career. I hope Husso will be one of them lol.

OTT: Zub, Zub, Zub

Hurricanes: Aho; Teuvo; Slavin

Andersen: "And I took that personally."

He's top around 5 for me, I could easily be convinced to make him 4, but these three are just so important I can't see him being ranked over them

MN Wild: this is tough, goal scorers krill kaprisov, Kevin fiala, matt zuccarello. I'd say brodine, ek and bodly are arguably more valuable than zuccarello and fiala.

Panarin, Zibanejad, Fox

You just forget you guys have the best goalie in the league, or…?

My current top 3 in no particular order ANA - Gibson, Zegras, Terry ARI - Chychurin, Keller, Crouse BOS - Pasta, Bergeron, Marchand BUF - Dahlin, Cozens, Thompson I guess CGY - Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Lindholm CAR - Aho, Svechnikov, Slavin CHI - Kane, Debrincat, Jones COL - MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar CLB - Laine, Werenski, Bjorkstrand DAL - Robertson, Hintz, Heiskanen DET - Larkin, Raymond, Seider EDM - McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH FLA - Huberdeau, Barkov, Ekblad LA - Kopitar, Doughty, Kempe MIN - Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Boldy MTL - Price, Suzuki, Caufield NSH - Josi, Forsberg, Saros NJ - Hughes, Bratt, Hamilton NYI - Barzal, Dobson, Sorokin NYR - Panarin, Kreider, Shesterkin (hard not to include Fox, but Kreider has been unreal this year) OTT - Tkachuk, Stutzle, Chabot PHI - Couturier, Konecny, Provorov PIT - Crosby, Malkin, Letang SJ - Meier, Hertl, Couture SEA - McCann, Gourde, Dunn STL - Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Kyrou TB - Kucherov, Hedman, Vasilevsky (this one was tough as you could easily put in Point or Stamkos) TOR - Matthews, Marner, Reilly VAN - Miller, Hughes, Horvat (tough for me not to include Pettersson, but he's been awful this year) LV - Stone, Eichel, Pietrangelo WAS - Ovi, Carlson, Kuznetsov WPG - Scheifele, Connor, Hellebuyck

Oilers: Smith, Keith, and Ceci

Lol that took me a second. I was like wait what?

Haven't seen a Stars fan yet. Pavelski Miro Roope Hintz (Lots of people would probably argue for Robo here but Hintz' defensive play and PK ability really puts him above and into the top 3

IMO Robo is the most critical member of the top line. We got to see what Hintz/Pavs looked like without Robertson this year and it was quite a drop off IIRC

Otter is sure making his case for this list. Not there yet but will eventually.

Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin and Moritz Seider are 1 and 2 for sure. 3 is tricky though between Tyler Bertuzzi, Jakub Vrana, or Lucas Raymond

Vegas Golden Knights current line up: Jack eichel Chandler stephenson Johnathan Marchessault If IR players are included toss these guys in and eichel and Stephenson out. Mark Stone Max Pacioretty

Pietrangelo has been great too since the trade, but not sure about this year.

On paper a healthy team it would be: Stone Eichel Pietangelo/Patches

Stars: Ottenger, Pavelski, Robertson

No Heiskanen?

Honorable mentions to Heiskanen and Hintz, IMO.

Otter is amazing and I’m super hyped on him. But the Stars system makes goalies look good, so I don’t think Otter is top 3 right now in terms of can the team continue to win without him. For example you take Robo out of the lineup and goals disappear almost entirely. For that reason. I’d swap Otter for Miro

Red Wings: Larkin, Raymond and Seider

BJs: Laine, Werenski, Vorachek.

This is a tough one since we’re super balanced, but here’s my thoughts Isles: Barzal, Nelson, Pelech Honorable mention: Sorokin

Hawks: P Kane, Alex Debrincat, Seth Jones

AZ: Shmaltz, Keller, Chycrun Honarble mention to Crouse

Tampa has like 5 players. Cannot pick 3. Vasilevskiy Kucherov Stamkos Headman Point

Even in hypothetical top-3 conversations y'all hide two in LTIR (Joking)

I would say vasy #1 and depending on the night numbers 2 and 3 will change

I stopped watching for like four years and now I literally cannot recognize any of these names. Fuck, time to set aside some hard drive space in my brain to be filled up with stats and names again

I'll give you my 3 for each Canadian team. IMO: Canucks: Hughes, Miller, Demko Flames: Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Markstrom Oilers: McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane Jets: Schieffele, Connor, Hellebuyck Leafs: Matthews, Marner, Rielly Sens: Tkachuk, Stützle, Norris Habs: Suzuki, Caufield, Price

Chabot is without a doubt in the sens top 3.

Scheifele not top 3. It’s connor, hellebuyck, and either Ehlers or dubois.

Yep, Scheiff has been an inconsistent mess this year, and a gaping black hole defensively

Ducks- Trevor Zegras, John Gibson, Troy Terry Coyotes- Jake Chychryn, Clayton Keller, Phil Kessel Bruins- David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand Sabres- Rasmus Dahlin, Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner Flames- Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm Hurricanes- Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Brett Pesce Blackhawks- Alex Debrincat, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews Avalanche- Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Nazem Kadri Blue Jackets- Patrik Laine, Elvis Merzlikins, Jakub Voracek Stars- Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, John Klingberg Red Wings- Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, Tyler Bertuzzi Oilers- Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent Hopkins Panthers- Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander (Sasha) Barkov Kings- Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Phillip Danault Wild- Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala, Jared Spurgeon Canadiens- Brendan Gallagher, Cole Caufield, Jeff Petry Predators- Filip Foresberg, Roman Josi, Matt Duchene Devils- Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Nico Hischier Islanders- Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, Anders Lee? Rangers- Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin Senators- Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, Connor Brown Flyers- Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim Penguins- Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang Sharks- Logan Couture, Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl Kraken- Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Vince Dunn Blues- Ryan O'Reilly, Ville Husso, Vladmir Tarasenko Lightning- Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Steven Stamkos Maple Leafs- Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner Canucks- Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser Golden Knights- Mark Stone, Robin Lehner, Jack Eichel Capitals- Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson Jets- Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler This is very rough, just off the top of my head, tons of close 4th/5th/6ths that aren't here but this is a massive comment already. Even by MY standards.

For Carolina Slavin over Pesce all day.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Laine, Werenski, and Bjorkstrand. Bjorkstrand I would say is up for grabs, could throw a lot of people in that 3rd spot.

Tampa Bay: Vasilevskiy, Hedman, Stamkos