Hockey is finally back, with the NHL regular season kicking off this week. The season has officially already begun with the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils playing back-to-back games in Europe, but on Tuesday, the first games in the US will be played, and as always, there’s lots of tension in the air.
The pre-season has been more intense than it tends to be, with controversial incidents and physical play, giving us a taste of what’s perhaps to come with the new season just around the corner.
The back-to-back Eastern Conference champions, the Florida Panthers, are now trying to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, but they face tough competition from teams like the Edmonton Oilers, the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars, and the New Jersey Devils.
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Looking just at betting odds, the Oilers are favorites to win the Cup in 2025, and that’s perhaps not a surprise given the level we’ve seen Connor McDavid play at for the last couple of years.
The NHL Network has been getting ready for this season by ranking the top 50 players in the league right now for the last couple of weeks. With the help of ’researchers, producers, and on-air personalities,’ they’ve now finished and published the list as a whole, and as always, it’s led to a big discussion in the NHL community. Every time a player gets listed, it tends to spark a debate, and this time was no different, with fans feeling that some players were completely robbed or undervalued.
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But to nobody’s surprise, Connor McDavid was ranked as No. 1. Last season, McDavid became the fourth player in NHL history to record 100 assists in a season, after Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Bobby Orr. He led the league with 42 points in 25 playoff games and was the sixth player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy while being on the losing team. Nathan MacKinnon was listed as the No. 2 player on the list, but many seemed to feel that Auston Matthews was ranked too high at No. 3, despite scoring 69 goals in 81 games last season.
Fans also took offense to Sidney Crosby’s placement outside the top 10, and the perhaps most debated selection was Connor Bedard’s placement 38th. Bedard became the second-youngest player in history to finish as the rookie leader in goals, assists, and points since Nathan MacKinnon did so in 2013-14.
Here’s the list in its full:
