You don’t make a top anything list without understanding you’re fixin’ for a fight. We could be ranking the best types of apples here and would get serious heat from some corners for going Granny over Gala.
Naming the top 25 NHLers of this century? Boy, you’re really asking for it now.
Of course, arguments — at least the civilized ones — are part of the fun. The only thing we ask is, for every person you swear should be on this list, please understand that means you’re taking an outrageously qualified and talented player off, too. There are only 25 spots available, so it’s a one-in, one-out process.
Bang the table for Jaromir Jagr, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos all you want. We get it. Those are remarkable, accomplished and supremely skilled players. At the end of the cuts, though, we just couldn’t find a spot for them.
That’s a good segue to establishing our methodology. Quite frankly, about the only truly concrete criteria is you had to have played at least 400 regular-season games, starting with the 1999-2000 season and running to today. (To nip this one in the bud, that made Peter Forsberg an automatic cut.) And, naturally, we’re considering only what a player did during this century for the purpose of this ranking. If we were looking at the totality of Jagr’s career, he’d not only be on this list, but likely in the first three slots.
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As you might expect, 25 becomes a small number fast in an exercise like this, especially when you consider the golden age of high-skill hockey we’ve been living in for half a decade now.
So, what lands a player on the list? At the highest level, it’s incredible individual achievements being at the centre of wild team success. Outside that tiny group, it could be a remarkable track record of sustained effectiveness. Or, alternatively, it could be a small — but still significant — period of time where you were universally recognized as the best at your position. And, absolutely, there is space carved out for players who could just best be described as “winners.” At some point, it’s not an accident.
Before we dive in, one last bit of bookkeeping to say that we’ll refer to the Lester Pearson/Ted Lindsay Award — the trophy given to the player chosen by his peers as the “most outstanding player” — as either the Pearson or the Lindsay, depending on whether or not a player won it pre or post the name change in 2010.
With that, let the fun begin. Our top 25 of the 2000s:
25. Carey Price
Though the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist have a longevity argument over Price, no goalie of the past 15 years was as universally admired for a five- or six-year period as Price was, from about 2011 to 2017. At his best, Price was a puck vacuum who combined size, athleticism and positioning in almost unfair fashion. His crowning achievement individually was the 2014-15 campaign, when he won the Vezina Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. The only other goalies to win the Lindsay (or Pearson) since the award was first handed out in 1971 are Dominik Hasek (twice) and Mike Liut.
24. Anze Kopitar
The only Slovenian to play more than 50 games in the NHL, Kopitar is a smothering two-way centre who anchored the Kings forward group through two Cup victories in 2012 and 2014. His overtime goal, on the road, in Game 1 of the 2012 Stanley Cup final versus Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils is one of the signature snipes in franchise history. Kopitar has won both the Selke Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy on two occasions and, at age 37, is tracking a 90-point season this year. Since he entered the NHL, in 2006-07, Kopitar has played more games than everybody except Ryan Suter (Suter was ahead by two on New Year’s Eve) and his 1,250 points in that time are exceeded only by Patrick Kane (1,300), Evgeni Malkin (1,327), Alex Ovechkin (1,471) and Sidney Crosby (1,534).
23. Zdeno Chara
You can make a compelling case that, by inking Chara in 2006, the Boston Bruins made the best UFA signing of all-time. He was already 29 at the time, but the one-of-one, six-foot-nine defenceman went on to play 1,023 games in a Bruins uniform. The B’s clearly knew what they had in Chara, as they named him captain before he ever played a regular-season game for the club. Chara won the 2009 Norris Trophy and, two years later, raised the Cup in Vancouver after Boston’s Game 7 victory over the Canucks. Chara — a fitness maniac before his time — played past his 44th birthday. He skated in more regular-season (1,596) and playoff games (200) this century than any other defenceman.
22. Joe Thornton
Thornton’s move from Boston to San Jose in November 2005, during the first winter after the lost lockout season, was a trade that shook the hockey world. “Big Joe” remains the only player ever to be dealt during an MVP campaign, as he took home the 2006 Hart after registering 92 points in just 58 games with the Sharks that year. His 125 points overall that season were also good enough to claim the Art Ross Trophy. Though he never got his hands on the Cup, Thornton’s pass-first play and outsized personality made him a defining character of the past 25 years of hockey. His 1,080 assists since the start of 1999-2000 are the most of any player on this list.
21. Joe Sakic
In 2000-01, Sakic came within a whisker of winning the Hart Trophy, the Pearson and the Conn Smythe. The only one he didn’t claim after Colorado’s 2001 Cup victory was the Smythe, as he finished runner-up to teammate Patrick Roy. From 1999-2000 through 2003-04 — the Dead Puck Era portion of this century — the only player with a better points-per-game average than Sakic’s (1.17) was Jaromir Jagr (1.22). Sakic put up a 100-point season in 2006-07 in his age-37 campaign. His breakaway tally late in the third period of the 2002 Olympic gold-medal game to cement victory over Team USA and deliver Canada’s first men’s gold at the games since the 1950s is as big an international moment for many Canadian hockey fans as Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in 2010.
20. Jonathan Toews
Forget what Toews did during his career; just consider, for a second, what he achieved by the age of 22. In 2007, he scored three times in a single shootout against Team USA at the World Junior Championship to propel Canada to a monster semifinal victory. In the winter of 2010, he was named best forward at the Winter Olympics as Canada claimed gold on home ice. About four months later, Toews was leading the Chicago Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup victory in nearly 60 years. His contributions as Chicago’s tireless, two-way No. 1 centre and captain were recognized with the 2010 Conn Smythe. That Cup win also made Toews a 22-year-old member of the ultra-exclusive triple-gold club, as he had won both the WJC and World Championship in 2007. He went on to win two more Cup titles in Chicago and another Olympic gold in 2014, where he scored the game-winner in the final versus Sweden.
19. Evgeni Malkin
It’s tempting to call “Geno” Robin to Sidney Crosby’s Batman, but the big Russian’s body of work more than stands on its own. It was Malkin, not Crosby, who claimed the Conn Smythe after Pittsburgh’s 2009 Cup title. In 2011-12, he won a hat trick of big-boy awards, claiming the Hart, Ross and Lindsay. Malkin is a two-time scoring champ, three-time Cup winner and started his career with the 2007 Calder Trophy. His 180 playoff points this century are bested only by teammate Sidney Crosby’s 201.
18. Drew Doughty
Doughty played his first NHL game in 2009 and only one player — fellow defenceman Ryan Suter — has more total time on ice than him since the Kings’ blueline rock debuted 15 years ago. Doughty has basically been an elite NHL defenceman from his first strides in the league. As an NHL sophomore, he cracked Canada’s 2010 Olympic roster just months after turning 20 and was still just 22 years old in 2012 when he anchored the back end of a Kings team that won its first of two Cups in a three-year span. Doughty has two Olympics golds and a first-place finish at the 2016 World Cup on his international resume. He claimed the 2016 Norris Trophy, while finishing as a finalist on three other occasions.
17. Leon Draisaitl
Only two players have at least three 50-goal seasons on the books this century: Alex Ovechkin and Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers scoring menace is well on his way to a fourth this year, and should he win the Rocket Richard Trophy in 2025, he can add it to a shelf that already has a Hart, Lindsay and Art Ross, all from his spectacular 2019-20 season. Draisaitl has also been a serious clutch performer; his 1.46 points per game in the playoffs is second behind teammate Connor McDavid (1.58) for players in the 2000s who’ve skated in at least 70 post-season contests.
16. Duncan Keith
Keith was the lynchpin of the defence corps on Chicago teams that won three titles from 2010 to 2015. His work in the 2015 playoffs, in particular, was remarkable. Keith’s 21 points that post-season was the most by any defenceman in a single playoff year since Brian Leetch put up 34 two decades prior, in 1993-94. (Chris Pronger also had 21 in 2006, albeit in one more game than Keith.) Chicago’s No. 1 D-man earned himself the Conn Smythe with that incredible 2015 showing and has two Norris Trophies to boot. Keith was also integral parts of Canadian teams that won Olympic gold in 2010 and ’14.
15. Auston Matthews
Matthews’ 0.65 goals per game is the highest rate of any player this century (though he better return to the lineup soon, the way Alex Ovechkin is scoring) and his 69-goal campaign in 2023-24 is the highest single-season total produced by any player since Mario Lemieux put up that many in 1995-96. It’s worth noting he also finished third in Selke voting after a year when he came within a single tally of the NHL’s first 70-goal season since Teemu Selanne and Alex Mogilny both scored 76 in 1992-93. Matthews is a three-time goal-scoring champ and also has a Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award from his stellar 2021-22 campaign. The hole in his resume, of course, is the fact Toronto has just a single playoff series win in his NHL tenure. With a talented core in Toronto and a slew of international events slated for the next five years, Matthews has a chance to take his legacy to a whole other level.
14. Scott Niedermayer
Niedermayer established himself as a top defenceman in the back half of the 1990s, but he stocked his trophy case and made himself a slam-dunk Hall of Famer with his work in this century’s first decade. From 1999-2000 to 2009-10, Niedermayer won three Cups — two in New Jersey and one in Anaheim — two Olympic gold medals and a 2004 World Cup with Canada, and the 2007 Conn Smythe for his work patrolling the Ducks blueline during their championship run. He also claimed the 2004 Norris Trophy and finished runner-up for the award each of the next two times it was handed out.
13. Patrice Bergeron
It’s not just that Bergeron won a record six Selke Trophies; it’s that, during a 12-year stretch from 2011-12 through his final year season of 2022-23, the Bruins centre finished first or second in Selke voting an incredible 10 times, while placing third on two other occasions. Bergeron’s name is essentially as synonymous with smothering defensive play as Alex Ovechkin’s is with goal-scoring. Bergeron was a key figure, playing alongside Sidney Crosby, in Canada’s best-on-best wins in 2010, 2014 and 2016. He lifted the Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and played the final game of the 2013 Cup final versus Chicago with a punctured lung.
12. Chris Pronger
Pronger is the only defenceman to win the Hart Trophy this century — and the only one to claim it since 1972 — which he did in 2000 with the St. Louis Blues, when he also won the Norris. The bruising defenceman played in three Cup finals with three different teams from 2006 to 2010, winning it with the Ducks in 2007. Anybody who thought the hulking blueliner would be left behind when the game opened up after the Dead Puck Era was sorely mistaken. There’s a strong case to be made Pronger deserved the 2006 Conn Smythe in a losing cause with the Oilers and, at 35 years old, he was still a dominating presence for the Flyers team that lost the 2010 Cup showdown to the Blackhawks. His huge frame and reputation for playing on the edge likely overshadow the fact that Pronger’s best attributes on the ice were his vision and intelligence.
11. Jarome Iginla
From 1999-2000 through 2003-04 — the final five Dead Puck Era seasons — the only players to score 50 goals in a season were Pavel Bure, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk and Jarome Iginla. “Iggy” won the Rocket Richard in 2002 and would have won the Hart Trophy, too, had one writer not left the Flames sniper completely off their ballot. If Iginla received even a fifth-place Hart nod from that voter, he would have claimed the MVP. Instead, Iginla tied Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore with 434 total Hart votes and the latter won the award thanks to more first-place votes. As it stands, Iginla still became one of only three players this century — along with Alex Ovechkin and Connor McDavid — to win the goal-scoring and points titles in the same season. Iginla scored two goals in Canada’s 5-2 gold-medal triumph over Team USA at the 2002 Olympics. Two years later, he delivered his signature performance by scoring a playoff-best 13 goals in 26 games as the Flames fell just shy of a 2004 Cup win, losing the final in seven games to Tampa. That series also provided one of the indelible Cup final moments of this century when Iginla and Tampa’s Vincent Lecavalier dropped the gloves in Game 3, as Iginla — with his goal and assist in the game — delivered a Gordie Howe hat trick on the biggest stage that said everything about him as a player and competitor.
10. Victor Hedman
Hedman is the blueline rock that has anchored the Lightning dynasty. Though he has just one Norris Trophy to his credit, he’s been a finalist five other times. The six-foot-seven Swede is a physical presence like few who have played the game and won the 2020 Conn Smythe when Tampa won its first title since 2004. Hedman is truly a two-way force, as his 612 points in the past 10-plus seasons are the most by any D-man except Roman Josi (636). His 117 playoff points are the most by any defenceman this century.
9. Patrick Kane
In a 10-year period, from 2010 through 2020, only Sidney Crosby (126) scored more playoff points than Kane (118). One of those points, of course, was the overtime goal in Game 6 of the 2010 final that clinched Chicago’s first title since 1961. Three years later, he scored a hat trick — including another overtime winner — in the game that sent Chicago back to the final, where the Hawks claimed their second of three titles in a six-season span and Kane won the 2013 Conn Smythe. Nobody did it with more flair — or had more of a flair for the dramatic — this century than No. 88, who hauled in the Hart, Lindsay and Art Ross in 2016.
8. Nikita Kucherov
Kucherov’s 128-point season in 2018-19 — when he won the Hart, Lindsay and Art Ross — was the NHL first 120-point season in over a decade and represented the highest total anybody had posted since Mario Lemieux notched 161 in 1995-96. He’s a two-time scoring champ and two-time Cup winner who absolutely kills it in the playoffs. From 2020 through 2022, when Tampa made three straight trips to the final, Kucherov scored a league-best 59 points in 46 post-season contests. He led the playoffs in scoring in both 2020 and ’21, becoming the first player to do so in back-to-back springs since Mario Lemieux in 1991 and ’92.
7. Pavel Datsyuk
Listen, there’s only one guy on this list whose name became an adjective this century and that is the sublime Detroit Red Wings centre who could steal the puck from an opponent in the Wings zone, head up ice, then juke around a defender with a “Datsykian” maneuver to bring everybody in Joe Louis Arena out of their seats. If we could quantify the amount of times an NHLer made other guys from the world’s best league just shake their heads, Datsyuk and Connor McDavid are probably the co-winners. Datsyuk won the Selke Trophy three straight years, from 2008 through 2010, then finished third in voting for each of the next three years. He also collected four consecutive Lady Byngs from 2006 to 2009. In four seasons from 2005-06 to 2008-09, Datsyuk recorded more points (368) than everybody except Sidney Crosby (397), Alex Ovechkin (420) and Joe Thornton (421). Basically, that means he was, for an extended period, simultaneously the best defensive forward in hockey and one of the absolute best offensive players. He was a rookie on the loaded Wings team that claimed the 2002 Cup and driving force on the one that won again in 2008 and lost the 2009 final to Pittsburgh.
6. Nathan MacKinnon
MacKinnon is the reigning league MVP and Ted Lindsay winner. He’s also been the Hart runner-up on two other occasions. Last year, when he won those awards, he joined Connor McDavid as the only players this century to post both 50 goals and 80 assists in a season. MacKinnon finally got his Cup ring in 2022 and will now get a chance to gain some international accolades with Team Canada in the next handful of years. He might be the only guy playing who — at least sometimes — makes you wonder if McDavid is not completely alone in the tippy-top tier of on-ice amazingness.
5. Martin Brodeur
By some miracle, Brodeur didn’t win a Vezina Trophy until 2003, the 10th season of his career. Starting that year, he claimed the trophy in four of five seasons and finished runner-up for the award in the season he didn’t win it (2006). He also finished third in Hart voting three times in a four-season span, from 2003 to 2007. Brodeur won two Cups with the Devils in 2000 and 2003, and came within a hair of earning a third in 2001. He also replaced Curtis Joseph after one game at the 2002 Olympics, steadied the ship and backstopped Canada to a gold medal. He was also in goal for Canada’s 2004 World Cup of Hockey victory. In the first decade of this century, Brodeur started 699 games — 106 more than anyone else — and racked up 401 wins, 108 more than any other tender.
4. Nick Lidstrom
Like Brodeur, Lidstrom did not win any individual hardware in the 1990s. Then he made it rain in the 2000s. The gifted defenceman won six Norris Trophies in a seven-year period, beginning in 2001. He then claimed a seventh at age 40 in 2011 after his second-last NHL campaign. Only Bobby Orr’s eight Norris wins exceed Lidstrom’s career total. In 2002, Lidstrom became the first European to win the Conn Smythe. Six years later, after Detroit’s second championship this century, in 2008, he became the first European captain on a Cup-winning club. From 1999-2000 through his final year, 2011-12, no defenceman put up more points than Lidstrom’s 719 in the regular season and 106 in the playoffs. Only his countryman, Victor Hedman, has more playoff points from the blueline this century (117).
3. Connor McDavid
Five years from now, when it’s time to do the top 25, McDavid will likely be No. 1. It’s a shame his career has basically dovetailed with the time best-on-best international hockey has gone on hiatus and thrilling to know he’ll now get a shot to represent Canada at a variety of tournaments in the next five years. McDavid, who turns 28 in a couple weeks, has won four Ted Lindsay awards this century, more than everybody on this list, including Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. McDavid has also won five scoring titles in the 2000s; nobody else has more than two. His 1.58 points per game in the playoffs is the highest rate of anybody who’s played 70 post-season contests this century. If he can get his hands on a Cup and an Olympic gold in the next 10 years, McDavid will have built a case for himself as the best to ever do it.
2. Alex Ovechkin
By the time you read this, Ovechkin may have already inched a goal or two closer to Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894. Barring more injuries, he’s going to finish his career as the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history and just might get to 895 this season the way he’s going … at age 39. Ovechkin is a nine-time Rocket Richard winner; the only other player with three this century is Auston Matthews. Washington’s Cup win in 2018 removed any ding you could put on Ovie’s career — and he spent the following summer celebrating that fact. From the moment he stepped on the ice in 2005 and tallied twice in his first NHL game, Ovechkin has brought exuberance and goals to every rink he plays in. The “Great 8” has a Conn Smythe, an Art Ross, three Hart Trophies and the same number of Pearson/Lindsays on his shelf.
1. Sidney Crosby
“The Kid” came will all kinds of promise and delivered on every bit of it. Had Crosby, at age 22, just decided to retire after scoring the golden goal for Canada at the 2010 Olympics on home soil, he still would have been an all-time legend in this country. Except for a couple scary seasons where he was waylaid by concussions, the story of Crosby is front-to-back brilliance. At 37, he’s still an incredible two-way, No. 1 centre. Though his hardware count is sneaky-low relative to his profile — two Harts, three Pearson/Lindsays, two scoring titles and two goal-scoring titles — he’s also the only player this century with two Conn Smythe wins, and those back-to-back titles in 2016 and ’17 truly cemented Sid as an all-time all-timer. Remember, in addition to his OT tally against USA goalie Ryan Miller in 2010, Crosby also scored a breakaway marker on Henrik Lundqvist in the 2014 Olympic final to help give Canada a 3-0 victory and his second gold medal. The way he’s (still) going, there’s every chance Crosby can add to his international achievements during the final chapter of his brilliant career.
