Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Let’s argue about EA Sports’ NHL 17 player ratings

91rinneea

EA Sports released top player rankings for NHL 17 about a week ago, but it isn’t too late to needlessly argue about them.

The top 50 overall ratings is probably the best place to start, but EA also shared top 10 lists for centers, defensemen, goalies, left wings and right wings.

Now, it’s important not to take this stuff too seriously. There are plenty of things to cool down any diehards who feel like Their Guy was disrespected, but do note that ratings sometimes get tweaked.

Still, there are some fun observations and debates that can come from pouring through these rankings, especially if you’re ... well, bored.

Shea Weber vs. P.K. Subban

Did Michel Therrien and Marc Bergevin chime in on the debate? /Scratches chin

Weber came in with a blazing 94 rating:

Weber wins the digital battle with Subban, who lags behind as a 91. To the naked eye, EA seems to disagree with the analytics-based argument that Subban is the better all-around player than Weber at this juncture:

Here’s the thing, though: if you break both down rating by rating, each guy looks pretty great in NHL 17. Perhaps the real debate comes down to whether Weber really is that great defensively or not.

Then again, maybe EA just has a blind spot for Nashville Predators past and/or present? Pekka Rinne’s high rating is sure to ruffle some feathers:

91rinneea

To give you some context, that 91 rating ties Rinne with Cory Schneider and places him ahead of the likes of Ben Bishop, Corey Crawford and Tuukka Rask.

Some other debate-starters

Need some other fun ones to bicker about? Sure you do:


  • Jonathan Quick comes in at a 93, leaving him as the second-ranked goalie behind Carey Price. Surely no one will be irritated by Quick edging Henrik Lundqvist, Braden Holtby and other netminders, right?
  • Sidney Crosby comes in first overall with a 95 rating, which is bound to make someone mad.
  • Ryan Suter’s rating is higher than Erik Karlsson’s mark. Karlsson is only ranked 17th and even though his numbers are nice, you’d think Karlsson would be superhuman in the land of video games. (Just saying.)
  • Is John Carlson’s really a top 50 player? Few should question his scoring ability, but he’s another guy who is polarizing from a defensive standpoint.

***

Again, take it easy with this stuff. None of these choices are “Mike Richards being higher-rated than Anze Kopitar” bad.

You can have a lot of fun batting around different observations, as these player rankings often provide an interesting window into the way the hockey world sees things.

And, hey, at least Dustin Byfuglien’s getting some much-deserved recognition.