NHL Position Rankings for the 2022-2023 Season: Center
If there's a position in hockey that has the most celebrity attached, it’s center.
They’re at the center of the ice and they’re the center of attention. They take the faceoffs, they control the puck and they focus the forwards on defense.
They’re the rock stars of the team—especially
the elite ones. Go back through recent history to find that truth. Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Steve
Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Eric Lindros, Peter Forsberg…we could go on and on.
The NHL is not lacking for star power at the pivot these days either. You definitely know everyone on this list, and you definitely know others you want to see ranked higher than someone else on the list because reasons. That’s fair, and we expect you to air your grievances in the comments.
Just as we’ve done with the left wings and right wings (the goalies and defensemen are who they are), we’re including anyone listed by NHL.com as a center and ranking them based on individual performance and statistics. We know, you saw so-and-so on the wing a whole bunch. That’s fine, but rules are rules, and we made these to stick by them!
Honorable Mentions
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There are a lot of outstanding centers across the NHL, and we could’ve made this a virtually endless ranking. But we had to draw a line somewhere, and these outstanding centers all qualify for recognition…just not enough to get even more written about them.
Jack Eichel, Vegas Golden Knights
Had it not been for a neck injury and enough time away to fall out of view for a bit, Eichel would be a top-10 center. His speed, hands and shot are all elite. He’s primed for a big season in Vegas and to make us look dumb for putting him here.
Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes score a lot of goals, and Aho is a major reason they’ve broken out the past few years and are a Stanley Cup contender. His goal scoring is consistent year to year, and he makes his wingers better.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Calgary Flames
It was tough to leave Huberdeau out of all of our rankings, but he’s caught in the bind of being listed as a center but playing almost exclusively on the left wing throughout his career. He’s piled up 415 points the past five seasons with the Panthers, and he’s likely to continue scoring at that pace in Calgary. If we did ‘tweener rankings, he’d be No. 1 with a bullet.
Ryan O’Reilly, St. Louis Blues
The 2019 Conn Smythe winner is everything you want from a
centerman. He scores, he’s excellent on defense and he wins tons of
faceoffs. Considering this is a contract year, he could push his way into the top 10 by season's end.
Nazem Kadri, Calgary Flames
Kadri has always been a strong player and an equally skilled agitator, but when he put it all together for the Colorado Avalanche during their Stanley Cup run last season, everyone had to respect his abilities. He can score, he’s quick and he’s capable of throwing opposing players off their game in an instant.
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers
The Rangers' top center has become a dynamite performer on Broadway, capable of scoring highlight-reel goals and setting up others for their own. While Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider draw most of the attention, it’s Zibanejad making it all work across the ice on the sly.
9. Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers
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Being a center isn’t always about putting up a truckload of points and smiling for the camera. There is another end of the ice that’s important, too, and that’s where Aleksander Barkov enters the conversation.
He is one of the few to win a Selke Award during the age of Patrice Bergeron, taking home the trophy as the league's best defensive forward in 2020-2021. He’s been in the top five in Selke voting three other times, and he won the Lady Byng Trophy as the league’s most gentlemanly player in 2018-2019.
He’s decorated, and he digs in when the Florida Panthers desperately need to hold the lead.
Barkov can handle himself on offense too. He has 553 points in 596 career games, and 220 of those are goals. He’s scored 70 or more points in a season three times and had a career-high 96 in 2018-2019.
He’s also scored 20 or more goals the past seven seasons, twice netting 30-plus. He and Jonathan Huberdeau made for a dynamic duo in Sunrise for years, helping the Panthers provide offense when there wasn’t much of it speak of.
Barkov was the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft, and it's clear the Panthers made the right call. Now he’ll get to work with Matthew Tkachuk—who was acquired from Calgary in a July trade involving Huberdeau—and the havoc he brings.
Barkov’s skills on the penalty kill might be a bit more necessary now. Last season, he had the second-highest short-handed time on-ice per game among Panthers forwards (2:10; Anton Lundell was first 2:22) and scored four short-handed goals.
8. Elias Lindholm, Calgary Flames
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Surprised to see Elias Lindholm here? You shouldn’t be, but maybe the Calgary Flames would like opposing teams continue to have him slip their mind.
Carolina selected him fifth in the 2013 draft, and his time with the Hurricanes was solid but nothing eye-popping. After a June 2018 trade to Calgary as part of a blockbuster deal involving Dougie Hamilton and the draft rights to Adam Fox (whoops), his game ascended to a new level.
In four seasons with the Flames, he’s scored 117 goals and 261 points in 289 games. Compare that to his Hurricanes numbers: 64 goals and 188 points in 374 games. Even though he’s one man, he’s been two completely different players.
Last season, Lindholm had a career year with 42 goals and 82 points. He had only scored more than 20 goals twice before, and his 17.9 shot percentage was in line with how he’s done throughout his time with Calgary (16.3).
While the offense gets the headlines, his defense is
outstanding, as he was runner-up for the Selke Award last season. Losing
to Bergeron is no shame, but now everyone is aware of his two-way excellence.
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7. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
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As if it hasn’t been clear, we do love a great two-way centerman, and Patrice Bergeron is the epitome of that.
The 37-year-old from Québec helped the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and reach the Cup Final in 2013 and 2019. He’s a five-time Selke Award winner, and when others win the award, it feels a little awkward not seeing him get it again. He was the runner-up for it three times and placed third in voting twice. He’s been top-five in Selke voting for 13 consecutive seasons. His reputation precedes him, and it’s earned.
He’s played 1,217 games and is 17 shy of
1,000 career points. He’s scored 401 goals and scored 20 or more in a
season 13 times. At the dawn of his 19th NHL season, Bergeron is the
epitome of a tough, respected player.
That Bergeron gets a ton of admiration from fans, peers and media alike and has never cracked the 80-point barrier in a season is beyond impressive. Centers are always more renowned for piling up points and being the focus of a team’s offense. Bergeron has done it by just being an all-around elite performer and a guy who thrives in high-pressure moments.
6. Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
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Steven Stamkos is nearly 33 years old and is still crushing it in the NHL.
He’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion and Rocket Richard winner as the league's top goal scorer, punishing pucks past goalies with his dynamite one-timer. He’s a prolific shooter who’s averaged over three shots per game for his career and scored on 17 percent of them.
He’s closing in on 500 goals, and while it's common for a player to fall off after 30 years old, Stamkos has found a new level.
Even though he’s been plagued by injuries the past few seasons, he had the first 100-point campaign of his career in 2021-22 as he put up 106, with 42 of those being goals. It was his first 40-goal season since 2018-19 and the sixth time he’s scored 40 or more in a season.
But the power play is where Stamkos cuts his opponents the most. Out of his 482 goals, 182 came with the man advantage. The left circle on the power play might be best known for being Alex Ovechkin’s place to tee it up, but Stamkos has made it his home as well.
What’s incredible and a strong comment about the number of elite players in the NHL is Stamkos has yet to win MVP and was runner-up for it once. We’re sure the Cup wins make that lack of individual hardware feel a little better.
5. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
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Sidney Crosby is 35 and continues to prove why he’s one of the best to ever play the game. Since his rookie season in 2005-06, Sid the Kid has done nothing but play exceptional hockey and pile up points like few have.
In 17 seasons, Crosby has recorded 100 or more points in a season six times. He’s a two-time MVP and he’s won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL leading scorer twice as well. He’s also a three-time Stanley Cup champion and took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP twice. He’s even won the Rocket Richard for most goals in a season two times. He’s scored 30 or more goals in a season 10 times and had a career-best 51 in 2009-10. Whether he was filling the net on his own or setting up his teammates, Crosby has been nothing short of incredible.
The point totals are astounding, and the rate he puts them up is incredible, as his career average is 1.27 points per game. He’s never averaged below a point per game in any season. “The Kid” is closer to middle age than his youthful years, but his excellence has yet to wane.
4. Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
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On any other team, what Leon Draisaitl does would earn him top billing and then some. But on the Oilers, he's the second-best player behind Connor McDavid.
Draisaitl won the MVP award in 2019-20 and has been a top-five scorer in the NHL the past four seasons. He was the league’s leading scorer during his Hart Trophy season with a career-high 110 points. He matched that number last season with a symmetrical 55-goal, 55-assist year, although it took him nine more games to accomplish that than it did during the MVP season.
Hailing from Köln, Germany, Draisaitl is already the most prolific NHL scorer from Deutschland. The bar wasn’t too high to reach to break that mark, apologies to Marco Sturm and his 487 career points, but Draisaitl has blown past that by more than 125 points and counting.
Although we’ve made the rules about player positions abundantly clear, many of you will point out how early on in his career, Draisaitl played often on the left wing next to McDavid. Now they only seem to come together during power plays. Draisaitl’s elite scoring touch and bullishness on the ice helped give the Oilers the center depth they craved. If you can put Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the third line, you’re living good, and the Oilers are surely doing that.
3. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
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You might have to keep the snack cakes away when he’s around off the ice, but on the ice, Nathan MacKinnon is as electric as it gets.
In four of the past five seasons, the Colorado Avalanche star scored 30 or more goals, including a career-best 41 in 2018-19, the same season he finished with a career-high 99 points. From 2017 to '20 he had 90 or more points in three straight seasons. For the past three seasons he’s averaged 1.35 points per game. Consistent elite production is what makes a superstar, and the No. 1 pick from the 2013 draft shows why he’s not the only the player from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, who can fill it up (Sidney Crosby is the other, in case you didn’t know).
During the Avalanche’s run to the Stanley Cup last season, he had an incredible 32 goals and 88 points in 65 games. With his 1.35 point-per-game rate and 0.49 goals per game factored in, he was on pace for 40 goals with 111 points over an 82-game season.
Although he has the Stanley Cup now, he’s yet to win a Hart Trophy as MVP. He’s finished second in voting twice, third once and sixth once. He has a Calder Trophy for rookie of the year and won the Lady Byng for most gentlemanly player in 2019-20. When you record 93 points in a season with just 12 penalty minutes, that’ll usually bring home the hardware. If he continues to score at the rate he has the past few seasons and the Avalanche continue to thrive, the Hart might be his one day.
2. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
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He’s the best American player in the NHL right now and he might one day become the greatest American player of all time. Born in California, but raised in Arizona, Auston Matthews was the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL draft for a host of reasons, all of which he’s put on display since day one with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Matthews is a big, strong center with speed, agility and a shot that gives him an advantage against every goalie in the league. In his first six seasons over 407 games, he put up 457 points with 259 of those being goals. He’s won the Rocket Richard Trophy the past two years. He scored 41 times in 52 games two seasons ago and hit 60 goals last season. Matthews also broke the 100-point barrier in a season for the first time last year with 106. He’s led the league in even-strength goals the last three seasons.
While his offense has been incredible throughout his career, he’s also become one of the better defensive forwards as well. At even strength he had a 59 percent CorsiFor last year, meaning while he was on the ice, the Maple Leafs had 59 percent of the shot attempts. He’s a dynamic player, and he only seems to be getting better as he gets older.
1. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
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We’re sure this comes as a major surprise.
McDavid isn’t just the best center in the NHL; he’s the best player in the NHL, bar none. What can be said about him that hasn't already been said? He’s one of the fastest skaters—if not the fastest—in the NHL. His breathtaking speed allows him to not just rip past forechecks, but force defensemen to make split-second decisions on whether to step up and attempt to stop him or skate backward fast enough to try to stay with him. Most times whichever decision they make is too late, and before they know it McDavid is already halfway into his goal celebration.
He's won the MVP award twice already and could arguably win it every year without much of an argument. He’s been top five in voting for MVP in six of his seven NHL seasons (two wins, a second, a third and two fifth-place finishes), and he’s won the Art Ross Trophy for most points scored in a season four times and had 100 or more points in a season five times, including a career-high 123 points last season. Since he entered the NHL in 2015-16, he’s recorded the most points of anyone in the league with 697 in 487 games. His hat trick with an assist in the Oilers’ season opener against Vancouver put him over 700. Nothing like starting the season with a bang.
Players with McDavid’s kind of ability are exceptional and exceptionally rare. He's a true generational talent.
Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, Natural Stat Trick, and Hockey Reference.
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