I think this list is pretty good, some things I would probably change, like Crosby a bit lower but it's good.

You should have put marner in here just to troll us.

Draisaitl higher and the rest is 👍

Crosby is not better than McDavid or MacKinnon now. Rest is fine.

Malkin is easily top 5.

People underrate Malkin so much

im always amused how the oilers have two top centers when they are always playing on the same line

Gotta respect that coming from a Capitals fan. I agree though, put him over Matthews

Drai is listed as a center on NHL.com

right, but so are lots of other players who play wing most of the time.

Gotta respect him. He’s so good but criminally underrated on this site. Matthews 9 years younger isn’t better than Malkin

Good names but I'd probably change the order a bit.

I have M.Barzal in there instead of JT. And Barkov alittle higher.

But who do you take out of the top-5 to make room for Malkin: McDavid? MacKinnon? Matthews? Crosby? Eichel?

Not always but he did play often.



Draisaitl is a C but the NHL website doesn't have the right positions for everyone.

Im not saying top 5, even though he's in my personal top 5, but at least top 10.

Other than PP and 3 on 3, they barely see the ice together anymore. If you watch the games, you know.

yeah, except for like the majority of his career, the last 30 or so games mean he's a C now!

Past two seasons:

Draisaitl: 153 GP 93G 122A 215P, 22:36TOI/GP (including over a minute on the PK), 51.26% on the dot.

Eichel:145GP 64G 96A 160P, 21:13TOI/GP (including 24 secs on PK), 46.92% on the dot.
Matthews: 138GP 84G 69A 153P, 19:46TOI/GP (averaging 1 second on PK) 53.58% on the dot.

Drai is a clear winner on offense among the group. That much is clear.

Now, on the defensive end, things are less clear, I give you that. But still, neither Eichel or Matthews are clearly far superior to Drai. In fact, it really seems like a wash, with Drai giving more versatile service on both ends of the ice with PP and PK time compared to the other two. On the dot, Matthews and Drai perform far better as centers than Eichel. But Drai does it in clutch moments on the PP and PK, whereas Matthews sees no ice on PK to help out in that area (perhaps he should, though, at some point).

You can say Drai lumbers around and looks lazy. Yes he LOOKS lazy, but he truly isn't. Just like Mats Sundin wasn't lazy. To be honest, McDavid was out of position defensively more than Drai this past season (which, yes, doesn't say good things about McD's defensive game). But seriously, what is the argument that on the track record of these three players over the past two seasons, Drai is the worst of the three?

Matthews or Eichel

Sure, but isn't this list about being a center right now? Which you agree, he is now full time? And in any case, even when he played with McDavid at times, he was the faceoff guy way more often than McD so...maybe you'd like to argue McD wasn't a center? I mean make whatever argument you want to nitpick it. They are both centers today.

One could have minor quibbles with the order here or there, but this is maybe the best centers list I've ever seen on CF. Or anywhere, really. Kudos.

if someone has only spent roughly 30 games (if that) as a center in the NHL, then even if they are the most recent 30 games, they are not an NHL C right now

Ya, I agree (some minor changes, of course, notably moving Crosby down a spot or two, but overall very little to add).



While I agree Malkin is lower than he should be, he's no longer better than Matthews.

Explain bc malkin p/60 are much better and his offensive production