Another controversial list from the NHL Network, this time the top 20 centers.

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.