In anticipation of the 2025-26 campaign, we break the most prolific players of the league, who, most likely, will turn around in favor of their team by the end of the new season.
To do this, we turned to our Sportsnet insiders to understand them, asking them to evaluate the 50 best players in the NHL right now. Not the best scorers or the best defenders, the best bilateral talents or the best network is just the best game at the moment, in all positions and all skills.
There was only one rule: as in the case Last year's listThis rating looks forward. This does not take into account the legacy or past results, he considers only how it is expected that the best league will take shape against each other in 2025-26.
The general rating below is Amalgam from the 50 best lists from insiders over the entire network. For each individual list, players were assigned glasses based on how high they finished in this particular rating – the higher they appreciated the insider list, the more points they accrued.
The position of each player in the general ranking is the result of how many total points they collected in all lists of our insiders.
With this, here is the Sportsnet rating of the 50 best players in the NHL, which continues with No. 30-21.
It was a meteoric upsurge for Brandon HeigelPull the field for half a decade in his days in Chicago, and the Saskatoon product seemed an obedient participant in the depth, good for 20 goals and 40 points. Then came the transition to Tampa Bay and the evolution of Hagel in one of the most deadly scorers in the game. The 27-year-old enters into the new season just from the best in the career of the 35th, 90–chorus campaign. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game of Hagel is how much damage he causes when the ice is not inclined in his favor. In flat strength, he scored the fifth largest glasses in the league last season. The only NHL that collect more? David Pastnak, Nathan McKinnon, Nikita Kucherov and Leon Dresitl. Not a bad company. The elite scorer who earns on Selke Trophy every year, Hagel declared himself a wider hockey world with his sterling for Canada in Feff-off 4 Nations. It is good to return to red-white as Canada Vies for equipment in 2026, and will become a key part of the desire of bolts for trophy.
Every year the deal that was sent Nick Suzuki Montreal looks rather thefts for Canadiens. The young Pivot increased its level every season that wore the Canadiens sweater, and the 2024-25 campaign was no exception. Raising the best 89 points in his career, reaching a plateau with 30 goals for the second time, Suzuki was a catalyst that had the return of Montreal to the playoffs for the first time in four years. But in addition to its insulting production, this is the totality of the game Suzuki, which allowed the restoration of Canadiens to find a tangible progress-26-year-old football player as a leading bilateral talent in the game, taking on more protective duties than most elite bombers with the type of offensive gifts that he possesses. Only in his heyday, there is still a lot to give for the young Captain Hubs, and his recent story suggests that 2025-26 will take another step forward.
If you want a sense of explosion Rasmus Dalin He went to Buffalo for seven years in the League, just return and return to the team with which he made his debut. Only another member of this list remains in the Sabs sweater. And yet, even among the constantly changing locker room and with four different head coaches managing the Buffalo bench, Danun still managed to meet his expectations when he was tied with choice No. 1 in 2018. After two sterling campaigns-73-icy efforts in 2022-23 and 20 goals in 2023-24-Daulling, new and 68 points of 73 goals were retained. The 25-year-old football player became one of the most prolific scorers in the blue line in the game. An indicative example: over the past three seasons, only Cale Makar scored more heads than 53 Dahlina. Its 68 points last season were taken in fourth place among the blue liners, the only three in front of him, nominated on the Norris trophy (Makar, Kuinn Hughes and Zak Verenski) Since Buffalo remains in search of stability and paths back into the play -off, the only confidence is that Dalina’s constant growth will be crucial for both.
A lot was made from potential heights Igor ShesterkinA new contract would have reached when the goalkeeper was waiting to record a new deal. And the forecasts were correct: in the middle of 2024-25, he put the pen on the paper on the most profitable agreement, which the goalkeeper-eight years had ever received, $ 92 million. USA, with an average annual value of 11.5 million dollars. USA. Then the former winner of Vezina Trophy and the candidate of Hart Trophy issued some of the worst in his career. To be fair, it will be difficult for you to attach New York Rangers“There are only one problems for six. The club’s listening defense did not offer him special assistance, and problems arose in all corners of the composition. And while the 29-year-old finished with the worst percentage of preserving his career-0.905, which is far from 0.935, which he published in his year in Vesina, much deeper look at the numbers more goodbye to Shesterkin, Moneypuck The rating of his seventh league, when it came to the above, expected. However, participation in the campaign of 2025-26. As the highest paid goalkeeper in the game and one of the highest paid players in the league as a whole, the “Six” will be to find success, regardless of how the group works in front of him.
Injuries deprived us of the opportunity to see Miro Hiscanen In his best manifestations in 2024-25, the defender with a smooth hinge missed a third of the season, recovering after the knee injury. But it also has proved how important Hayscanen is for Dallas stars'The reason. While the club remained one of the best in the overall standings of the league after their star defender was suspended at the end of January, having gained the seventh of the very moments in this gap mainly on the back of their sterling crime, they also became one of the most porous protective groups of the league. Hayscanen returned by the end of the year, jumping back to the fight in the game 4 of the second round and reported his presence, but in general it was a violent campaign for redistribution. Now the 26-year-old teenager will be released in the new season, healthy and is ready to regain his place as one of the best defenders in the game. And with Thomas Harley, who appeared as a viable version No. 1 in his absence, Hayscanen should have some help, carrying a blue load for Dallas this season.
The error of injury came for Matthew Tkachuk Last season too. After two dominant seasons in Florida and the Stanley Cup banner, he hanged himself in 2024, Tkachuk’s campaign in 2024-25 was disrupted when he was injured, playing for the United States during the entry of 4 countries. The qualified agitator Panther was removed from the end of February to the end of the season. Then he returned to the game of the first round, set two goals and help in this newcomer playoffs and continued to produce points for the game at the pace when Florida announced her second title. Even if he does not work 100 percent, Tkachuk remains an integral part of the panther identity, and the former Kalgary Flame was the key in the direction of cats to the first two championships in the history of the franchise. Now, as expected, navigation for recovery after the off-season operation, Tkachuk will miss the first two months of season, leaving his performance 2025-26 in the air. The hope for the panther is that the star Winger can hit the ground again when he returns when they hunt for the elusive tricolor.
Like all the other detachments of New York Rangers, it was the middle campaign Artemy Panarin in 2024-25. The 33-year-old football player still scored 37 goals and 89 points, but after the 49th grinds for 120 points per year, which found him in the Hart Trophy conversation, it seemed a step back, especially considering that his rangers stumbled and fell out of the race to the playoffs. Despite the fact that he will undoubtedly restore his main form in 2025-26, there is also the question of what is happening with the contract situation of Winger. Panarin joined BluesHirts back in 2019 under the Hefty Sevely transaction, $ 81.5 million, his AAV for $ 11.6 million made him one of the highest paid players in the league throughout the entire period of ownership of rangers. Four seasons above 90 points, including a breakthrough of 120 points, suggest that he coped well with this price tag. But now, heading for the last year of this deal, with a panarin approaching 34 years, rangers reportedly Less desire to fly out the upper dollar this time, exerting even greater pressure on the Winger in 2025-26.
It was an interesting season for Brady TkachukThe field in some sense of the campaign saw Ottawa senators The captain’s production take a step back, after the 74-icy effort of 74 points in 2023-24, Tkachuk laid 29 goals and 55 points last season when he was injured. On the other hand, the campaign of 2024-25. It seemed that in the first year we really saw what the youngest Tkachuk was. First, 4 countries appeared, where a 26-year-old teenager had an undeniable influence with three goals in four games for Team USA, despite the injury of thigh. Then came the long-awaited return to the postseson for its senators, putting the end of the seven-year drought of the playoffs. For two weeks for two weeks with an injury of the upper body right before the start of the season, Tkachuk returned on time to return his place as the emotional compass of Sens, directing Ottava through the series on the American hills 1 with the opponent of Toronto Maple Lifs and putting forward a team leaving four heads and seven points through six games. You just get Hart Trophy for the first time in your career, all eyes will be on how Tkachuk can increase its level in 2025-26, and how far it can promote young feelings.
Even the father does not seem better, that stable, unperturbed Victor HedmanField in 34, veteran Tampa Bay Lightning The defender remains one of the best games. Playing in his first season as the captain of the bolts in 2024-25, after Steven Istan’s departure, Headman released the fourth in the size of his career glasses long, publishing 15 goals and 66 points from the blue lightning line. This amount was good for the sixth of the best among all NHL defenders, Hedman is not behind the young high -quality Lakovsky, now dominating in his position. The campaign also marked the 10th season in a row, which the Bolts icon received the Norris Trophy vote, Hedman finished the fifth in the overall standings in the race. During this ten -year period, not a single Blue Liner of the Popular League scored more points than 612 Hedman. And, given what he did last year, there is little doubt that the two-time champion will remain the power from the bacand in 2025-26, when his bolts hope to find the way to the last rounds in the playoffs.
Last season, you could ask Zach Vereensky. Starting the campaign under incredibly complex circumstances, he and his teammates are forced to navigate the loss of his beloved teammate, the Columbus Blue Jackes The defender put his team on his back and produced the most prolific season of his career – and, possibly, one of the greatest campaigns from a blue jacket in the history of the franchise. The 27-year-old football player gathered 23 goals and 82 points by the end of the year, taking the second place only for Kail Makar in both categories among all emergency payments of the NHL. Vernysky finished in second place with the vote of Colorado in Blue Lynra in Norrisa Trophy, beating such as Hedman, Kuin Hughes and Josh Morrissi. But the performance of the Blue Jackets leader is even more impressive when you take into account the team around him; Lack of scorers throughout the world to eat from a man. In fact, last season, Werenski was the most productive defender in the League, choosing the rest of the package with 17 goals and tieing a Makar with 54 points, finishing near the league top in the winners and winners of the overtime. Last season, leading blue jackets, as a result of a throw of stone in the playoffs, the target at 2025-26, of course, is a second performance, several more earned points and the end of the drought of jackets after the season.
Check Thursday for No. 20-11.
