My 10 Best Centres In The NHL with 5 Honourable Mentions

Team: 2022-23 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 30, 2022

Published: Jul. 30, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

1 McJesus- Take it from a flames fan, the kid is as talented as anyone who’s ever played the game. Peak Mario was also a freak like him but for different reasons. I was a kid in the 80s when 99 was destroying records. McDavid is more talented than Gretzky. However, no one has ever thought the game better than 99. He had a sixth sense for hockey that will probably never be seen again. Anyways 97 is by far the best player in hockey.

2 Matthews- Another generational freak of nature. He has a shot on par with Mario and Ovi. Bossy was basically done for when I was old enough to understand hockey. For me Matthews is the top two way forward in the game. He is good enough to get Selke votes every year from here until he is done and we all now what he can do with putting the puck in the net.

3 MacKinnon- Lights out skater, not quite McJesus but still as good or better than any one else. He has a knack for clutch moments, almost Messier like. He’s a special player.

4 Barkov- Already a Selke winner, he is simply dominate on both ends of the ice, 2nd best two way.

5 Crosby- Sid is still this good at 35. He averaged well over a ppg yet again and has shown no signs of age. He he one of the top 10 players of all time. His defensive play improved dramatically around 29/30, which tends to happen for the superstar centres. Above all he is the epitome of leadership

6 Drai- Is he a centre? Obviously yes but he also fairs just as well as a LW. Is he a better and more dynamic player than Crosby or Barkov? Yep, but this is about centre play as a whole and there are some areas where he’s a bit weaker than more refined centres. He is this generations Malkin, who also was a physically dominate and highly skilled forward who never has been a pure centre.

7 Elias Lindholm- Yes maybe it’s a bit inflated because of my Flames fandom but show me a two way centre who was better this season other than the two ranked above him? In my opinion he would have runaway with the Selke under normal circumstances if not for one of the top 3 defensive forwards ever still dominating the award in Bergeron. He does it all and is underrated by many fans.

8 Aho- Just like Lindholm he does it all. I give a slight edge to Lindholm defensively but the o really can be interchangeable.

9 Point- So why isn’t he higher? One reason only… health. If he had been healthy and continued hitting 90 plus points as he did a few years ago, he’s much higher. His playoff dominance keeps him in the top 10.

10 Bergeron- One of the 3 best defensive forwards ever to play… he is solid offensively as well even if he is not on par with some of the other centres I’d out below, his all time greatness as a defensive centre makes up for it.

Best of the rest (Honouring the next 5)

Kopitar- What I wrote for Bergeron but Bergy is just better defensively. Kopitar would have had more Selkes in another era.

Mika- If we saw what we saw this season and especially postseason, he is only going up the list.

Eichel- Clearly the talent to get into the top 10 is there, he just has to stay healthy.

JT Miller- How much of a centre is he? The same questions apply to him that applied to Drai but he’s no Drai. He’s still a tremendous offensive talent.

Suzuki- He deserves to be mentioned because he has played 3 seasons and each of them he just gets better and better. The team is bad but he still can look dominant. As the Habs add young talent around him I expect more people to realize how good he really is.