Top 100 NHL Players Right Now: 2026-27 Rankings

How we ranked the Top 100 NHL players

This is a projection of player value entering 2026-27, using information available through August 28, 2026. It is not an official NHL ranking and it is not a list of the 2025-26 scoring leaders. Completed statistics inform the order; the numbered order itself is editorial.

The eligible pool required established NHL evidence or inclusion on one of NHL Network's August 2026 current-player position lists. A draft prospect without NHL work did not enter merely because his ceiling is exciting. A young player with completed NHL production could enter, but the projection component remained small enough that upside could not erase the record on the ice.

Weighting the evidence

Component	Weight	What it measures
2025-26 regular-season impact	40%	Position-adjusted production, rate, workload and role
Recent multi-season track record	25%	Repeatability, durability and established level
Two-way and position impact	20%	Usage, matchup burden, special teams and non-scoring value
Postseason/high-leverage evidence	10%	Playoff and comparable pressure performance when opportunity existed
2026-27 outlook	5%	Expected role, trajectory and material availability risk

The 10% high-leverage component does not give a player zero because his team missed the playoffs. No team opportunity is treated as neutral; actual postseason evidence can move a close comparison. That avoids turning team qualification into an individual statistic while still recognizing that playoff performance tells us something.

Position balance

The final 100 contains 60 forwards, 25 defensemen and 15 goalies. Those are editorial representation choices, not claims that exactly 15% of league value belongs to goaltenders. They prevent a raw-points sort from pushing out No. 1 defensemen and starting goalies whose jobs are measured differently.

Centers, wings, defensemen and goalies were compared inside their own pools first. NHL Network's current position lists supplied a useful public check, while official NHL statistics supplied completed results. Cross-position scores were then organized into five practical bands: elite, franchise superstar, All-Star impact, high-impact core and top-line/matchup/crease value.

How to read a close rank

A one-place difference is not a claim that one player is permanently better. Ranks near a tier boundary reflect a choice among different kinds of value. A 40-goal wing, a shutdown center, a 25-minute defenseman and a high-volume goalie can all drive winning without sharing one clean unit of measurement.

Repeatability and role break close ties before age or imagined ceiling. Injuries affect the evidence only to the extent they changed availability or leave a material risk for 2026-27; the method does not diagnose health. The tables deliberately label every number “projected rank” so a reader can keep verified history separate from the forecast.

Ranks 1-10: the NHL's elite tier

Projected rank	Player	Position pool
1	Connor McDavid	C
2	Nathan MacKinnon	C
3	Nikita Kucherov	W
4	Cale Makar	D
5	Leon Draisaitl	C
6	Macklin Celebrini	C
7	Quinn Hughes	D
8	Andrei Vasilevskiy	G
9	David Pastrnak	W
10	Zach Werenski	D

Why McDavid stays No. 1

McDavid recorded 138 points in 82 games in 2025-26, leading the league in total points. Kucherov's 130 points in 76 games produced a slightly higher scoring rate, while MacKinnon combined 127 points with 53 goals. The cross-position decision is not a claim that one total settles everything.

McDavid remains first because the current season, center role and multi-season repeatability all score at the top of their pools. MacKinnon's goal volume and workload place him second. Kucherov ranks third as the leading wing after another extraordinary creation season. Fans can track actual game dates through the Edmonton Oilers schedule and Colorado Avalanche schedule; neither page guarantees a player is active.

Makar leads the defensemen

Makar recorded 79 points in 75 games while averaging nearly 25 minutes. NHL Network also placed him first on its current defensemen list. That combination of offense, skating, role and established impact makes him the first defenseman in this ranking at No. 4.

Quinn Hughes appears at No. 7 after 76 points in 74 games and an average ice time above 27 minutes. Werenski closes the tier at No. 10 with 81 points in 75 games and more than 26 minutes per game. Their order reflects the full method, not a simple points sort: Makar's record remains the tie-breaker, while Hughes and Werenski carried enormous puck-moving and workload responsibility.

Draisaitl, Celebrini and Pastrnak

Draisaitl produced 97 points in only 65 games. Celebrini played all 82 and reached 115 points at a younger career stage. The 5% outlook component helps Celebrini, but Draisaitl's established multi-season level keeps him one spot higher. That is exactly why forecast weight was capped rather than allowed to dominate.

Pastrnak recorded 100 points in 77 games and ranks second in the wing pool behind Kucherov. He lands ninth after the cross-position merge, not because a 100-point wing is less important in isolation, but because this tier also contains the leading goalie and three defensemen with major workloads.

Vasilevskiy represents the crease

Vasilevskiy went 39-15-4 in 58 appearances with a .912 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average. NHL Network ranked him first among current goalies. Those completed numbers do not convert directly into skater points, so his No. 8 placement comes from goalie-pool dominance, workload and track record.

The Tampa Bay Lightning schedule is useful for confirmed team dates involving Kucherov and Vasilevskiy. Daily roster or game information is still required before assuming either player will appear.

Ranks 11-25: franchise superstars

Projected rank	Player	Position pool
11	Kirill Kaprizov	W
12	Jack Eichel	C
13	Rasmus Dahlin	D
14	Mark Scheifele	C
15	Mikko Rantanen	W
16	Sidney Crosby	C
17	Miro Heiskanen	D
18	Jason Robertson	W
19	Igor Shesterkin	G
20	Nick Suzuki	C
21	Matt Boldy	W
22	Connor Hellebuyck	G
23	Matthew Tkachuk	W
24	Auston Matthews	C
25	Aleksander Barkov	C

Current production reshapes the tier

Kaprizov opens this group after 45 goals and 89 points in 78 games, while Eichel recorded 90 points in 74. Both combine top-end scoring with enough established evidence to sit immediately behind the elite 10. Dahlin ranks 13th as the next defenseman: he produced 74 points in 77 games and handled more than 24 minutes per game.

Scheifele's 103 points in 82 games make him impossible to bury in a ranking whose largest component is the completed 2025-26 season. Rantanen follows after 77 points in 64 games, and Crosby remains 16th after 74 in 68. The order is a projection, but those figures are completed regular-season facts.

Heiskanen through Boldy

Heiskanen recorded 63 points in 77 games and averaged roughly 25:28 of ice time, giving him a workload case that a points-only list would miss. Robertson reached 45 goals and 96 points in 82 games. Shesterkin then becomes the second goalie selected after a .912 save percentage and 2.50 goals-against average in 51 appearances.

Suzuki produced 101 points while playing all 82 games, and Boldy scored 42 goals among his 85 points in 76. Both finish behind some lower-scoring names because 60% of the method covers multi-season record, role, high-leverage evidence and outlook. Still, their current-season weight moves them decisively into the top 25.

Why established stars land at 22-25

Hellebuyck ranks 22nd despite NHL Network placing him second among current goalies. His 2025-26 line was 23-23-11 with an .895 save percentage and 2.86 goals-against average, so the 40% current-season component puts Shesterkin ahead in this cross-position projection. Hellebuyck's longer record keeps him well inside the 100 rather than treating one season as the whole evaluation.

Tkachuk played 31 games and recorded 34 points after returning in January. Matthews had 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games, his lowest goal and point totals to date, while Barkov missed the entire regular season. Their placement is intentionally conservative: proven scoring, matchup value and multi-year evidence preserve top-25 status, but the ranking does not assume perfect availability or an automatic return to a prior peak.

Barkov's 71 points in 67 games in 2024-25 and three Selke Trophy wins explain why he remains here despite having no 2025-26 line. Those are historical facts. Rank 25 is a forecast choice, not a medical judgment, and it should be updated when actual 2026-27 availability and performance provide new evidence.

Ranks 26-50: All-Star impact

Projected rank	Player	Position pool
26	Evan Bouchard	D
27	Martin Necas	W
28	Lane Hutson	D
29	Connor Bedard	C
30	Kyle Connor	W
31	Cole Caufield	W
32	Wyatt Johnston	C
33	Mitch Marner	W
34	Jack Hughes	C
35	William Nylander	W
36	Moritz Seider	D
37	Logan Thompson	G
38	Ilya Sorokin	G
39	Jake Oettinger	G
40	Brayden Point	C
41	Sam Reinhart	W
42	Sebastian Aho	C
43	Tim Stutzle	C
44	Tage Thompson	C
45	Adam Fox	D
46	Jaccob Slavin	D
47	Charlie McAvoy	D
48	Jake Sanderson	D
49	Brandon Hagel	W
50	Jeremy Swayman	G

Production meets position value

Bouchard starts this tier after a 95-point season, a remarkable total for a defenseman, while Necas recorded 100 points in 78 games. Hutson's 78 points in 82 games place another puck-moving defenseman in the top 30. These players do not leap established members of the top 25 on one season alone, but the 40% current-results weight makes their production matter.

Bedard had 75 points in 69 games. Connor delivered 39 goals and 92 points, Caufield scored 51 goals, and Johnston scored 45. Their order accounts for position and longer evidence rather than sorting those four by goals. Marner, Jack Hughes and Nylander then bring stronger multi-season résumés, with missed games or lower current totals keeping them behind this season's biggest risers.

Defense is more than points

Seider's 60 points in 82 games accompany a major workload and difficult assignments. Fox, Slavin, McAvoy and Sanderson occupy ranks 45-48 for similar position-adjusted reasons: their value includes transition, matchup use and minutes that a scoring-leader page cannot capture. The list does not pretend those elements can be translated into a single public point total.

Aho, Stutzle and Tage Thompson recorded 80, 83 and 81 points respectively. Reinhart and Hagel offer wing value that extends beyond their totals. Point's placement at 40 leans more on the multi-season and high-leverage components; it is not a prediction that every player around him will have identical production.

A crowded goalie band

Thompson ranks 37th after a .912 save percentage in 58 appearances. Sorokin posted .906 in 55, Oettinger .899 in 54 and Swayman .908 in 55. The order also considers their records before 2025-26, which is why save percentage alone does not dictate all four placements.

Goalie results can move sharply with workload, team defense and season-to-season variance. Treat ranks 37-50 as a band, not a claim that the 37th player is precisely measurable against the 50th. All four goalie numbers are completed facts; their locations in a mixed-position table are forecasts.

Ranks 51-75: high-impact core players

Projected rank	Player	Position pool
51	Jake Guentzel	W
52	Artemi Panarin	W
53	Clayton Keller	W
54	Lucas Raymond	W
55	Cutter Gauthier	W
56	Nico Hischier	C
57	Leo Carlsson	C
58	Dylan Larkin	C
59	Scott Wedgewood	G
60	Filip Gustavsson	G
61	Matthew Schaefer	D
62	Brock Faber	D
63	Josh Morrissey	D
64	Roman Josi	D
65	Devon Toews	D
66	Shea Theodore	D
67	Victor Hedman	D
68	Mikhail Sergachev	D
69	Thomas Harley	D
70	Jackson LaCombe	D
71	Alex DeBrincat	W
72	Filip Forsberg	W
73	Dylan Guenther	W
74	Mark Stone	W
75	Mika Zibanejad	C

Reliable scorers and rising finishers

Guentzel, Panarin and Keller recorded 88, 84 and 88 points respectively. Raymond had 76, while Gauthier's 41 goals in 76 games give the 55th-ranked player a different kind of case. Hischier, Carlsson and Larkin then fill three center spots where matchup responsibility and role matter alongside totals.

DeBrincat scored 41 goals, Forsberg 40 and Guenther 40. They appear later because a Top 100 merge must consider repeatability, overall role and other positions, not because their current scoring is ignored. Stone's 73 points in 60 games and established high-leverage value keep him 74th despite reduced availability, with Zibanejad closing the tier after 78 points in 81.

A deliberate defense run

Ranks 61-70 contain ten defensemen. That concentration is intentional: it preserves the declared 25-defenseman representation and makes the cutoff easier to audit. Schaefer led this group with 59 points in 82 games and a workload above 24 minutes, while Sergachev and LaCombe recorded 59 and 58 points.

Faber, Morrissey, Josi, Toews, Theodore, Hedman and Harley are not placed by one offensive column. The method first compares their minutes, role and two-way impact inside the defense pool. Only after that position-specific pass are they merged into the overall table. A cluster of adjacent ranks also better communicates uncertainty than scattering them to imply false precision.

Wedgewood's current-season case

Wedgewood went 31-6-6 with a .921 save percentage and 2.02 goals-against average in 45 appearances. Those results earn rank 59. The smaller workload and less extensive top-level track record keep him behind goalies whose current percentages were lower, illustrating that the list is neither a save-percentage sort nor an award ballot.

Gustavsson follows after a .904 save percentage in 50 appearances. At the 75-player checkpoint, the table contains 44 forwards, 22 defensemen and nine goalies. That leaves exactly 16 forwards, three defensemen and six goalies for the final 25, preserving the published 60/25/15 cutoff.

Ranks 76-100: the cutoff

Projected rank	Player	Position pool
76	Adrian Kempe	W
77	Robert Thomas	C
78	Ryan O'Reilly	C
79	Mathew Barzal	C
80	Jesper Bratt	W
81	Nikolaj Ehlers	W
82	Drake Batherson	W
83	John Tavares	C
84	Andrei Svechnikov	W
85	Gabriel Vilardi	C
86	Travis Konecny	W
87	Morgan Geekie	W
88	Kirill Marchenko	W
89	Sam Bennett	C
90	Seth Jarvis	W
91	Travis Sanheim	D
92	Darren Raddysh	D
93	Jakob Chychrun	D
94	Tom Wilson	W
95	Dan Vladar	G
96	Jesper Wallstedt	G
97	Jakub Dobes	G
98	John Gibson	G
99	Spencer Knight	G
100	Lukas Dostal	G

The last forward places

Kempe begins the final tier after 36 goals and 73 points in 81 games. O'Reilly had 74 points, while Barzal, Bratt, Ehlers, Batherson and Tavares each finished between 71 and 72. Thomas produced 64 in 64, giving him a point-per-game current line even though his smaller game total affects the comparison.

Goal totals help distinguish different roles inside the cluster. Geekie scored 39, Wilson 30 and Jarvis 32. Bennett remains in the 100 despite a lower 58-point regular season because the role and high-leverage components matter; that does not turn prior postseason evidence into a substitute for current production. The projection weights both.

Three defensemen close the position pool

Sanheim, Raddysh and Chychrun are the final defensemen selected. Raddysh recorded 70 points in 73 games, and Chychrun scored 26 goals among 60 points in 80. Their placement behind lower-scoring defensemen reflects the multi-season and role components, while their inclusion reflects how strongly the current season counts.

This is also where the fixed representation affects the cutoff. A reader who wants a pure top-100 scoring list would select different names. The goal here is a league-wide player-value projection that includes 25 defensemen and explicitly discloses that choice, making disagreement traceable rather than hiding it inside an unexplained ranking.

Why six goalies finish the list

Vladar had a .906 save percentage in 52 appearances. Wallstedt's .916 was better but came in 35 games, while Dobes posted .901 in 43. NHL Network placed those three eighth, ninth and tenth in its August goalie list, and the combination of current output, workload and public position context puts them at 95-97 here.

Gibson and Knight handled 57 and 55 appearances with .901 and .902 save percentages. Dostal made 56 appearances but had an .888 percentage, leaving him at No. 100. This does not predict that he will be the league's 100th-best player in every month; it marks the final selection under this stated evidence mix on August 28.

Players outside the table are omissions, not secretly ranked Nos. 101-110. Reasonable alternatives exist at every position, especially near the cutoff. A future update should rerun the same weights rather than moving a popular name by intuition alone.

Top 100 NHL players FAQ and update policy

Is this an official NHL ranking?

No. The NHL statistics are official completed results, and NHL Network's position lists are published editorial references. The 1-100 cross-position order on this page is an independent NHLSchedule.net projection. It is not an NHL standing, an awards ballot, a video-game rating or a claim that the league endorsed this order.

What is the ranking cutoff date?

The evidence cutoff is August 28, 2026. The current-season component uses the completed 2025-26 regular season; the smaller outlook component looks toward 2026-27. Readers should not interpret a later trade, injury update, role change or new game as if it had already been included.

How will the list be updated?

A material update should rerun the same 40/25/20/10/5 weights after a meaningful 2026-27 sample, not shuffle names after one hot night. It should retain the 60-forward, 25-defenseman and 15-goalie framework for comparability, state a new cutoff date and explain important movement. If the framework changes, that should be disclosed as a new version.

Daily game participation is a separate question. Use NHL games today for the current slate and this week's NHL schedule to plan ahead, then confirm official team or league roster information. A ranking never guarantees that a player will dress.

Why is a particular player missing?

The fixed pool creates hard choices. A missing player may have a strong scoring case but fall outside the position allocation, may lack enough established NHL evidence, or may finish just below another player on repeatability, role or workload. Omission does not mean “bad player,” and this article does not invent a No. 101 without researching the next tier.

Should close ranks be read literally?

No. Players separated by a few places commonly belong to the same practical band. The transparent method matters more than pretending there is a precise universal conversion between center creation, wing finishing, defense workload and goalie results. Use the order as a dated, testable forecast—and use the disclosed components to decide where your own hockey values differ.