Every year, at around the same time, sports games start to reveal the ratings of the players in their games and it sparks large debates.
Usually, it’s pretty unanimous who sits atop the rankings each season, but after the number one spot is usually where gets a little more interesting. Earlier this week, EA released the top 10 goalies in NHL 18 and next up are the wingers and defencemen.
EA released their rankings and all of their specific skill ratings on their website, so if you wish to see the ratings in more detail click here (Right Wingers, Left Wingers and Defencemen).
Right Wingers
Patrick Kane – 91
Vladimir Tarasenko – 90
Nikita Kucherov – 89
Joe Pavelski – 88
Blake Wheeler – 87
David Pastrnak – 87
Jakub Voracek – 87
Wayne Simmonds – 86
Patrik Laine – 86
Phil Kessel – 86
Left Wingers
Alex Ovechkin – 92
Jamie Benn – 90
Taylor Hall – 87
Brad Marchand – 87
Johnny Gaudreau – 87
Max Pacioretty – 87
Artemi Panarin – 86
Filip Forsberg – 86
Eric Staal – 85
Gabriel Landeskog – 85
Defencemen
Erik Karlsson – 91
Drew Doughty – 91
Brent Burns – 90
Victor Hedman – 90
Duncan Keith – 90
Ryan Suter – 89
Shea Weber – 89
Kris Letang – 88
Roman Josi – 88
Alex Pietrangelo – 88
There are a couple names that people will definitely consider to be snubs (Subban, Ehlers, Skinner, Arvidsson, Stone) and a couple that will confuse people on the list (Landeskog, Suter) but overall they sit pretty close to last year’s positional point rankings. Where the really questions will start is when center is released.
First of all, we’ll be curious to McDavid and Crosby’s ratings, but there are a lot of talented players down the middle to fit into a top 10. If we were to give a guess, it would probably go something like this:
Centres
Sidney Crosby
Connor McDavid
Evgeni Malkin
Nicklas Backstrom
Patrice Bergeron
Steven Stamkos
Tyler Seguin
Auston Matthews
John Tavares
Mark Scheifele
Even with a list like that though, there are still players like Leon Draisaitl, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Getzlaf, Jack Eichel, Ryan Johansen and many more on the outside looking in. We’re sure the list will be released in the next couple of days, so we’ll make sure to compare it back with this one when it shows up.
Until then, we’ll be patiently waiting our turn to get in the replay system and many some Thumb Leagues out of the new game.
