Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is once again overlooked while writers at The Athletic once again put out a controversial and flawed list. There is constantly this narrative that his production should be discredited due to his performance on the power play. This should not make a difference or put an asterisk beside his name because if producing on the power play was so easy, more players would do so.
The top 100 players in hockey organized into tiers, updated at the midseason mark.https://t.co/cKgevfAa5s pic.twitter.com/v6Ltfg7vel
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) January 20, 2023
Nugent-Hopkins has primarily spent this season as the third line centre between two players that started the season in the AHL – Klim Kostin and Matthias Janmark. Regardless of his power-play points, that means Nugent-Hopkins has produced 13 goals and 24 points at even strength this season in 47 games.
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Other Skaters That Made the List Above Nugent-Hopkins
Dom at The Athletic contradicted himself by both saying that the rankings were based off of this season and not solely based off this season. If it’s the case of the rankings at the mid-way point of the season being based off this season alone, then there is no question whether Nugent-Hopkins should be there. He ranks 13th in the NHL in points with 54, 24th in the league in goals with 21, and third in power-play points with 28.
If we’re then looking at even strength points since he has been called a power-play merchant by people who discredit his production, then he sits tied in 83rd in the league with players like Tim Stutzle, John Tavares, Evgeni Malkin, and Patrice Bergeron and is just behind a whole group of others that include Dylan Larkin, Mark Stone, Mats Zuccarello, Anze Kopitar, Brady Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm, Martin Necas, Mark Scheifele, Filip Forsberg, Sebastian Aho, Jack Eichel, Matt Barzal, Andrei Svechnikov, and Mika Zibanejad.
Those players not only made the list, most were in the third tier or higher.
Now if Dom is going off of more than just this season and updating it, then there should definitely be more movement and Nugent-Hopkins should’ve at least entered the group. Matty Beniers played 10 games before this season and Jakob Chychrun has spent so much of recent seasons injured.
Rightfully so, players like Jonathan Huberdeau, Patrick Kane, and Nazem Kadri should have been dropped down. But Kadri makes the list based off of one good season on the Colorado Avalanche’s top line but Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t make it based on the season he’s having? He is having a career year from the third line, so if a career year is what it takes, then there’s no doubt he should make the list.