11 Underrated NHL Players Who Deserve More Respect

If there's something more upsetting than a very good NHL player not getting the proper recognition they deserve, it's trying to figure out which players have been underrated or just never properly rated before at all.

Guys playing in big markets, for wildly popular teams or perpetual Stanley Cup contenders, tend to get the recognition, rightly or wrongly. This leads us all to overanalyzing just about everything they do. It's the nature of hockey, but it also leads a lot of us to overlook guys who aren't scoring 40 goals a year or finishing in the top three in voting for major awards.

Here, we have assembled a collection of players who don't get nearly enough recognition for what they do on the ice. It's the goals, the defense, the hits and sometimes even the occasional fight that finds a way to turn games for their team with the kind of regularity that makes them heroes among the fanbase.

As much as these players are picked for their production and raw numbers, this also has a strong vibes-like component to it as well. Some guys have "it" while others wish they did.

Mathieu Olivier, Columbus Blue Jackets

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Before last season, perhaps the most we knew of Mathieu Olivier came when he was able to take down towering New York Rangers tough guy Matt Rempe, who began taking the league by storm-fighting all takers.

Olivier's own toughness was on display in a big way, but he was able to avoid being typecast as a brawler last season.

The 28-year-old toned down the fighting, stepped up the forechecking and bodychecking and then started finding the net, too. He had 18 goals and 14 assists (32 points), setting career highs in all those stats.

Heck, he had more goals, assists and points last season in 82 games than he had in his previous 168. He also set a career high with 139 penalty minutes, but his role changed and he was far more important to the Blue Jackets in a power forward role.

Seeing a guy evolve from being someone out there meant to stir things up and scrap to someone who can still do that but found ways to generate offense as well is impressive. Given fighters who are out there just to fight are rare these days in the NHL, Olivier becoming a throwback power forward earns him respect.

Mikey Anderson, Los Angeles Kings

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It can be tough to be a strict defensive defenseman in the NHL.

It would be really easy for someone in that role to be greatly overshadowed by a future Hall of Famer like Drew Doughty, but Mikey Anderson found a way to make himself stand out proudly.

When Anderson joined the Kings, he came in at a time when they were eager to find a steady partner for the puck-moving, point-producing Doughty.

Anderson was always known for his defensive play in college at Minnesota Duluth, but the way he took to minding the defensive zone by delivering big hits and blocking shots helped unleash Doughty in a new way as well.

The 26-year-old's dedication to defending allowed Doughty to take more risks offensively and even while he missed time last season, Anderson kept on keeping on along the blue line.

The thing coaches love most about defensemen is never having to worry about them in their own end of the ice and with Anderson that's always the case. He's a guy who would be at the top of many ballots if there was ever a Defensive Defenseman of the Year award and deservedly so.

Artturi Lehkonen, Colorado Avalanche

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Being one of the sneakily best players on the ice on a team like the Colorado Avalanche is, admittedly, easy enough to pull off considering Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are out there all the time.

Yet, Artturi Lehkonen always finds a way to score a big goal in a big moment and is able to do it consistently.

The 30-year-old has been doing this ever since he was with the Montréal Canadiens, but when he landed in Denver with the Avalanche, it helped up his profile when he found himself on a line with MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

His nose for the net and ability to pounce on loose pucks for goals make him invaluable and when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022, it was the Finn who led the playoffs with four game-winning goals.

Last season, he put up a career-high 27 goals, but since joining the Avalanche, he's been a steady offensive threat as well as a dynamite forechecker. Using speed to force puck-carriers into making bad decisions helps Colorado smother teams and turn matchups on a dime.

Stefan Noesen, New Jersey Devils

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It's fascinating that Stefan Noesen has bounced around the league the way he has (played for six teams) and even though he didn't put up big numbers at all through the first five or six seasons as he bounced between the NHL and AHL.

Over the past three seasons, though, he not just stuck around, but he's also thrived in a way that only advanced stat enthusiasts expected.

Throughout Noesen's career he's been someone whose possession and expected goals numbers popped while his regular stats just didn't. When you're a younger player and doing a lot of little things right but not producing goals or assists, there's only so much patience a coach looking for wins will have.

Fast forward to three seasons ago, the 32-year-old landed in Carolina where a lot of what was there in some of the deeper numbers really showed out with the Hurricanes and the goals and assists came with it.

Last season in New Jersey, Noesen had a career-high 22 goals and a career-high 41 points, too. In each of the past three seasons, his regular numbers improved and with that his ice time jumped up, too.

It's a credit to him for sticking with it and seizing an opportunity with Carolina when he had the chance and turned it into an everyday role.

Owen Tippett, Philadelphia Flyers

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It's wild that Owen Tippett, a first-round pick (10th overall) of the Florida Panthers in 2017, only seems like a guy who's been around for a couple of years.

After he landed in Philadelphia in the trade that sent Claude Giroux to Florida, he was an instant hit in 2022 and became a routine 20-to-30 goal scorer.

Tippett's a guy who plays with a lot of skill, good speed and size—all things that should make him a fan favorite in Philadelphia. He rips slap shots and delivers big hits and scores bunches of goals, too.

If the Flyers were better in the standings, there's no doubt we would hear a whole lot more about the 26-year-old, but with the Flyers toeing the line between a rebuild on the fly and a full teardown, there are more than a few guys who get lost in the mix and he's one of them.

Hopefully now with Matvei Michkov drawing everyone's attention to Philly, Tippett will stop being underrated for all he does.

Mikael Backlund, Calgary Flames

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If there's someone who could be counted as the captain of an all-underrated team, Mikael Backlund would be it.

For his entire career, the 36-year-old has been an outstanding two-way center capable of both scoring the biggest goals for the Flames and being out there on the ice with the game on the line and needing to shut down the opponents' top line.

For most of his career, the Swede has been a 30-to-45-point-per-year guy and good for around 15-to-20 goals a season. Playing in Calgary meant he was either in the shadow of Jarome Iginla, Johnny Gaudreau or Matthew Tkachuk, but all of them would go to bat for Backlund for everything he was able to do on the ice.

For the past 10 or so years, he has regularly received votes for the Selke Trophy and getting even that kind of recognition from writers around the league means you're doing something right, especially because he plays in Calgary.

Backlund is loved by the fans like few others in Calgary have been and if you watched him play more often, you would see why.

Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes

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If there's something Jaccob Slavin isn't going to do to get your attention, it's score a lot of points or take a lot of penalties. And when you're a defenseman in the NHL these days, doing either of those things will get you on the highlight reels.

However, Slavin does every one of the little things defensively that doesn't land a player on YouTube highlight videos.

The 31-year-old denies zone entries like a man possessed, seals off forwards along the wall, prevents shooting and passing opportunities routinely in the defensive zone. He also makes life miserable for any forwards attacking his side of the ice because he's so smart in his game.

Slavin is a defensive menace without having to lay a dirty hit or talk a ton of trash, and he makes life a lot easier for everyone on the Carolina Hurricanes in doing so.

Marcus Foligno, Minnesota Wild

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When it comes to being a leader on a team, there are a lot of ways to go about it. In Marcus Foligno's case, he does it by doing a bit of everything loudly.

The 33-year-old uses his big body and presence on the ice to set the tone. If he's not delivering big hits, he's crashing the net and taking up space down by the goal mouth. He's quick enough to get in everyone's face be they defensemen or forwards; and if anyone has a problem with that, he's more than capable with his fists to settle the argument.

Foligno plays the kind of way you'd imagine other coaches around the league saying, "Jeez, we could use a guy or two like that." It's no accident that when he's missed time with injuries, the Wild were much worse off because of it. His play over the past few years has even landed him on some voters' Selke ballots.

Mario Ferraro, San Jose Sharks

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It's hard to be a solid all-around defenseman on a team that has been competing for the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft lottery the past few years. But Mario Ferraro pulls it off in a way that helps land him on a lot of trade wish lists at deadline time.

The 26-year-old started his Sharks career during the shortened 2019-2020 season, the first one San Jose didn't reach the playoffs after doing so in 19 of the previous 21 seasons and hasn't made it there since.

Even though he's been on a lot of losing teams, Ferraro has been a dynamite defenseman equally capable of laying a big hit as he is at making a great first pass out of the zone or chipping in with the occasional goal.

The abilities he brings as a defensive-defenseman flies deeply under the radar being on nothing but bad teams, but he's a guy who not only understands the assignment but also executes it perfectly. He blocks shots, he delivers big hits…he's essentially the reason they were comfortable with buying out Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Ferraro will always be in trade rumors, but with the Sharks emerging from their rebuild and in need of leaders to guide them, he is as good a candidate as any.

Aliaksei Protas, Washington Capitals

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Watching power forward Aliaksei Protas come out of virtually nowhere and score 30 goals and 36 assists for the Capitals was one of those moments fans around the league got knocked for a spin.

After all, if there's a big forward who scores goals like that in Washington, it's Alex Ovechkin, right? Turns out Belarus has a guy, too: Protas.

Even though the 24-year-old's massive offensive season grabbed everyone's attention, it's been the slow buildup to the NHL for him that's so rewarding. His time in the AHL with Hershey showed he could play physically up front but also he figured out that few players could move him away from the net because of his size. Mix that in with a sneaky set of hands and suddenly we're talking Nikola Jokić on skates.

Even though when you see Protas' size you want to have him hammer everyone all over the ice, it's his skill that sets him apart. He put more than a few goalies on his highlight reel last season and with a season like that, it will get him noticed more by opposing teams. Everyone else better be paying attention as well.

Vince Dunn, Seattle Kraken

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When Vince Dunn got his NHL career started in St. Louis, he had to battle there to get attention on the blue line with Alex Pietrangelo and Colton Parayko.

Dunn's abilities were different as a smaller guy who could swiftly move the puck up the ice and start the breakout, though. Pietrangelo's all-around greatness and Parayko's physical stature and performance took all the attention.

That left Dunn in the background to not only learn his craft but also to hone it. When St. Louis added Torey Krug and Justin Faulk later on, it became clear what their opinion of him was and that he would be a second- or third-pairing guy at best there.

Seattle getting to take him in the expansion draft wound up netting them a No. 1 defenseman to lead the new franchise.

Over the past four seasons with the Kraken, Dunn has been just as advertised. He scores goals, sets up teammates and plays a solid game in the defensive zone. You couldn’t ask for more for a franchise that needed stability on the blue line right away.

Even though the Kraken haven't had Vegas-like success to start, it's kept Dunn as one of the bigger secrets in the league. If/when the Kraken take off again, everyone will pay him mind with interest.