So … um, is NHL Network good now? They’re at least trying, and as part of the effort, they have actual original programming during the offseason. Quite a concept. And that programming includes a countdown of the top 20 forwards in the NHL today, which they walked through on Saturday night.
Now, just because NHL Network has content in the summer doesn’t mean that I spent my Saturday night in August watching that content. But luckily, I got a press release this morning that told me about it … so, here!
It’s the list of NHL Network’s top 20 forwards in the league right now. Claude Giroux is 17th.
- Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
- Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
- Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
- Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
- Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
- Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks
- John Tavares, New York Islanders
- Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
- Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
- Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
- Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
- Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
- Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
- Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
- Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks
- Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
- Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks
- Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals
First thing’s first: please take this moment to laugh at our friends at Japers’ Rink, as is tradition. And now that that’s out of the way, let’s go to the tape and see what the reasoning was from the NHL Network panel here:
They are mostly putting their chips on Giroux’s power play prowess, and they only touched on his game for less than a minute, so it’s not the deepest analysis we’ve ever seen of what No. 28 brings to the table.
But all in all, it’s pretty hard to go against this ranking. I could listen to a case for putting Giroux ahead of Thornton or maybe Gaudreau, but both of those players were more productive than Giroux last year, so it’s not much of an argument. How do you feel about this ranking overall?
