Sportsnet Insiders rank the NHL’s top 50 players: 20-11

In just two weeks, a new NHL campaign will begin.

The bright lights of hallowed arenas around the league will illuminate the ice. The game’s best will take their places, side-by-side on the blue line, as the anthems ring out around them. They’ll pause, perhaps taking a moment to reflect on the year to come, that 82-game grind that stands between them and their shot at glory. And then, the drop of the puck, a clash of sticks, skates, bodies, and we’re away.

Before that journey begins, we’re taking stock of the league’s best as they head into this new season. Amid a golden era for the game, full of boundless creativity and untameable skill, we’ve asked the question: Who are the leaders of this new high-flying normal? Who are the best of the best at this very moment?

We turned to our Sportsnet Insiders for an answer, asking them to rank the top 50 players in the NHL heading into 2024-25.

There was only one ground rule: The ranking must be forward-looking. It doesn’t factor in legacy or stature in the game — it considers only how the league’s best are expected to perform in 2024-25. The overall ranking below is an amalgam of the Top 50 lists from Insiders across the network. For each Insider’s list, players were assigned points based on how high they finished in that particular ranking — the higher they ranked on an Insider’s list, the more points they accrued.

Each player’s position on the overall ranking is a result of how many total points they collected across all of the Insiders’ lists.

With that, here is the next installment of Sportsnet’s ranking of the Top 50 Players in the NHL — a look at Nos. 20-11:

50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1

There might not be another player in the NHL who will face the same maelstrom of pressure and expectation that awaits Mitch Marner in 2024-25. It’s a testament to the tumultuous nature of playing in a fishbowl market like Toronto that the winger finds himself in that spot. Rewind back through the Markham, Ont. product’s tenure with the Maple Leafs, and it seems like a Hollywood winner: the young phenom who donned the historic sweater of his boyhood club and turned promise into dominance. After glimpses of brilliance through his first half-decade in Toronto, the past three seasons have seen Marner seemingly graduate to join the league’s very best, scoring at a 100-point clip all three years, twice finishing just a stone’s throw from that century plateau. Growth came on the other side of the puck too, the 27-year-old collecting Selke Trophy votes in each of the past six seasons, earning an official nomination two years back.

But the third act of his homecoming tale has taken a turn. A near-decade of playoff disappointment has soured the story, the whole affair seemingly reaching a breaking point this summer as questions lingered about how these Maple Leafs move forward. Despite the record of elite regular-season production, despite leading his club in playoff scoring a year ago, an underwhelming 2024 post-season seemed be the match that lit the debate about whether No. 16 was the odd man out in Toronto, whether it was time for a change. And yet, after it all, the new season approaches and Marner remains, set to play out the final year of his contract with myriad unanswered questions about what happens after that. The only certainty? That all eyes will be on how he performs during what is a pivotal moment in his career.

For a moment, three years ago, Igor Shesterkin seemed flat-out transcendent in the cage. Forget best in the league, that seemed a lock. Amid a 2021-22 campaign that saw him post a franchise-record .935 save percentage — including an absurd run through January and February wherein he pushed that average to .952 — the sky seemed the limit. The year’s end brought the first Vezina Trophy of his career, a nomination for the Hart Trophy, and an open runway to take over the throne as the game’s top tender. In the two seasons since, the 28-year-old has come back to earth some. The otherworldly save percentage fell to .916, and then .912. The near-historic .935 was bested by Linus Ullmark’s .938 the very next year. Still, even with the mild humbling, there’s no question Shesterkin remains one of the very best goaltenders in the world.

But the question he and the New York Rangers must find common ground on is whether he truly is the clear-cut top goalie in the NHL, whether he truly is an all-time talent. Because the Rangers’ perspective on that question will determine Shesterkin’s future with the club — heading into the final season of his current contract, the veteran is expected to become the highest-paid goalie in league history when he eventually puts pen to paper on an extension, eclipsing the $10.5 million-per-year deal Carey Price signed in 2017. The Rangers faithful will be watching closely to see if a deal can get done before the season begins — regardless, the pressure will be on Shesterkin to prove he’s worth the benchmark-setting payday.

The decision to take his big-league career into his own hands couldn’t have worked out better for Adam Fox. Enemies may have been made along the way among the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes faithful, who surely still lament what could’ve been. But five years after the Harvard product outwaited the Flames and Canes en route to signing with his boyhood club, the New York Rangers defenceman has not only established himself as the Blueshirts’ top option on the back end, he’s put himself in the conversation about the top defenceman in the game, full stop. Year 1 in a Rangers sweater proved the young rearguard was a rare talent, but it was in Year 2 that Fox put the league on notice, amassing 47 points in 55 games as a 22-year-old, winning the Norris Trophy and collecting some Hart votes, too. He’s reached even higher in the years since, topping 70 points in each of the past three seasons — only three defencemen in the league have racked up more than the 219 points Fox has in that span.

But while Fox fits the mold of an elite offensive defenceman, the Rangers star is far from a one-trick pony. He can stack points with the best of them, sure, but the 25-year-old has also proven to be an elite defensive presence, his well-rounded game a fitting blueprint for the modern NHL defender. It’s no coincidence that the fortunes of his franchise have taken a turn for the better as he’s reached that elite form, New York finishing in the top three of the Metropolitan Division in each of the past three seasons — after finishing in the bottom half for the half-decade prior — and mounting two three-round post-season runs. With his Rangers firmly in contender mode, the task ahead for Fox in 2024-25 is simple: continue to raise his own ceiling and pull his club up along with him. 

Given the absurd campaigns authored by some of the other elite offensive practitioners around the league last season, you could argue Artemi Panarin’s career year flew under the radar. The New York Rangers winger is far from an unknown commodity, and the swell in his numbers comes as the league as a whole sees an offensive uptick, still, here’s some context for the 2023-24 season Panarin put together: Rewind back through the list of all-time scorers who’ve pulled on a Rangers sweater, the Gretzkys, the Messiers, the Jagrs — only one player, in one season, bested the 49 goals and 120 points Panarin amassed last season (Jagr, in 2005-06, by only a handful). Here’s some more: In the past two decades of NHL hockey, Panarin’s 120-point total has only been bested nine times, by anyone. The 32-year-old is a worthy torchbearer for this era of NHL hockey as a whole, all poise and dynamism and boundless creativity with the puck. If there were knocks on just how far that could take him, or his club, he answered most of them last season, with a near-MVP calibre effort and a New York-bound Presidents’ Trophy.

That said, if there’s a final piece of the puzzle still to fit into place, it’s in the post-season. After all but disappearing in the playoffs two years ago — managing only a pair of assists as New York fell in a seven-game first-round upset to the rival New Jersey Devils — Panarin followed up his sterling 2023-24 with a near-point-per-game clip in his most recent post-season, helping push the Rangers back to the third round. But the expectations for a club housing as much talent as the Rangers are greater than a Conference Final appearance. It’s banner-hanging time for Panarin’s club, and the winger finding a way to dominate in the playoffs at the level he does in the regular season will be a key brick in the path that takes them there.

Kirill Kaprizov has been box-office gold in Minnesota since he was first dropped into the heart of the Wild’s lineup. A near point-per-game rookie year put the league’s best on notice that he was knocking on the door. But it was the 47-goal, 108-point follow-up as a sophomore that all but kicked it down. While injuries have held him back some over the past two campaigns, the 27-year-old’s continued to be money when he’s in the lineup, racking up 86 goals and 171 points through 142 games over the past two years. It’s where those digits fit in the context of his career that hint at Kaprizov’s true potential for greatness, though. Squarely in his prime, the dynamic winger is only four years into his big-league career and already rolling over the opposition — or, more accurately, cutting through them like a hot knife through butter.

Over the past three seasons — 40-goal efforts, all — Kaprizov’s amassed the sixth-most goals of anyone in the game, and the 12th-most points. It’s not just the fact of what Kaprizov is doing in the league, it’s that there was no acclimation required. No seasoning, no adjusting, no getting the lay of the land. He arrived as a fully formed offensive machine, and each additional year he’s had in the league has been less a matter of upgrading and more a matter of continuing to unleash his will upon the opposition. The next step is simply getting enough injury luck to be able to do it for all 82 games, and enough playoff games to make some real noise.

Few NHL careers feel as linear as Matthew Tkachuk’s, as straightforward a progression. From the moment Tkachuk arrived on the hockey world’s radar, he’s been a showman, ever aware of the cameras and the lights and the adoring fans feeding off every bit of on-ice drama. In the beginning, it seemed like that might be what Tkachuk was, a talented complementary piece, who could elbow and nudge his way to the centre of the spotlight. But then came that growth, and soon, the production: a 20-goal season, then 30, then 40 —  and then it just got silly, Tkachuk offering up a 100-point outburst that flipped the script entirely. It was a nightmare proposition for Panthers’ opponents: How do you handle someone who excels at the game’s dark arts — who can needle you, get under your skin, goad you into an ill-timed trip to the box — and can also hang a highlight-reel, between-the-legs game-winner on you while you’re in there?

The young Panthers leader has become a unicorn in the league, able to thrive in any type of game, against any type of opponent, excelling at seemingly everything. There was a time when questions lingered about how far the young winger’s antagonistic approach could take him, when veteran teammates had to pull him aside and talk him down. Since moving to South Florida, Tkachuk’s silenced the naysayers, bending the game to his will instead — Year 1 as a Panther brought a Hart Trophy nomination and a trip to the Stanley Cup Final; Year 2 saw the 26-year-old go out and hang a championship banner. Heading into Year 3 in Florida, what else could possibly be asked of him? Perhaps simply to keep that career trajectory pointing upwards.

The first half-decade of Jack Hughes’s big-league career has been a painful one. Through five seasons in New Jersey, the 2019 No. 1 pick has seen his NHL tenure run on twin tracks. On one side, the growing momentum of his offensive brilliance, unleashed with more regularity each year. On the other, the stop-and-start frustration of trying to navigate the league’s physicality as a somewhat-undersized talent, Hughes’s career already dotted with ligament sprains, shoulder injuries, and all manner of other ailments that have held him out of the lineup. What has been clear, though, is that when No. 86 does suit up, get the puck on his stick, and start heading downhill, he can create magic like few in the sport. Off the rush, Hughes is a dizzying presence, bobbing and weaving and whipping pucks on net with deadly precision.

To this point, he’s only had one campaign in which he’s been able to show the full weight of that potential — and he made good on that opportunity, coming up with 43 goals and 99 points to announce his arrival on the big stage. The next year, though, it was more time on the shelf, 20 games lost to injury, his Devils sliding back down the standings without him to lead the charge. Still, even amid the injury trouble, the growing pains, the rollercoaster of a Devils squad that vacillates between rebuilding and contending, Hughes has produced at a point-per-game clip in each of the past three seasons. Just 23 years old, he’s yet to even reach his prime. All he needs is a hefty run of games, some luck on the injury front, and the American pivot will have all he needs to make the climb to the game’s highest echelon.

It was as if Roman Josi granted the game’s best defenders permission, as if he opened a door to prolific scoring from the back end that had long been boarded up. In the 20 years before the 2021-22 season, no defenceman in the NHL had topped 90 points — not since the days of Ray Bourque, Phil Housley, and Brian Leetch had blue-liners stacked totals quite that high. Then came Josi, an unlikely throwback at 31 years old, obliterating his career-best with a 96-point campaign that lit the league on fire. The next year, there was Erik Karlsson topping 100; the year after that, it was Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar joining in. While Josi may not be long for the sport’s highest level at 34 years old, he has found himself in a late-career renaissance as one of the best blue-line scorers in the game. After collecting the only Norris Trophy of his career in 2020, the past three years have seen the Swiss standout earn two more nominations while racking up the second-most goals and second-most points of any NHL defender.

But the context of Josi’s performance is crucial. The 13-year vet has roughly a decade of additional wear on his body compared to the Hugheses and Makars and Foxes. And while his Predators have steadily improved, and have talent up front, Josi’s breakout came without the type of help his counterparts had in Vancouver, Denver, or Manhattan. For Josi, it was less facilitating greatness and more embodying it, putting the Predators on his back and willing them forward. Now, with some marquee additions joining the fray in 2024-25, he’ll get his chance to show his best with a deeper supporting cast.

Brayden Point is the draft-day dream, the best-case scenario. He’s what every general manager in the league hopes they’ll stumble upon when they take a flyer on a plucky late-round talent sitting just beyond the rest of the hockey world’s radar. Back in 2014, that’s exactly where the Calgary product found himself — an undersized WHL pivot, tabbed 79th overall, who seemed far from a sure thing. Then he arrived in the NHL. By Year 2 in Tampa Bay, Point was already earning Selke votes. By Year 3, it was Hart votes, a 22-year-old Point racking up 41 goals and 92 points for the Lightning — eclipsing any total he ever put up for WHL Moose Jaw. But fast-forward half a decade and that quick ascent seems no surprise, because if there’s one foundational quality about No. 21, it’s his ability to thrive when the stakes are highest, to raise his game when the lights are brightest. For proof, you need look no further than the 28-year-old’s two Stanley Cup rings, won in back-to-back campaigns with the Bolts — with Point pacing the league in playoff goal-scoring both years. In the regular season, he’s no less reliable when a win is on the line — since he debuted in the NHL eight years ago, Point’s amassed the fourth-most game-winning goals of anyone in the league. He’s fresh off leading the league in that regard, with 12 game-winners in 2023-24.

It’s the balance in his skillset that allows him to continue coming up clutch — the explosive skating, the crafty hands, and enough on-ice genius to stitch it all together. And yet, somehow, he’s only just now coming into his best run of form. Fresh off back-to-back seasons of 90 points and 40-50 goals, the only NHLers who’ve fluttered the twine more than Point over the past two seasons are Auston Matthews and David Pastrnak. The Bolts standout has had help, surely, but make no mistake: There is no dynastic run from the Lightning without Brayden Point. Among a cast of all-stars who often shine brighter, No. 21 is the quiet engine pulling the whole thing forward.

Perhaps now, with a Stanley Cup ring on his finger, we can finally rate Aleksander Barkov appropriately. The game’s longest-serving Most Underrated Player has finally been pushed into the spotlight by a two-year run of post-season magic. But even before the Panthers got there, even before the squad around Barkov steadily improved and turned into an Eastern Conference juggernaut, the Finnish standout has been the picture of consistency in South Florida. A two-time Selke Trophy winner — and the reigning two-way king after claiming the 2024 title — Barkov has earned votes for the award every year since his rookie season, a full decade of out-thinking the greatest minds in the game, of foregoing stacking points on the board in pursuit of keeping his opponents off it. What sets Barkov apart from the rest of the Selke greats, though, is that it truly is a choice.

The Panthers captain didn’t lean into his two-way game because it was the route that allowed him to have the greatest impact at the NHL level — watch him wire a spinning backhand into the top corner from the slot, or flip pucks to himself over opposing twigs, or shrug off defenders as he cuts in close, freezing ‘tenders with a stutter-step at the netfront, and it all comes into perspective. If he so chooses, Barkov has the hands, the size, the shot, and the playmaking savvy to be one of the most prolific scorers in the game. He showcased as much once, midway through his career, when he racked up 96 points as a 23-year-old, presumably just to show he could. But Barkov doesn’t need the glory. He just needs to win. And after the run he and his teammates have been on of late, it’s hard to argue with his logic. Now, after a pair of trips to the Cup Final, and one banner hung, the only question is how many more he can get.

Check back Friday for Nos. 10-1 on Sportsnet’s ranking of the Top 50 Players in the NHL.