There's not a whole lot to do during the NHL offseason at the moment and recently there's been some "friendly" discussion between media and stats people in the hockey community about different ways to rank players. Here's an example of one of the more civil and productive discussions:
http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/star-power-in-the-nhl-which-teams-have-it-and-how-much-does-it-take-to-win-the-cup
A thoughtful critique:
https://oilersnation.com/2017/07/17/what-is-best-way-to-evaluate-nhl-players/
And a thoughtful reply:
We also had an interesting Pastrnak/Eichel discussion in a thread last week. I'm perfectly fine with this also turning into a discussion about the value of different stats relative to each other and also compared to scouting/watching games, but I really think it would be interesting to see who people here think are the best NHL players. I know there are a bunch of really smart hockey people here who understand a lot of the current advanced stats and also "watch the games". And you're smart enough to weigh all factors however you think appropriate.
So that being said, throw out your top 5 at each position, in order. Or 10 if people would prefer. I'll go ahead and start things:
Centers:
Crosby
McDavid
Malkin
Bergeron
(cliff)
Matthews
Honorable mention to Tavares, Stamkos, and Scheifele. Because they're all probably better than most of the wingers.
Wingers:
Kucherov
Kane
Tarasenko
Pastrnak
Wheeler
Defenseman:
Karlsson
Hedman
Burns
Lindholm
Subban
http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/star-power-in-the-nhl-which-teams-have-it-and-how-much-does-it-take-to-win-the-cup
A thoughtful critique:
https://oilersnation.com/2017/07/17/what-is-best-way-to-evaluate-nhl-players/
And a thoughtful reply:
We also had an interesting Pastrnak/Eichel discussion in a thread last week. I'm perfectly fine with this also turning into a discussion about the value of different stats relative to each other and also compared to scouting/watching games, but I really think it would be interesting to see who people here think are the best NHL players. I know there are a bunch of really smart hockey people here who understand a lot of the current advanced stats and also "watch the games". And you're smart enough to weigh all factors however you think appropriate.
So that being said, throw out your top 5 at each position, in order. Or 10 if people would prefer. I'll go ahead and start things:
Centers:
Crosby
McDavid
Malkin
Bergeron
(cliff)
Matthews
Honorable mention to Tavares, Stamkos, and Scheifele. Because they're all probably better than most of the wingers.
Wingers:
Kucherov
Kane
Tarasenko
Pastrnak
Wheeler
Defenseman:
Karlsson
Hedman
Burns
Lindholm
Subban