Another controversial list from the NHL Network, this time the top 20 centers.
These list have been wild.
HockeyFeed
We are in the midst of the offseason and outlets like ourselves and the NHL Network have to go the extra mile in order to drum up fan interest, although admittedly it isn't that much work given that hockey fans are absolute die hards. I say that because it is for that reason that we get lists like the ones the NHL Network has been producing over the last several weeks, lists that rank the top 20 players at any given position in the league.
Thus far each and everyone of those lists has been met by controversy and on Sunday the NHL Network published its latest list and like all the others it has drawn a ton of criticism. Now I will say in their defense the entire purpose of these lists is to stimulate discussions on the topic and given that they are largely subjective no one's idea of the perfect list is ever going to match perfectly with everyone else.
This time the NHL Network has ranked the top 20 centers in the league, but in a clever twist this time around they released the list created by fan voting first. Now I suspect the reason they did so is because they think their list looked pretty good by comparison, and once you see the fan list I think you'll understand why.
First here's the list based on fan voting:
NHL FAN TOP 20
1. Connor McDavid - Edmonton Oilers
2. Nathan MacKinnon - Colorado Avalanche
3. Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins
4. Patrice Bergeron - Boston Bruins
5. Mika Zibanejad - New York Rangers
6. Kevin Hayes - Philadelphia Flyers
7. Brayden Point - Tampa Bay Lightning
8. Mathew Barzal - New York Islanders
9. Sean Couturier - Philadelphia Flyers
10. Auston Matthews - Toronto Maple Leafs
11. Jack Eichel - Buffalo Sabres
12. Leon Draisaitl - Edmonton Oilers
13. Elias Pettersson - Vancouver Canucks
14. Jonathan Toews - Chicago Blackhawks
15. Sebastian Aho - Carolina Hurricanes
16. Nicklas Backstrom - Washington Capitals
17. Aleksander Barkov - Florida Panthers
18. Anze Kopitar - Los Angeles Kings
19. Ryan O’Reilly - St. Louis Blues
20. Evgeny Kuznetsov - Washington Capitals
As you can clearly see there are some outrageous rankings on the fan list and in fact they are so bad in some cases that it makes me wonder what kind of fans were being surveyed for this list.
The NHL Network got some flack for their own list, but it was nowhere near as outlandish as some of the rankings on the fan list.
NHL NETWORK TOP 20
1. Connor McDavid - Edmonton Oilers
2. Nathan MacKinnon - Colorado Avalanche
3. Leon Draisaitl - Edmonton Oilers
4. Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Auston Matthews - Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Jack Eichel - Buffalo Sabres
7. Patrice Bergeron - Boston Bruins
8. Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Penguins
9. Brayden Point - Tampa Bay Lightning
10. Mika Zibanejad - New York Rangers
11. Aleksander Barkov - Florida Panthers
12. Mark Scheifele - Winnipeg Jets
13. Sebastian Aho - Carolina Hurricanes
14. John Tavares - Toronto Maples Leafs
15. Ryan O’Reilly - St. Louis Blues
16. Elias Pettersson - Vancouver Canucks
17. Steven Stamkos - Tampa Bay Lightning
18. Sean Couturier - Philadelphia Flyers
19. Mathew Barzal - New York Islanders
20. Anze Kopitar - Los Angeles Kings
Let us know your thoughts on the rankings in the comments.